Virtustream Offers New xStream Enterprise Platform for Seamless Delivery of Cloud Services

One aspect of adopting the cloud is learning that you have to trust the cloud with your data. This can be a big step, but seems to be one that more customers are comfortable with. Many organizations already trust all of their communications and documents to cloud-y offerings. Cloud computing is a revolutionary style of computing that is emerging from evolutionary change. There are a number of trends that are converging to further fuel the cloud computing phenomenon.

Cloud computing sets the stage for a new approach to IT that enables individuals and businesses to choose how they'll acquire or deliver IT services, with reduced emphasis on the constraints of traditional software and hardware licensing models. The emergence of cloud computing enables composite applications and composite businesses, and has already had a profound impact on IT and business. Recently, Morris Communications, LLC., and NIIT Media Technologies (NMT) announced the selection of xStream. Virtustream’s enterprise cloud platform will be implemented for Morris’s SAP (News - Alert) environment and supporting infrastructure in order to offer cloud-based IT services to media clients.

According to Steve K. Stone, senior vice president and chief financial officer of Morris and board member of NMT, “The media industry is being challenged now more than ever to try keep pace with the technology innovation supporting content distribution, leaving many companies searching for ways to reduce operating costs and boost performance of business systems.”

“We project significant benefits centralizing Morris Communications’ SAP environment within the cloud and are confident we can replicate the process for other media properties,” he added. “We turned to Virtustream because they offer the only enterprise cloud platform that features the security and availability of a private cloud and the cost efficiencies of a public cloud--in fact they are the only vendor we could find with true consumption-based pricing. Virtustream xStream delivered superior performance, and the company has the in-house managed services expertise to advise and execute on the entire migration process.”

The application of ideas, technologies and approaches from public cloud computing internal to an organization — private cloud computing — is an attractive option for many enterprises for whom public cloud computing offerings may not yet be viable. One key reason for the delay in migrating to cloud services is based on data security. As an example of effective migration, Virtustream determined the specific requirements for Morris Communications workloads in a cloud environment and provided a clear and actionable roadmap for migration.  

In a statement, Bill McNamara, chief corporate development officer of Virtustream said, “Virtustream applauds forward-thinking companies, like Morris Communications and NMT, that recognize industry-specific challenges and understand the IT performance improvements and cost savings that cloud computing could deliver. The NMT deployment showcases Virtustream’s existing expertise regarding SAP cloud migrations and highlights the foundation Virtustream has built to offer additional SAP-specific optimization services.”

This type of implementation model represents a new opportunity to shape the relationship between those who use IT services and those who sell them.