As CBR reported it would back in November 2010, BT Global Services has joined the CloudSleuth community that offers users views of various cloud providers’ performance data around the world.
Launched in November 2010 by performance management firm Compuware, CloudSleuth is described as a community to highlight the performance of cloud computing providers around the world. At the time of its launch CBR noted the absence of major cloud providers that at the time included not only BT but also IBM, Fujitsu, Colt and others.
Now BT Global Services has thrown its hat into the ring. A member of the Compuware Partner Network, BT Global Services is the first global telecommunications carrier to join the CloudSleuth partner community and have its cloud hosting services globally monitored for service quality across data center facilities in Europe.
Existing CloudSleuth partners include CDNetworks, Cisco, Cloudee.eu, CloudSigma, Cordys, GoGrid and Sify Technologies. There are around 40 partners altogether.
Now it is a CloudSleuth partner, BT Global Services will share with the CloudSleuth community best practices and expertise on the challenges and benefits of cloud computing, the company said. BT Global Services will also participate in the CloudSleuth Global Provider View, an application that benchmarks performance and availability metrics for cloud providers.
CloudSleuth will monitor in real-time the performance of BT’s On Demand Compute service, which is hosted in five of BT’s European data centers in the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. This will help organizations who are interested in BT’s On Demand Compute services compare and track the global performance of the company’s services and make informed cloud purchasing decisions.
"We are really excited to be a CloudSleuth partner. It’s important for our customers that we continue to show innovation and market leadership, and demonstrate that we understand the importance that application and service performance play in the cloud market," said Steve Holt, general manager for BT Compute, BT Global Services. "With all the hype and uncertainty that surrounds the cloud, enterprises are looking for transparency into the quality of cloud services to help build their trust and confidence. As a CloudSleuth partner, we will be able to externally benchmark the service quality of our cloud services, assuring our customers that they are receiving the best possible cloud performance."
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CloudSleuth is claimed to be, "the industry’s only partner-driven cloud performance community – sponsored by Compuware – that brings together industry experts, early cloud adopters and cloud newcomers to foster a collaborative exchange of strategies, best practices and resources for deploying and managing applications in the cloud."
The Global Provider View uses the Compuware Gomez Performance Network (GPN) to run performance tests – measuring response time and availability – against a standard reference application that is hosted by the cloud service providers listed in this view.
As for some of the big names still absent, it’s obviously noteworthy that Compuware and IBM are fierce competitors in the mainframe performance management space. When the community was launched Doug Willoughby, Compuware director of cloud computing, told CBR that IBM has not refused to get involved, but, "We haven’t deliberately targeted them at all. There are no plans to announce at this stage. We’ve just not had the opportunity to engage with them yet."
Willoughby insisted that CloudSleuth is a community, and not a closed shop only open to friends of Compuware: "It’s a community portal," he said. "Anyone who wants to get involved just has to pick up the phone, basically. There are absolutely no restrictions."
