Directory: Datacenter infrastructure services vendors in the US
Datacenters are stronger than ever, whether in-house or off-site. Competition is fierce among vendors who provide datacenter technologies such as hardware, software, storage, networking, security, business continuity, IAAS/SAAS/PAAS, and other features. Many vendors have deep and solid roots in the industry, having grown and evolved with the business for years. Other promising new candidates bring fresh ideas and perspectives to the field.
Below is a list of key vendors in the datacenter realm. To help IT professionals and technology decision makers to navigate the datacenter landscape, we have created a short list of datacenter vendors that provide products and services from a global approach.
This is not a paid listing, nor is it an exhaustive list; rather, it's an alphabetic glossary of strong vendors that provide datacenter/cloud products and services.
Amazon Web Services
Company profile Amazon Web Services launched in 2006 and offers a complete set of infrastructure and application services that enable you to run virtually everything in the cloud from enterprise applications and big data projects to social games and mobile apps. Some examples include Elastic Compute Cloud, Virtual Private Cloud, and Simple Storage Service. The regions in which they offer products and services reach from North America to Europe to Asia, as well as South America and Australia.
Geographical region: Global
Target market: SMB-Enterprise
Featured products: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)
US contact: Amazon Web Services, LLC, Suite 1200, 12th Avenue South, Seattle, Washington. Phone: 98144 2734
Key links: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, Amazon Simple Storage Service
Dell
Company profile: Arguably the biggest player in the datacenter arena, Dell has been a physical fixture in many companies for years, providing end-to-end options for infrastructure and services. They also offer cloud computing solutions such as Dell Cloud on Demand (described as an enterprise-class, multi-tenant infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) public cloud solution that is hosted in secured Dell datacenters.) Dell operates in two worlds, giving customers both on and offsite presences.
Geographical region: Global
Target market: SMB-Enterprise
Featured products: Physical datacenter components: servers, racks, storage, backup, networking, monitors, management appliances, and KVM switches. Cloud-based datacenter solutions and consulting services are also provided to help enterprises take advantage of emerging technologies.
US contact: Dell Inc, One Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas 78682. Phone: (512) 338 4400
Key links: Dell Server Technology Components, Data Center and Cloud Management Software, Dell Cloud Computing Solutions, Dell Cloud On Demand
Dimension Data
Company profile: According to their site, "Dimension Data is a specialist IT services and solution provider that helps clients plan, build, support, and manage their IT infrastructures". Located in South Africa, but with worldwide sites, their offerings range from Cloud Services, Converged Communications, Virtualization, Data Center Solutions, Customer Interactive Solutions, Network/Security options and Microsoft Solutions.
Geographical region: Global
Target market: SMB-Enterprise
Featured products: Data Center Solutions, Cloud Services, Converged Communications
US contact: Dimension Data, The Campus, 57 Sloane Street, Corner Sloane Street and Main Road, Bryanston, Johannesburg, South Africa 2021. Phone: (+27) 11 575 0000
Key links: Dimension Data's Data Center Solutions, Dimension Data Global Cloud Services, Dimension Data Converged Communications
Google
Company profile: Google was the cloud before the cloud got big. Gmail and Google Apps blazed a trail by leading the datacenter out of the server room and onto the internet. Now, Google is offering the "Google Compute Engine", which allows you to "run your large-scale computing workloads on Linux virtual machines hosted on Google's infrastructure". This will permit customers who don't have the local processing horsepower to take advantage of true enterprise datacenter resources with up to "tens of thousands of cores on infrastructure designed for large-scale computing". Google Cloud Computer Engine is currently in a limited preview with an intricate pricing scheme.
Geographical region: Global
Target market: SMB-Enterprise
Featured products: Compute Engine
US contact: Google, Inc, 1600 Ampitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California 94043. Phone: (650) 253 0000
Key links: Google Compute Engine, "Google Compute Engine — computation in the cloud"
HP
Company profile: Long known for its printers, HP successfully branched out into consumer and enterprise markets offering computer and server products which became industry leaders. Their HP Data Center Services are diverse and multifaceted, including continuity, enterprise cloud, datacenter modernization, enterprise application/web hosting, server/mainframe services and other options. They can deploy an interesting concept called the HP POD ("Performance Optimized DataCenters"), which are basically compressed server rooms in 20/40 foot space options.
Geographical region: Global
Target market: SMB-Enterprise
Featured products: HP Data Center Services, HP Performance Optimized DataCenters
US contact: Hewlett-Packard Company, 3000 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, California. Phone: 94304 1185, (650) 857 1501
Key links: "HP Data Center solutions overview", "Embrace the new era of data and cloud center services", HP Performance Optimized DataCenters
IBM
Company profile: IBM has been in the computer industry for more years than many IT workers have been alive. This company and its products may lack the flair and panache of Apple or Google, but that's because they've devoted their energy to quietly chugging along, offering up no-nonsense solutions that truly just work. Their datacenter solutions are geared towards the use of analytics-based services to "implement a smarter datacenter". Their strategy has four cornerstones: "Extending the life of the existing datacenter infrastructure, rationalizing the datacenter infrastructure across the company, implementing flexible design to be responsive to change, and providing integrated management of IT and datacenter options."
