CSC signs Google for Australian cloud strategy
- 15 February, 2010 11:15
- Comments 1
Systems integrator, CSC, has partnered with Google as part of its cloud strategy for Australia.
The announcement was made during an analyst and journalist event in Sydney at which CSC outlined its national cloud computing strategy.
The two groups began collaborating last December when Google’s enterprise Web-based applications along with CSC’s secure cloud services were rolled out to 30,000 US Government staff in Los Angeles.
The partnership will see CSC offer Google's software-as-a-service (SaaS) suite of applications including Gmail, Google Calender and Google Docs to Australian enterprise organisations.
CSC will integrate and manage the overall solution for the clients.
It has carried Microsoft’s Collaborative Online Services since July along with the vendor’s Business Productivity Online Services (BPOS), an SaaS version of the Microsoft Office suite.
CSC CTO, Bob Hayward, said the integrator is teaming up with ‘best-of-breed’ providers. The newly formed partnership with Google would not impede on existing relationships.
CSC is also set to kickstart its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings, featuring on-demand servers, by years end. It is using a number of vendor's equipment for the service including VMware software for virtualisation, Cisco networking and server hardware and EMC storage units.
Dubbed the VCE alliance, the software and hardware will be layered with complementary services, such as workflow automation and dynamic provisioning, and packaged as the V-Cube.
A pricing model similar to Amazon.com will be used for the service.
The integrator will still work with other suppliers’ equipment but is offering the VCE as an optimum platform if customers do not have a predisposed vendor preference.
With no other public cloud service in Australia, CSC is banking on the lack of competition as the cloud service’s biggest differentiator, according to Hayward. While there are no customers signed on at this stage, the company said it was in discussions with several clients and expects wider uptake of the services within the next 2-3 months.
Platform-as-a-service is also on the table and CSC has a number of partners in that field. The most notable are Microsoft Azure (cloud service), Google AppEngine and testing platform, SOASTA.
Netherlands software vendor, Cordys, was recently signed for its business process management and workflow platform. This will help the integration of GoogleApps.
To aid customers new to cloud computing services, CSC has launched a consulting practice in Australia called CloudAssist. While helping transfer clients to the cloud may cannibalise CSC’s traditional integration business, the company said it was willing to take the risk.
“There is an awful lot that I have talked about [regarding our cloud strategy] that could hurt us in the short term,” Hayward said. “But if we don’t do it, somebody else will do it and we’d much rather do it and be the first doing it to other people than having it done to us.” CSC is offering free cloud workshops for Australian enterprise businesses.
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Comments
Walter Adamson @g2m
It's great to see CSC being bold and taking on a kind of "emergent strategy" with respect to cloud computing, and the risk of cannabilisation of existing business. Offering competing apps and platforms from Google and Microsoft is certainly a gamble unless clear client selection criteria and vendor management processes are in place. At the end of the day, if clients value choice, then this might work well.
It will be interesting to see how CSC's competition responds. I think that Bob Hayward is right, and especially with "selective outsourcing", that others can more easily pick off these segments from a client's overall portfolio, so better for CSC to be on the front foot. And a large organisation like CSC can also afford some of the education effort needed to bring customers on the cloud journey and to keep the discussion at a business level as much as possible which would be to their advantage.
Walter Adamson
CEO, NewLeaseG2M
http://newleaseg2m.com
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