DC Two launches virtual data centre service

Virtual data centre start-up DC Two has launched services from racks in Vocus' Perth IX facility, ahead of the opening of its own data centre later this year.

The new project is being run by former HPC Datacentres managing director Justin Thomas.

It has started offering the ability to spin up virtual machines on a VMware vCloud platform and will also support Microsoft's Hyper-V platform within weeks.

The firm will also offer pools of virtual capacity on dedicated hosts for larger customers or resellers looking for a platform to white-label 'cloud' services.

Thomas said the company is bundling a virtual machine image back-up service that uses Veeam technology with its products.

"When you've got your own platform sitting in your own rack, you've got root-level access to do what you need to do," Thomas said.

"When you move to a multi-tenancy platform, back-up [with Veeam] becomes a problem [because] Veeam requires root-level access.

"You can't give end-user customers root-level access [in] a multi-tenancy situation. Then they have to use something like Storage Craft. [However], some people would prefer to do an image-based backup using Veeam."

Thomas said that DC Two would "co-manage" back-ups on the clients' behalf. It offers Storage Craft 'Shadow Protect' based back-up as an extra add-on.

DC Two will not deal direct with end customers. Rather, it will sell to distributors, IT systems integrators and resellers.

The company plans to bring its own data centre online in "mid 2012".

The vCloud environment in Perth IX uses IBM servers and storage and Juniper switches. The Hyper-V platform will run on separate hardware that is currently on order.