DiData readies Aussie Microsoft cloud offering

Dimension Data will target security-conscious Australian enterprises with a new hosted Microsoft software offering to launch this year.

The service provider last week unveiled plans to offer Microsoft SharePoint, Exchange Server and Lync as a service from its “managed private cloud environment”.

Customers may choose to consume the Microsoft software from their own data centres or from single-tenant infrastructure within data centres operated by Dimension Data or its partners.

Microsoft has so far offered its Office 365 suite – including Office, Exchange, Sharepoint and Lync – in a multi-tenant, public cloud setting from a data centre in Singapore.

The software giant offers Office 365 directly to Microsoft Enterprise Agreement customers, and via telco partner Telstra for those not on an Enterprise Agreement.

Dimension Data’s general manager of cloud services Dave Hanrahan noted that software offered under the public cloud model tended to be cheaper, and appealed particularly to small and medium businesses.

In contrast, he expected Dimension Data’s private cloud offering to appeal to private and public sector organisations that faced more stringent security, regulatory compliance and customisation requirements.

“We believe the demand will start in large enterprises,” he told iTnews.

The service would launch in South Africa within the next three months and in Australia by the end of this year.

Hanrahan said Dimension Data had developed a “highly repeatable” method of provisioning and transitioning customers onto its hosted software and infrastructure.

The service provider planned to deploy Microsoft applications on top of its managed cloud platform. Dimension Data promised to spin up services within 30 to 40 days of ordering.