Verizon Business Expands Asia-Pacific Cloud Capabilities

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Adoption of cloud services in the Asia-Pacific region continues to grow dramatically, and Verizon Business is meeting that demand by extending its flagship cloud-computing solution into the company's recently opened Hong Kong data center.

The company's latest in-region expansion of its Verizon Computing as a Service (CaaS) solution enables Pacific Rim enterprise clients to better meet region-specific performance, security and compliance requirements.  These localized capabilities are increasingly important, given the region's projected economic growth.  For example, recent International Monetary Fund forecasts show that Asia's developing economies will expand 9.2 percent in 2010, outpacing growth of 2.6 percent in advanced countries.

"Driven in large part by its overall economic prosperity, the Asia-Pacific region is leading the world in embracing cloud computing," said Andrew Dobbins, regional vice president – Asia-Pacific, Verizon Business.  "Cloud computing offers enterprises significant advantages over traditional IT models, and helps accelerate time to market and enhance productivity."

A recent global Gartner Inc. study(1) of 1,587 IT professionals in 40 countries found that 39 percent indicated that they allocated IT budget to cloud computing as a key initiative for their organization.  

"As more companies in Asia-Pacific continue to move their resource-intensive applications to the cloud, the increasing need for in-region advanced data centers is becoming more inherent," said Bon Igou, research director, Gartner Inc.

CaaS Expansion into Hong Kong Ideal for Meeting In-Region Cloud Requirements

Hong Kong is strategically located at the heart of the Asia-Pacific region and serves as the gateway to China and India for multinational corporations, making Verizon's new data center particularly well situated to meet growing in-region demand.  The center – the most advanced yet built by the company in the Pacific Rim – is located in a highly resilient facility and connects directly to the Verizon global IP network, reducing latency and making interconnection more convenient.

The Verizon CaaS platform is supported by round-the-clock support and multiple levels of physical and logical security, including compliance with the Verizon Security Management Program.  Verizon Business is also the first global SAP-certified provider of cloud services.  

Converged IT Services Via a Cloud Model

Verizon Business is evolving to an EaaS model in which cloud-based, converged solutions are delivered with built-in security via managed and professional services over the company's global IP network.  Verizon is assembling the key components of that unique and powerful approach to serving enterprises, and this latest expansion and enhancement of the company's data and cloud centers is another step in that evolution.

About Verizon Business

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ), is a global leader in communications and IT solutions. We combine professional expertise with one of the world's most connected IP networks to deliver award-winning communications, IT, information security and network solutions.  We securely connect today's extended enterprises of widespread and mobile customers, partners, suppliers and employees – enabling them to increase productivity and efficiency and help preserve the environment.  Many of the world's largest businesses and governments – including 96 percent of the Fortune 1000 and thousands of government agencies and educational institutions – rely on our professional and managed services and network technologies to accelerate their business. Find out more at www.verizonbusiness.com.

VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news.  To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

(1) Gartner, Inc., "User Survey Analysis: Cloud-Computing Budgets Are Growing and Shifting – Traditional IT Services Providers Must Prepare of Perish," B. Igou, August 12, 2010, #G00205813.

SOURCE Verizon Business