Logicalis launches enterprise cloud service

Solution provider Logicalis has launched its first enterprise cloud service based on Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) and NetApp storage solutions with the option of hypervisor software and platform from either VMware or Microsoft.

However, the architecture is not the same Secure Multi-tenancy Design Architecture collaboration recently announced by Cisco, NetApp and VMware. “We have been working on our platform for around nine months,” explains Chris Gabriel, director of solutions and marketing for Logicalis, “Work has been conducted in parallel and there are a lot of similarities.”

The most important, in Gabriel’s view, is the use of virtual containers which allow cloud services to be moved around, scaled and potentially migrated to and from cloud to in-house in a more efficient manner.

Logicalis has also chosen to support Microsoft Hyper-V which Gabriel believes is important to retain customer choice as service move to the cloud. As a top tier partner for Microsoft, Cisco and VMware, the inclusion of Microsoft aligns with the firm’s long term strategy. Logicalis will deliver its cloud from its own datacentre in the UK and Gabriel confirmed that it was building a second datacentre in Slough this year.

On-site services will be delivered with Logicalis’ Bespoke On-Site Cloud Service (BOCS), a right-sized computing and storage infrastructure utilising Cisco’s UCS stateless computing platform to enable virtualised and non-virtualised applications to coexist on the same platform. 

The firm will offer its cloud service to its own customers although Gabriel confirmed that it would not turn away approaches from other system integrators wanting to host their clients within its cloud. However, he stressed that it was not a focus or strategy of Logicalis to OEM or build any type of partner network for its cloud services.

Gabriel believes that a major area of growth will come from secure regional government clouds as the public sector looks to make savings due to recessionary budget cuts.

Available from Q2 2010 as a contracted service, Logicalis’ Cooperative Enterprise Cloud Service will form part of the company’s managed service portfolio. Logicalis will also be launching its ‘Cisco Cloud Showcase Centre’, at its Slough headquarters, in which enterprises can see and experience the cooperative cloud architecture and full workload container mobility.