VMware taps SoftBank, China Telecom for Asia-Pacific hybrid cloud expansion

Virtualisation incumbent VMware has inked partnerships with China Telecom and SoftBank in a move that will see both telcos host and help sell the company’s hybrid cloud service in the region. The move marks a significant expansion of the service as VMware looks to take its hybrid cloud offerings beyond North America and Europe.

As part of its agreement with SoftBank VMware will build, manage, operate and support the vCloud Hybrid Service, and provide the primary sales route to market through VMware’s ecosystem of partners. SoftBank will provide datacentres and network capacity for the service, as well as a dedicated salesforce.

VMware said its hybrid cloud service, which enables users to extend their VMware-based on premise kit to the cloud, is already available to clients in Japan as a private beta and will become generally available in Q4 of this year.

Ken Miyauchi, representative director & COO of SoftBank Telecom and chairman of SoftBank Commerce & Service Corp. said: “We are very pleased that Japan is the first Asia-Pacific country to launch vCloud Hybrid Service and that we are developing the market together with VMware based on our strong partnership. The SoftBank Group will provide vCloud Hybrid Service to customers in Japan through its direct sales and reseller partners for VMware products.”

In a bid to push into China, one of the world’s fastest growing cloud services markets, VMware inked a similar deal with China Telecom that will see both companies jointly deliver the hybrid cloud service by early 2015.

“VMware has been pursuing a strategy of partnering with key Chinese technology, distribution and service provider partners to produce Chinese solutions for Chinese organizations. In that regard, China Telecom is the nation’s biggest cloud service provider. It operates an extensive telecommunications network and serves the largest Internet user base in China,” the company said.

Bill Fathers, senior vice president and general manager, hybrid cloud services business unit said that growth of VMware’s hybrid cloud service, which was announced last year, has been progressing at an aggressive rate.

“VMware now operates vCloud hybrid service in North America (6 sites in the US), Europe (in the UK) and now Asia to meet the needs of both our regional and global clients. By the end of 2014 a VMware cloud will be available in over 75 per cent of the world’s cloud market through both VMware-operated services and our vast global network of over 12,000 VMware-based cloud service providers,” he said.

VMware is the latest of a number of IT incumbents tapping into the massive scale some Asia-Pacific telcos offer and few rival in terms of datacentre, network coverage and customer base. China Telecom is also investing billions in the development of a massive cloud computing facility in Guizhou Province; when completed, the new facility will be one of the largest in the world.