Orange Business Services strengthens its international cloud strategy

Orange Business Services is accelerating its international cloud strategy with a new global public cloud offering that includes advice, auditing, integration and managed services for cloud infrastructure and applications. The services, delivered in partnership with Huawei, complement the existing Orange private cloud portfolio and will help enterprises in their digital transformation initiatives.

The principal aim of the international cloud strategy is to help multinational corporations (MNCs) migrate their legacy enterprise applications to the cloud and ensure that their infrastructure and applications are available in all geographic regions in which they need to be hosted.

The new cloud services will roll out across Western Europe and Southeast Asia in April 2017, followed by the US in October 2017. The Middle East and Africa are scheduled for 2018.

The partnership with Huawei capitalizes on the strengths of OpenStack technology, an open-source software platform for cloud computing. Open standards and interoperability are key to meeting the demands for large, scalable public cloud solutions by delivering economies of scale and avoiding the danger of proprietary lock-in. Orange has partnered with Huawei because it is a leading player in the OpenStack arena and at the epicenter of the platform’s ongoing development.

Complement existing portfolio

The new public cloud services will complement the existing Orange private cloud portfolio. This provides a further opportunity to provide high-performance integrated hybrid cloud services. To guarantee maximum levels of security of their cloud infrastructure, customers will be able to rely on the services and expertise of Orange Cyberdefense.

In terms of service delivery, Orange will provide the data center facilities, network and security infrastructure, customers’ infrastructure and applications management, and professional services to support cloud migrations. Huawei will provide the hardware, develop the technology platform and OpenStack OS, and provide level-three support.

“Our customers have a genuine need for an international public cloud offering that will allow them to adapt to the uses imposed by new technologies and meet the challenges of transforming their IT services on a global scale. To continue to support them, it is essential for us to have the best technology, combined with the highest levels of security and services, that can meet the challenges of both digital transformation and international development. By collaborating with Huawei’s OpenStack experts, we are providing a secure and flexible platform built on an open architecture which will enable seamless end-to-end services, less vulnerability to tie in and ultimately more choice,” explains Philippe Laplane, Director of Orange Cloud for Business, Orange Business Services.