Eircom unveils private cloud infrastructure as a service

18 May 2010

Eircom has launched an infrastructure as a service offering that provides virtual servers, storage, backup and network resources to businesses over a private cloud.

Officially launched today at IDC’s Virtualisation and Cloud Conference in Dublin, the service is called Instant Infrastructure and is aimed at companies of all sizes, ranging from small businesses to large corporates. Eircom said the move positions the company as a leading cloud provider in the Irish market. Earlier this year the telco began offering software as a service to customers and infrastructure is the next stage in that strategy.

Instant Infrastructure will be provided on a pay-as-you-use basis. Eircom said this would benefit small and medium-sized businesses by letting them access expensive or complex technologies that might otherwise be outside their budgets, without the need for upfront investment in hardware, software and infrastructure.

Security in a cloud environment

Many businesses are still unsure about security in a cloud environment. In a Forrester Research survey last year, 66pc of respondents rated data protection as their primary security concern around cloud computing. Earlier this year, the National Public Procurement Operations Unit issued an email on advice from the Chief State Solicitor’s office, warning that cloud systems’ data protection, security and confidentiality might not be enough to meet public sector responsibilities. The missive caused controversy in the IT sector at the time. 

Some analysts believe the private cloud overcomes these concerns because it’s a hybrid model, giving the advantages of computing on demand without the worry of data being potentially accessible over the public internet.

This seems to be the approach Eircom is taking, judging by comments at the launch today by the company’s managed IT principal Mark Cawley. “Our ability to deploy private cloud solutions on our customers’ premises or in our data centre offers the economies of scale afforded by the cloud coupled with the peace of mind of a private architecture,” he said.

By Gordon Smith  

Gordon Smith was a contributor to Silicon Republic

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