BT has announced new cloud services in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) market, bringing its own data centre and cloud services to local customers, as well as helping them link to a network of third party SaaS providers.
Andrew Small, vice-president: global portfolio at BT Global Services, launched new services today that allow IT to be more agile and respond quicker to change.
“This is a period of almost unprecedented change, with the pace presenting a very real challenge to organisations and especially to the IT world,” Small says. “IT needs to not only follow but also lead in the change. The challenge for IT is keeping up with massive changes; and to be creative and agile and to respond quickly.”
Of all the areas of change, he says, cloud is the one that is changing quickest.
“Customers are now bought into the idea of the cloud, for agility or cost savings. That combination of agility and the ability to reduce cost is driving massively increased spending.
“At least 65% of CIOS believe cloud is a critical part of their strategy to deliver commercial impact. It is front and centre of people’s minds.”
It’s important to understand that cloud is not a one size fits all solution, and there are many different ways to approach it, Small says. Customers have many different cloud solutions; they want one pane of glass to manage them; be able to manage their data; and ensure security and performance.
“For us cloud isn’t just about putting applications in the data centre; but into the network – so it’s an end to end experience that happens,” he adds.
BT has launched three new services in the AMEA region:
* BT One Cloud Cisco – a reliable, resilient global platform that features full Unified Communications capabilities, including high-definition (HD) voice, multiparty HD video to improve the impact of virtual meetings, Instant Messaging (IM) and presence, and mobile clients delivered by Cisco Jabber. Global coverage and resilience are ensured through BT’s data centres in the Americas, the UK and Asia Pacific. Those data centres are paired one to another in geographically remote cities to bring additional resilience to services in case of major incidents.
* BT One Cloud Lync – a fully-managed private cloud service with enterprise telephony and video with the standard feature set of presence, IM and conferencing in a single, unified platform.
Both services are available to customers on a pay per user basis.
* BT for Life Sciences – the first cloud service designed to enable collaboration within the life sciences industry for increased R&D productivity. It is specifically designed to allow organisations active in the life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and associated sectors to comply with stringent security, regulatory and compliance requirements while accessing the very high computational demands of R&D and adopting the latest in cloud computing, collaboration, and unified communications.
The solution is based on the BT Cloud Compute platform and delivered through BT data centres. It has already been deployed with Genome Institute of Singapore and is being rolled out in Japan.
These three global services bring to life BT’s Cloud Connect story, Small says. Customers across the region will now be able to connect directly through BT’s network to various other software-as-a-service providers and to more than 200 third- party data centres around the world.
By building acceleration and security features into the network we are now increasing application performance, reducing bandwidth costs and improving security for our customers in the AMEA region. The Cloud Connect program also provides direct connections to BT’s own cloud services, including collaboration and unified communications, IT services and contact management. This reduces costs and speeds up delivery.
Kevin Taylor, president: Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa at BT, adds that BT is constantly looking to new investments and has committed to additional investment in the African market.
The company will net month launch a new satellite service into Africa, as an extension of the current satellite network covering then Middle East and Turkey.
Oliver Fortuin, head of BT Global Services in South Africa, points out that BT has invested heavily in its own fibre in South Africa and, with partnerships, has triangulated Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
“We are also busy rolling out satellite into a number of locations,” he says. “South Africa in terms of network coverage is pretty good. We will make some additional investments and partnerships to break out into smaller towns and there are probably half a dozen of those conversations going on now.”
BT has a local presence in both Nigeria and Kenya, but is present in 43 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, generally through partnerships, providing coverage both in the main metros and in less easy to reach locations.
Taylor adds that communications is now at the centre of everything that organisations do.
“There will be more than 50-billion connected devices in the next six years or,” he says. “Then there are the applications and value added services surround that, so we are absolutely in the sweet spot.”
The accelerating pace of technology creates opportunities and challenges, he says, and companies need to think ahead. “Its creating opportunities and innovation,” Taylor says. “The opportunities are significant; we have a huge market; and are reaching channels we never have before. The same is true for our customers.
“We’ve done a huge amount of research around the globe with CIOs. About 85% concluded the role is changing, and increased creativity is needed. CIOS are almost needed to be the future architects of technology. Technology not simply a science, about experience and skills to meet the objectives of people. Also harmonious linkage and development in the social network arena.”
BT is a global organisation that focuses on five specific areas: fibre rollout; television and content; mobility and future voice; UK business markets; leading global companies provide services in 93 locations.
Taylor adds that BT has been building success with the airline industry, and has signed a new relationship with Singapore Airlines. The service delivers a multi-channel customer solution for the airline, linking global telephony and voice. The company has also signed a relationship with Etihad Airlines.
“We are proud to see our customers leverage the investments we have made in the AMEA region in the last few years” he says. “These have included improved network infrastructure, an enhanced product portfolio, strengthened field services, customer showcases and the establishment of service centres in the region.
“In the first half of this financial year, we have grown our revenue across the region by more than 10% and have doubled the value of our new orders compared with the same period last year. We are committed to continue building a healthier business and are continuing to invest in innovative solutions that customers will deploy and combine to deliver stunning business outcomes.
“In the last few months, those efforts have resulted in extensions of relationships with existing customers such as Deutsche Post DHL, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, as well as significant new contracts with well-known brands such as Genome Institute of Singapore, JABIL, Singapore Airlines, Williams Lea and WorleyParsons.”
