Orange Business Services Delivers Cloud Computing

Orange Business Services, the France Telecom Orange branch dedicated to B2B services, confirmed its cloud computing ambition and strategy as part of its conquests 2015 program while highlighting some key successes in 2010 and previewing its cloud computing plans for the coming year.

Cloud computing is one of the key growth drivers defined by Orange Business Services in line with its five-year plan and the company aims to generate 500 million euros on cloud computing in 2015.

The ambition of Orange Business Services is to make it easy for customers to access the IT resources they need by providing a one-stop-shop for a range of cloud computing services. By taking an integrated approach, Orange Business Services can deliver network and IT with end-to-end service level commitments.

Orange Business Services is offering five new services that span the cloud computing portfolio and fall under the solution categories of cloud-ready network, Infrastructure as a Service and Software as a Service:

• Cloud-ready network solution, Business VPN Galerie
• Infrastructure as a Service solutions: Flexible Computing Premium, Backup as a Service
• Software as a Service solutions: Private Applications Store, Desktop Virtualization

Enterprises such as Louis Vuitton (Infrastructure as a Service), Arkema (Backup as a Service) and Cirque du Soleil (Collaboration as a Service) trust Orange for cloud computing services.

Cloud-ready network
Leveraging its cloud-ready network, Orange Business Services is launching Business VPN Galerie, a hub linking VPN customers to the world of cloud computing services via network gateways. This cloud-ready network solution benefits both enterprises and cloud services providers. Business VPN Galerie provides enterprises with increased access reliability to cloud services than what is possible over the Internet while addressing their primary concern of security. Cloud computing services providers benefit from Business VPN Galerie because it allows them to deliver their applications with the same customer experience but in a cloud computing mode. The solution is available in France with 12 customers already signed, among which is GiFi, a European retailer with 345 stores. An international pilot is planned for Q1 2011.

Infrastructure as a Service
Orange Business Services enhanced its Infrastructure as a Service portfolio with new services in its Flexible Computing Services range and Backup as a Service. Customers have a choice between shared and fully dedicated solutions, addressing the various needs and types of enterprises. SMEs tend to prefer packaged, cost-effective solutions and accept a shared infrastructure, while some large multinationals will only accept a fully dedicated infrastructure. In many cases, companies prefer a hybrid solution.

Flexible Computing Premium is a shared solution designed for large businesses, making it possible to combine flexibility, personalization and quality of service. Flexible Computing Premium is a flexible and modular services catalog allowing enterprises to build a customized infrastructure. The solution includes a choice of four service management levels complemented by SLAs up to 99.9 percent.

Backup as a Service from Orange Business Services is delivered through infrastructure hosted and managed in Orange data centers, based on EMC Avamar technology, and covered by performance SLAs. Professional services for design, implementation and management are included. The customer’s backup policy can be personalized and security can be adjusted based on the value of the data. Arkema, in chemical manufacturing, is the first Backup as a Service customer for Orange Business Services.

Software as a Service
Cirque du Soleil, the entertainment provider, has chosen Orange Business Services to implement messaging and collaboration services with the Microsoft Office 365 cloud platform. Initially, Orange Business Services is delivering Microsoft Exchange Online and SharePoint Online to thousands of Cirque du Soleil employees around the world, adding collaboration tools with the needed flexibility to adapt to the constantly evolving workforce demands.

Orange Business Services is piloting its Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) solution, part of the Collaboration as a Service portfolio, with three customers. UCaaS enables access to innovative and unified collaboration solutions, including IP Telephony, delivered as a service. UCaaS increases the efficiency and productivity of employees while gaining flexibility and reduced costs with the ‘as a service’ model. Orange Business Services hosts and manages the platform in Orange data centers and therefore takes the management burden away from the customer. A comprehensive and user-friendly portal enables administrators to manage users and assign one of the pre-defined user profiles in just a few clicks. UCaaS can be a shared, dedicated or hybrid solution depending on what the customer prefers and pricing is on a per-user, per-profile basis.

Private Applications Store, also launched, is an way to provide a unified catalog of applications across an enterprise without deploying anything on the company premises or the users’ PCs. Orange Business Services provides a catalog of applications and services whether operated by Orange, the customer or a third party. The applications and services are accessible through a customizable portal available from multiple locations and devices such as the office, home and smartphones. Private Applications Store comes with a choice of service management levels to adapt quality of service to different user categories. A validation workflow process enables administrators to keep control over usage and costs. The solution is fully dedicated to each enterprise yet charged on a pay-per-use model.

Desktop Virtualization is another cloud computing offer from Orange Business Services available as a dedicated infrastructure deployed either on customer premises or partially hosted in Orange data centers. Desktop Virtualization allows companies to deliver end-user work environment as a simple network service removing the hassle of managing distributed PCs across different locations. By keeping the entire user settings ‘ application, profile and data ‘ in a single safe location, it enables secure access to the work environment anywhere, anytime, and from any device.

Fidal, a business law firm servicing 150 countries on five continents, has improved the productivity of its employees with Desktop Virtualization from Orange Business Services. To cope with high volumes of messaging data and storage requirements as well as numerous business applications such as legal, accounting and tax that require several updates a year, Orange Business Services proposed a Desktop Virtualization solution including desktop, applications, user profiles, servers and storage. This dedicated cloud computing solution has provided Fidal with a highly agile IT environment, allowing business users to access their entire working environment from any place using any device at any time while complying with strict legal and confidentiality regulations. Deployments and upgrades of applications are easy and seamless with minimal service disruptions. Consequently, lawyer productivity increased and directly benefited the company’s bottom line.