IT services provider Steria has announced a Platform as a Service (PaaS) model that claims to be able to deliver cloud computing capabilities in less than 30 minutes.
The offering is built on Cisco’s Unified Computing System (UCS) and is aimed at customers wishing to use cloud computing as and when they need it. Customers will only pay for what they use, the firm said.
The platform, called Infrastructure On Command will offer customers highly agile, secure and cost-effective computing power within 30 minutes of a customer requesting the service. The ‘pay for what you use’ model means that customers can sign up for long or short term deals.
Data can be stored in an isolated environment and Steria says that all services will be delivered in keeping with regulatory compliance measures. The firm also claims that the platform can lower energy consumption and emissions by up to 30%.
Speaking at the launch of Infrastructure On Command, Francois Enaud, Steria Group CEO said that cloud computing was a natural step for the firm to make. “We couldn’t miss the opportunity that cloud computing presents,” he said. “It’s a revolution – a new way of offering computing power. Infrastructure On Command is the flagship of a new generation of products.”
These comments echo what John Torrie, Steria’s UK and India CEO told CBR in a recent interview. “We’re on an evolutionary path towards cloud,” he said. “But when you talk to large commercial organisations, they are more interested in business intelligence than the platform. They want to know interesting things about their business rather than what platform it is running on. Without wishing to denigrate the cloud, the real issue is how to improve the efficiency of business. Most companies come to Steria with a business problem and ask how can I make it go away; the tools we use to do that are immaterial to them.”
Infrastructure On Command will be available from June this year.