Colt has announced a new offering which claims to help enterprises and wholesale operators get the full benefits of virtualization at reduced cost and complexity.

The new Colt DCNet as-a-service has simplified the process of using virtualization for the data centre operators of wholesale customers and enterprises, says Colt. Colts own research says 77% of IT leaders think pre-emptive support is more important than ongoing support from service providers, so it will make it easier for them to roll out services to their own clients.

The DCNet will help clients make full use of software defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) without having to invest in experts in these disciplines. With SDN and NFV skills rare, skilled operators are expensive to source and DCNet will remove the cost and the complexity, according to Colt.

The service will make on-demand data centre interconnect services available across Europe through a self-service portal. Colt says it will improve integration with cloud services, reduce lead times and builds on flexible commercial models while delivering new improved SLAs.

The user in the data centre will become more effective by dint of being given the power to serve themselves when ordering resources, provisioning services for clients and adapting them to suit their client’s circumstances, according to Colt.

Next year, Colt will use the service to create elasticity of demand between data centres, customer sites and cloud service providers, by creating connections that can adjust to usage patterns. The system will provide application programming interfaces (APIs) to make it easier for operator clients to provide services across third-party networks.

While SDN creates a major business model change for the telecoms industry, companies will need help in transforming the way service providers interact with customers, according to Carl Grivner, EVP of network services at Colt. Colt’s Novitas programme aims to help customers to consume services in a way that is right for them and to help them come to grips with the technology. “Our vision is to be the cloud access provider for the business sector, enabling customers to build and operate their network from anywhere,” said Grivner.

A selection of wholesale and enterprise customers in the finance and media verticals will be trying out the new options in November. DCNet’s self-service portal is initially available for data centre interconnect services in 57 third party data centres in London, Paris and Frankfurt. It will be extended to 150 data centres across Europe as well as Asia Pacific in early 2016.

ENDS