Verizon Bets Big Bucks On Cloud Computing

Verizon plans to invest roughly $17 billion this year building, operating and integrating its networking and computing platforms, and a big chunk of that is destined for the cloud.

Verizon on Thursday said as the demand for cloud services grows, the company will beef up its data centers around the globe to add more muscle to its Computing as a Service (CaaS) cloud offering by extending it into data centers in San Jose, Calif., London, and Canberra Australia. Verizon added it will also bring new data centers online in Miami and Culpeper, Va., in 2011 to offer CaaS to the U.S. government.

Verizon's bid to pump up its cloud infrastructure and presence will include more than 5,500 additional server cabinets for enterprises users, which will be added into Verizon data centers in Paris, Dublin, London, Frankfurt, Belgium, Canberra, Hong Kong and locations throughout the U.S. The massive server update will enable Verizon to deliver private clouds through more than 200 global data centers connected to its Private IP MPLS network.

Verizon's upgrade investment, which is expected to range from $16.8 billion to $17.2 billion this year, ties into Verizon's "everything-as-a-service" (EaaS) mantra, where the company seeks to offer myriad cloud-based solutions globally.

"Verizon is committed to providing the essential foundation for the delivery of cloud services that will enable businesses to more efficiently achieve their goals through IT transformation," Kerry Bailey, Verizon Business senior vice president of enterprise strategy, said in a statement. "Our continued data center expansion marks yet another milestone in achieving our EaaS vision, which will enable enterprises to do business better by getting what they need, when they need it and where they need it while only paying for those resources consumed."

NEXT: Verizon's EaaS Vision

Verizon's EaaS vision already includes CaaS, its on-demand server, network and storage offering for enterprises making the leap between private, public and hybrid cloud environments. Earlier this month, Verizon teamed up with VMware to launch CaaS enabled with VMware vCloud Datacenter to let users move applications from a private to a public cloud setting. Verizon also recently launched CaaS SMB for smaller companies looking to take advantage of the cloud.

Also in recent months Verizon launched a host of cloud-focused services like cloud storage and remote backup, cloud consulting and cloud security.