Cloud Central goes global with enStratus deal

Canberra-based Cloud Central has struck a deal with global software firm enStratus to form part of an aggregated network of cloud computing providers that includes Amazon.com's AWS, Microsoft's Azure, Rackspace and Google.

Cloud aggregation service enStratus distributes compute and storage workloads among the world's major cloud computing players on behalf of customers, adding an additional layer of security and automated backup and recovery.

Cloud computes hooked up to the enStratus engine include Amazon's EC2, Microsoft's Windows Azure, Google Storage, Terremark, Rackspace, and other clouds using the OpenStack open source platform. The company's software engine is charged on a per-compute hour basis.

Kristopher Sheather, founder of Cloud Central said the partnership is "essentially about alleviating customer fears about vendor lock-in in the cloud."

Anne Bilek, Australasian business development manager at enStratus said the company provides a console that "lets you manage your applications and services across multiple clouds.

"You could have your primary on Cloud Central, for example, but have backup and disaster recovery to a different cloud - such as Rackpace or AWS."

Minneapolis-based enStratus also provides what the company markets as 'Smart Cloud Topology' - the ability to use cloud computes within multiple geographic zones to spread risk or meet regulatory requirements.

This would enable a multinational company, for example, a single view of its global cloud computing resources, whilst using cloud computes in multiple geographies to meet local regulatory requirements.

Sheather expects this will make Cloud Central a natural fit for multinational corporations using cloud services that are required by regulators to keep certain data or applications within Australia.