Wednesday, August 6, 2008

AT&T Plays in the Cloud

I have said quite a few times that Cloud Computing is more like a phone company than it is like electricity. A phone company can offer various services and will change from provider to provider. Electricity needs to be the same for everyone (at least within a region).

Today, AT&T announced the move to the cloud: AT&T Launches Global Utility Computing Service. According to this article from GridToday, AT&T announced it's new AT&T Synaptic Hosting, a managed network, security and storage business for businesses. They are build 5 "super data centers" to have a total of 38 data centers, world-wide.

A core feature of AT&T Synaptic Hosting is its next-generation utility computing platform. This enables the service to deliver a complete hosting solution with features that use the AT&T network to manage applications, compute resources on servers and store data. AT&T Synaptic Hosting also provides designated account support all backed by a single end-to-end, service-level agreement that is unique within the industry.

This looks like the beginning of something. Maybe telephony will morph to VOIP and the big bells will, with their tremendous computing power and dedicated networking, become the home of the cloud. Just because Amazon and Google started it, doesn't mean they will do it best or last the longest. This is the kind of thing the major communications companies need.

"Today's announcement is yet another example of AT&T's commitment to deliver next-generation services and solutions to companies worldwide," said Ron Spears, group president, AT&T Global Business Services. "The AT&T global network, combined with our powerful computing platform, is driving the convergence of networking and hosting services in ways that are allowing companies to deliver end-user applications whenever and wherever they are needed - while paying only for the capacity actually used.

The official Web site of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) is powered by AT&T Synaptic Hosting. Teamusa.org is the USOC's new feature-rich Web site that connects fans of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams with America's athletes on their journey to the Olympic Games. The site features stories on U.S. Olympians and Paralympians and Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, athlete blogs and social networking tools.

And they wouldn't be the phone company if they didn't offer a menu of options and add-ons.

In addition to utility computing features, AT&T Synaptic Hosting offers the following:

  • A broad selection of dynamic storage and security features that enterprises have come to rely on to protect their data and assets.
  • The ability to use AT&T's BusinessDirect customer portal to easily manage capacity, complete maintenance and monitor network service and performance of their virtual IT environment.
  • Personalized support from teams of designated hosting and application specialists who are experienced in the business and technical needs of the clients.
  • Application monitoring and reporting capabilities that work with most client software available in the industry today.
  • One end-to-end service level agreement that covers the customer's entire environment.

You can bet there will be more to come from AT&T.

LewisC

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6 comments:

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