Cloud computing flies the green and gold

Beverley Head
Monday, 01 March 2010 17:11

Business IT - Networking

Australian organisations interested in cloud computing but unwilling to send their data offshore are among early targets for Fujitsu’s first iteration of cloud based services underpinned by a network of 97 global data centres, 12 of which are in Australia.

The company today launched infrastructure as a service in both Australia and the UK. Speaking at Kickstart 2010, Fujitsu CEO Rod Vawdrey said that Government in particular could now feel more comfortable about the location of its data.

Customers of Fujitsu’s cloud services could choose if they wanted to specify that their data be stored and processed in Australia. However the company expects that over time cloud computing users will become more agnostic about the physical location of their data.

Nevertheless Vawdrey acknowledged that although “It shouldn’t matter where they are (data centres) it still does because governments want to know where you locate your data. This is less of technical and more of a policy restraint.”

Fujitsu has developed a do it yourself cloud portal which allows customers to log on and order up the infrastructure they require.  It’s this facility, and the ability to pay for the service online, is what distinguishes this offering from more traditional managed service provision according to the company.

Marc Silvester, Fujitsu’s global chief technical officer, in Australia for the launch said customers; “Could go on the web site, use a credit card or purchase order and select their configuration,  for something even as simple as a Windows server.”

Given Fujitsu’s heritage as an enterprise supplier the credit card option does seem a little far fetched at present, although the company  did not rule out selling to small or even micro businesses in the future.