CSC Expands Virtual Computing Environment Alliance (VCE) for Vblock Infrastructure

August 30, 2010

CSC is expanding its alliance with the Virtual Computing Environment coalition (VCE), an unprecedented collaboration of Cisco and EMC with VMware, to develop a new global solutions unit and create centers of excellence based on VCE’s Vblock infrastructure.

In addition, CSC and the VCE coalition have committed new resources in engineering, sales and support for customers to test VCE-enabled offerings through CSC’s specialized Centers of Excellence in Chantilly, Va., Aldershot, England and Sydney, Australia within the next 90 days.

CSC now provides a fully-integrated, seamless and secure transition to the cloud that combines its industry-leading transformational consulting, service oriented architecture (SOA), applications modernization and refactoring and trusted cloud managed services with VCE’s Vblock platform, the best and most secure fabric to deliver client applications and business processes through an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model.

Vblock combines: leading virtualization software from VMware; unified networking, security and computing from Cisco; and storage and security technologies from EMC. Vblocks support a broad range of operating systems and applications that enable customers to rapidly and securely migrate existing applications to the Vblock to accelerate broad-scale data center virtualization and realize sustainable value through the cloud.

CSC’s Trusted Cloud Managed Services will use the Vblock as the basis of its Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and future Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings. In June, CSC unveiled seven cloud-enabled data centers and new trusted cloud services – including CloudLab and CloudExchange – built to operate on Vblock infrastructure, demonstrating the ability to deliver these services securely and immediately, to clients across the globe. Today’s announcement takes the commitment to the VCE coalition one step further to make Vblock the lead technology stack for CSC’s private cloud offerings and to deliver dedicated support and services through a new global solutions unit.

CSC takes a “business first” approach when implementing Vblock-based trusted cloud services; evaluating business processes and identifying ideal workloads to generate the greatest ROI for the enterprise. CSC will assist clients to manage these critical technical programs, drawing on extensive experience from CSC outsourcing engagements in platform consolidation and virtualization and data center migration. In addition, CSC’s globally recognized leadership in cybersecurity serves as the foundation to enable “trusted cloud” services. While CSC maintains its technology independence with the ability to offer tailored solutions to meet any business need, it will lead with a strong point of view when advising new and existing clients that the VCE Vblock platform is “enterprise ready” as they seek to exploit the business and economic advantages of a cloud service delivery model.

CSC plans to deliver cloud-enabled CSC software IP to this new environment in order to exploit the platform’s economic and system performance benefits. This includes the “SAP on VCE” service, where CSC will fuse its application expertise and its global SAP practice to help clients realize operational efficiencies and new sources of revenue through cloud services.

“Businesses are looking for ways to rapidly take advantage of the benefits of virtualization and secure cloud computing, and CSC is excited about the momentum we’re building in the marketplace with key VCE cloud implementations like the recently announced win with AMP in Australia,” said Michael W. Laphen, CSC chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We offer the global scale and consulting prowess, multi-vendor systems integration, and applications expertise needed to deliver agile and secure business services on the VCE coalition’s unified fabric. Our strong and strategic alliance with the VCE coalition helps our clients take full advantage of both the economics and flexibility of virtualization and cloud computing.”

“CSC's commitment to lead with new enterprise offerings based on VCE's Vblock technology is another demonstration of momentum for our pre-integrated technology stacks as partners and customers realize the business benefits of cloud computing,” said Michael Capellas, chairman, VCE coalition.

“The VCE coalition provides a clear road map that helps our customers accelerate their journey from the traditional data center to the cloud,” noted John Chambers, chairman and chief executive officer, Cisco. “CSC’s established reputation for building and delivering highly secure cloud environments, together with the VCE coalition’s unified architectural approach, we are helping our customers to optimize their virtual resources and drive new levels of efficiency across their businesses.”

“VMware is pleased to work with CSC and the VCE coalition to bring the full benefits of a hybrid cloud to our mutual customers – enabling enterprises to not only improve efficiency internally, but be in a position to tap into external resources in a non-disruptive way when it makes business sense to do so,” said Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer, VMware.

“Customers around the world can today gain more efficiency, productivity and competitive advantages from private cloud computing. The Virtual Computing Environment coalition unifies the best technology across the computing stack offering customers a proven foundation for delivering IT as a service,” said Joe Tucci, chairman and chief executive officer, EMC. “CSC is well positioned to drive business transformation toward private cloud computing through its services expertise coupled with its new global business unit focused on Vblock-enabled cloud services.”

This strategic partnership also takes a leadership approach to green IT and sustainability – driven at the corporate level with a perspective specific to the data center. The VCE platform is the right solution to drive higher levels of IT virtualization and system utilization with a smaller technology footprint, which translates to higher energy savings and a reduced carbon footprint.

CSC and the VCE coalition partners – Cisco, EMC and VMware – have enjoyed a business relationship for more than 10 years and have a common vision for the evolution of Unified Computing and IT process transformation in the data center.