Verizon Cloud due to arrive in Australia next year

Verizon has announced that it will be launching Verizon Cloud in Australia during the first quarter of 2015.

Verizon Cloud was initially launched in the US in October 2013, with two public service offerings: Verizon Cloud Compute and Cloud Storage.

Speaking to ZDNet, David Kim, Verizon Enterprise Solutions Australia and New Zealand's recently appointed managing director, said that while the company joins an increasingly crowded market, Verizon Cloud will address the security concerns of its existing customers — many of which are large enterprises in the financial, technology, and manufacturing sector, or are government agencies — when it comes to moving data into the cloud.

"Cloud security is always top of mind. When you talk about security, it's fundamental to protecting data and about who gets access to that data. Verizon has an incredibly strong reputation and platform technology that will protect our clients' data and access to that data," he said.

Kim added that the Australian market is one of the most mature markets in terms of cloud technology adoption, which has especially grown in the last 24 to 36 months, mainly because enterprises are realising that moving into the cloud is a more agile and cost-efficient way to operate.

"There's a strong trend in trying to utilise the public cloud for certain applications or workloads, but there's also a trend we're seeing from an enterprise level towards virtual private cloud and hybrid cloud, whether that's on-premise or off-premise; there's a very strong trend towards private cloud. A lot of clients will have a private on-premise cloud leveraging an off-premise private cloud," he said.

Kim continued, saying that another reason why clients are turning to the cloud is because it's easier to "secure the perimeter" compared to storing data in a datacentre.

"There's a very strong trend in predictive analytics and consumer behaviour, and when you think about all the data a company would get — in terms of the transactions you have with your customers — the question is where do you store that data," he said.

"So as information grows and grows, you've got to scale your infrastructure, but you get to a point that managing that infrastructure only has enormous implications in terms of costs, and trying to secure that perimeter becomes difficult.

"But it's not just about having a secure perimeter, but being able to think ahead and predictively look at the threats of the market. Cloud — whether it's private or public — gives the ability for enterprises to better manage, scale, control, and secure data."

In other news, Verizon has worked with the Property Exchange Australia (PEXA), the Australian property's market equivalent of the Australian Securities Exchange, to develop an e-conveyancing platform using Verizon's Managed Certificate Services to authenticate end-user identities, in particular digital signatures. The cloud-enabled solution is being delivered from Verizon's Canberra datacentre.

The new system eliminates the need for purchasers to manually complete multiple forms, and allow Land Registries, financial institutions, and practitioners to transact online together, and in real time. The company said that customers will also only need a single client authentication for a lawyer or conveyancer to complete, which could potentially reduce the length of the conveyancing process.

"Under the legal framework that exists to support the industry, digital certifications form a critical component. You have to be able to identify your customers and create a signature that cannot be repudiated. We looked at a number of solutions, and we found Verizon was able to provide the most flexible and custom-built solution for the legal industry," said Marcus Price, PEXA CEO.