Sprint Continues to Expand Cloud-Based Solutions Portfolio by Teaming With CSC to Deliver Infrastructure as a Service

Grazed from MarketWatch. Author: PR Announcement.

Sprint today announced an exclusive relationship with CSC to deliver cloud computing, cloud-based email, managed hosting and colocation services within the United States to potential commercial customers. Sprint’s ability to deliver CSC’s Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions joins Sprint Complete Collaboration, a Unified-Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) solution launched earlier this year, in an expanding portfolio of Sprint cloud-based solutions that are planned for launch in the second half of 2012.

Sprint’s comprehensive approach to the cloud includes teaming with leaders in software and cloud computing while enhancing the services with seamless integration of mobility for anytime, anywhere access from any device. With reliable, secure connectivity over Sprint’s 3G, 4G, and all-IP Global MPLS networks, businesses of all sizes can confidently embrace a variety of hosted services to improve their productivity and cost structures. Expansion of Sprint’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) portfolio will be announced later…

"As a leader in the mobility revolution, Sprint will help to better position organizations to solve the unique challenges associated with simply and securely implementing new shifts in IT technology, strategy and culture," said John Dupree, senior vice president – Business Sales, Sprint. "The promise of the cloud is unfulfilled without a superior network, and Sprint is focused on providing a dependable and continually improving network experience that enterprises can trust not just today but as their mobile data demands and operational complexity evolves. Our strategic relationship with CSC is another step in our plan to offer a comprehensive set of solutions that leverage Sprint’s Tier 1 backbone. Sprint’s announced and pending cloud solutions will help our clients take advantage of the agility and scale the cloud enables."

Teaming to deliver IaaS

Working with CSC, Sprint’s reliable network will become the communications backbone to enable secure, high speed connectivity to CSC’s Trusted Cloud and to bring CSC’s cloud service catalog to Sprint customers. As part of this new service, Sprint also will offer compute, storage, hosting and backup capabilities to midsized and large businesses by late 2012.

"This exclusive relationship with Sprint to deliver public, private and hybrid cloud services is a win for CSC, Sprint and our mutual customers," said Siki Giunta, vice president – Global Cloud Computing and Hosting Services, CSC. "Businesses will instantly benefit when Sprint combines its all-IP network and holistic account approach with the largest global network of cloud data centers featuring CSC’s CloudCompute infrastructure as a service. Together, Sprint and CSC will be able to support the most demanding customer-facing, back-office, or mission-critical applications of any business."

According to IDC Chief Analyst Frank Gens, "The relationship between Sprint and CSC offers great potential for businesses to simplify, and speed up, their increasingly strategic deployments of mobile and cloud services." According to industry analyst firm IDC, worldwide public IT cloud services revenue is projected to hit $45.5 billion by 2013[i].

Building upon SaaS portfolio of hosted business and productivity solutions

More information about Sprint’s SaaS solutions will be shared later this year and will build on the broad portfolio of IT support, office and field productivity services Sprint offers today. Working with market-leading software providers, Sprint will deliver new applications via the "as a service" model to round out its portfolio. As businesses take advantage of the benefits of cloud-based services, Sprint plans to bundle services to create solutions that are accessed by users via the Web just about anywhere and on nearly any device. Sprint’s growing portfolio will include communication, collaboration, and IT and security services.

Continued focus on UCaaS

Also critical to Sprint’s cloud strategy is UCaaS, demonstrated by the launch of Sprint Complete Collaboration in March. As the industry’s most comprehensive hosted and fully managed UC bundle available today for businesses, Sprint Complete Collaboration is built upon a fully integrated Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution platform and delivered over an all-IP network – helping to ensure the reliability and security demanded by real-time UC and collaboration applications.

"Powered by the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution, Sprint Complete Collaboration is able to quickly and easily deliver innovative collaboration capabilities such as Cisco desktop video experiences and Cisco Jabber on mobile phones and tablets to wherever employees are – both in and out of the office," said Eric Schoch, general manager – Cisco Hosted Collaboration business unit. "We look forward to seeing the customer benefits of the Sprint and CSC relationship as we continue to work together to bring Sprint’s customers the option to choose the collaboration capabilities that best suit their needs – whether they be cloud-based, on premise or hybrid."

Wholesale customers also benefit from cloud-based services

Sprint is delivering an innovative private-label cloud services platform to wholesale customers today, enabling them to quickly deliver simple and affordable brand-name software services to small and midsized businesses (SMBs). Sprint Wholesale Cloud Services provides SMB-focused resellers an innovative approach by offering a unique combination of platform services, a full suite of brand-name enablement applications and one-on-one support from experienced and dedicated experts to help them launch more quickly and with less capital outlay than if they were to create the service themselves.

Sprint Network Leadership

To ensure that demand for wireless and all-IP connectivity for converged and cloud-based solutions will be met, Sprint has embarked on a multiyear network initiative to provide faster data speeds and improved voice quality. The program, Network Vision – which will create network flexibility, reduce operating costs, and improve environmental sustainability – involves the deployment of multimode base stations across many of Sprint’s cell sites throughout the country. When deployed, Network Vision is expected to improve coverage outside and inside buildings.