Geographical region: Global
Target market: SMB-Enterprise
Featured products: Data Center Planning, Design and Construction Services
US contact: International Business Machines Corp, 1 New Orchard Road, Armonk, New York. Phone: 10504 1722, (914) 499 1900
Key links: Smarter Data Center Services, "Defining a blueprint for a smarter datacenter", Interactive Tool to demonstrate benefit
Microsoft
Company profile: Long known for corporate software such as Windows, Office and Exchange, Microsoft has offered Hyper-V virtualization strategies as an alternative to VMware for some time. They now include datacenter and private cloud services in their portfolio. Their datacenter options offer "Assessment and optimization of datacenter capabilities in order to deliver private cloud and datacenter solutions through a centralized management platform". Their private cloud strategy utilizes "the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, Hyper-V, and Microsoft System Center".
Geographical region: Global
Target market: SMB-Enterprise
Featured products: Windows Server family, Hyper-V, System Center, Microsoft Private Cloud
US contact: Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington. Phone: 98052 6399, 1800 6427 67638
Key links: Microsoft Data Center Services, Microsoft Private Cloud
Oracle
Company profile: Long known for its database products, Oracle has emerged as a strong contender in the realm of datacenter solutions. They offer "Oracle Cloud", as well as an "Optimized Data Center" that can work with both Oracle and non-Oracle products, which "provides a fully integrated stack, 'from Applications to Disk". This is termed an incremental approach to the cloud utilizing server, storage, software, and networks, giving companies a good way to get their feet wet without overcommitting.
Geographical region: Global
Target market: Enterprise
Featured products: Oracle Cloud, Oracle Optimized Data Center
US contact: Oracle Corporation, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, California 94065. Phone: (650) 506-7000
Key links: Oracle Optimized Data Center, "Oracle Optimized Data Center Reference Architecture", Oracle Data Center Transformation, Oracle Cloud
OpenStack
Company profile: OpenStack was invented by Rackspace (see below) and "is an open and scalable operating system for building public and private clouds. It provides both large and small organizations an alternative to closed cloud environments, reducing the risks of lock-in associated with proprietary platforms". Their focus is on software, but they also offer on-demand computing resources, storage, and networking capabilities. Their emphasis on an open source environment has helped them to build a global community.
Geographical region: Global
Target market: SMB-Enterprise
Featured products: OpenStack software
US contact: Rackspace, 5000 Walzem Road, San Antonio, Texas 78218. Phone: (800) 961-4454
Key links: OpenStack Software, Rackspace Cloud
Rackspace
Company profile: Rackspace has nine datacenters providing hosting services in the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Australia. They also have an array of cloud options from servers, sites, databases, backup, email, monitoring, and storage. Launched in 1998 with more than 200,000 customers, they offer a 100 percent network uptime guarantee and "fanatical support".
Geographical region: Global
Target market: SMB-Enterprise
Featured products: Rackspace Data Center Colocation, Rackspace Managed Virtualization
US contact: Rackspace, 5000 Walzem Road, San Antonio, Texas 78218. Phone: (800) 961-4454
Key links: Rackspace Managed Colocation
Savvis
Company profile: With a presence in North America, Europe, and Asia, Savvis provides Hosted Data Centers, Enterprise Cloud Computing (Savvis Symphony), Networking, Security, Solutions Consulting, and Service Management. Although they have been in business for over 16 years, their emphasis has been on global IT services since 2005.
Geographical region: Global
Target market: SMB-Enterprise
Featured products: Savvis Symphony (Enterprise Cloud), Savvis Managed Hosting Services, and Savvis Colocation Services.
US contact: Savvis, 1 Savvis Parkway, Chesterfield, Missouri 63017. Phone: (314) 628-7000
Key links: Savvis Data Center Management, Enterprise Cloud Computing
VMware
Company profile: The biggest name in virtualization today, VMware has helped companies reduce physical server presence and workloads by replacing systems with virtual servers that can be managed via powerful tools and strategies. They also offer cloud options and IAAS via the VMware vCloud Suite solution, and their VMware vCloud Director service claims that it can "deliver complete virtual datacenters for consumption in minutes".
Geographical region: Global
Target market: SMB-Enterprise
Featured products: VMWare vSphere, vCloud Suite, VMware vCloud Director
US contact: VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, California 94304. Phone: (877) 486-9273
Key links: VMware Server and Datacenter Virtualization Products, VMware Datacenter solutions, VMware vCloud Director