IBM has secured yet another massive Cloud contract in Europe that sets them aside from other players in the industry! Cloud is booming and never more so in in the Nordics. It maybe chilly out there but it seems that the Cloud industry for IBM isn’t.
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IBM announced today that the leading IT services company EVRY has chosen them for a as the premier partner for cloud services over a 10 year contract. This is a big win for the IBM Softlayer Cloud platform by working off plan as the data centre comes online in Fet/Oslo later next year.
It seems that the Softlayer Cloud services provisioning is really gaining momentum throughout Europe with additional announcements being made monthly, Shop Direct, Avira, KPN, Sogeti and Finnair to name a few. So why are the constant stream of big names/brands moving to Big Blue? Well I took some time out today to sum up a few key points.
- Presence – IBM recently announced the opening of its sixth data centre in Europe while adding language support for pretty much every spoken dialect!
- Connectivity – The low latency connections throughout EMEA and the interconnectivity are a massive plus that cannot be overlooked, less than 30 milliseconds access times throughout Europe!
- Services – Not only the traditional IaaS offerings can be utilised, how about BlueMix the DevOps toolset with services and APIs to 1000’s of additional products and services to use. Hybrid capabilities that can burst out to pretty much anywhere and anyone (gone are the days where we work in silos and don’t co-mingle with other providers), Watson, the daddy of the Big Data analytical world that’s now accessible to anyone who wishes to find/structure anything, and also the massive portfolio of products that keep getting added daily.
So, I know what you are thinking – this note is a bit Pro IBM hey? Well yes I suppose it is but with all of the above considered do you think I have over inflated the message?
The future isn’t sunny, its Cloudy with a hint of differentiation
The future isn’t sunny, its Cloudy with a hint of differentiation and IBM seem to be galloping at a fierce pace to win this race. Keep it up IBM and tell us more!
Read the full press release below.
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IBM and leading Nordic IT services company EVRY today signed and announced a 1 billion USD long-term partnership in which IBM was selected as EVRY’s premier provider of cloud infrastructure services. As part of the agreement, IBM will transform EVRY’s existing infrastructure services by using IBM’s proven methodology and global expertise, and giving the company access to IBM’s global cloud resources and capabilities.
This includes providing services running on IBM’s Cloud infrastructure services, SoftLayer, based in Fet/Oslo data centre later next year. By running these services on IBM Cloud, EVRY’s customers, across a wide range of industries including banking and finance, government, energy, healthcare and retail, will get access to flexible and scalable hybrid cloud infrastructure.
EVRY will continue to lead the development of value-added solutions and services and combine its strong local knowledge with use of innovative cloud technology and global scale from IBM. EVRY’s customers will benefit from a faster time-to-market through leading-edge infrastructure solutions. EVRY will maintain responsibility for managing its relationships and delivering services to its customers.
“A leading infrastructure business is core to EVRY becoming a Nordic Champion. It is the foundation from which we build solutions that create business value and business outcomes for our customers. EVRY has started this transformation journey, but in order to deliver the best infrastructure solutions in the market, we need to accelerate the ongoing transformation of our infrastructure business”, comments Björn Ivroth, CEO of EVRY.
Infrastructure services are the backbone of the systems that support businesses, and the foundation for new and innovative digital solutions that drive businesses forward. End-users expect to be able to access services 24/7 across a wide range of channels and devices. Because of this it is critically important that businesses prepare their infrastructure for the new digital age. EVRY`s ambition is to support customers with more technological innovation and at the same time to reduce complexity and increase the use of industry standard components in customers’ infrastructure, since this will allow EVRY`s customers to have a more competitive and agile approach to changing market conditions.
“We have selected IBM as a global service provider and as a service delivery model for our basic infrastructure business. Customers will benefit from a faster time-to-market for leading-edge infrastructure, including new cloud based solutions. This strategic move allows EVRY to focus on being a customer-centric organisation with focus on value-added services and solutions built on leading technology”, says CEO Björn Ivroth of EVRY.
“Our partnership demonstrates how IBM’s expertise, technology and services can help EVRY adapt to new market conditions and opportunities while having trusted infrastructure services supporting the ongoing operations,” said Martin Jetter, senior vice president, IBM Global Technology Services. “The Nordic region has always been at the forefront of adopting new technologies early and we are excited to work with EVRY as they accelerate the enablement of their clients to lead in the digital era. IBM’s unmatched IT Infrastructure and cloud capabilities provide a perfect foundation for EVRY to create and sell advanced cloud-based solutions for their customers across the full range of customers and industries they serve.”
The 10-year agreement will be subject to approval from Norwegian Competition Authorities.
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Neil Cattermull, Director of Cloud Practice, Compare the Cloud
Neil's focus is on developing cloud technology and big data. You can often find him advising CXOs on cloud strategy.