There is cloud and then there is cloud. Cloud with take it or leave it service levels or cloud with service availability that supports the UK’s emergency services (911, 999, 112). I know about this life or death service level because a few years back I actually ran the BT IT operational department that supported the emergency operators team at BT.

It’s one thing dropping an investment bank’s trading systems (for that you just get fired) but dropping the emergency services systems so that the Police, Fire Brigade and Ambulance don’t come out any more and someone’s Granny dies….. That is at a completely different level of responsibity, believe me. Firms that are focussed on search or selling books have one kind of culture, perhaps the wrong kind if you need availability and promises that will be kept.

So when I heard that BT Global Services had launched their Virtual Data Centre (VDC) service I was very interested. Here is a service that promises to have the flexibility of a cloud service - easy in – easy out with professional, enterprise support levels. It won’t ever be the cheapest but BT Global Services customers won’t buy on price. Now BT needs to leverage it’s brand and the skills of it’s people to execute on delivering Enterprise Cloud to the corporate market.

Here is the press release:

BT’s VDC offers a new concept in service delivery where customers are able to create and manage their own infrastructure service through a secure online portal. The service includes virtualised security, servers, storage and networks orchestrated and automated through the portal.

Here is what my friend and former colleague, Steve Holt, general manager IT services in BT Global Services, said: “Initial feedback from our early adopter customers has been really positive. Customers are really impressed with the simplicity and the agility of the service. We have four pilot customers already signed up for the service, with another five in the pipeline.”

“The availability of service is a significant achievement for BT. It really pushes the market boundaries to demonstrate clear commitment through our investment to bring innovative enterprise class services to our customers.”

BT’s virtual data centre means customers can enjoy significant benefits over traditional approaches. For example, it makes it far more cost effective, simple and quicker for customers to deploy and run their data centre infrastructure – at the same time offering higher levels of service assurance.

BT also offers a range of consultancy services to ensure that migrations happen quickly and effectively.

Plans are well underway to further enhance the core functionality and launch the VDC service across EMEA over the next quarter.