Telstra is seeking to grow its business footprint in Europe and believes its strong network capabilities and willingness to offer a wider solution are the keys to its future success.
One of its key network assets is its Telstra Programmable Network, which has gained around 300 customers in the 18 months since launch. Tom Homer, EMEA MD, describes this as a “Cloud for Network”, enabling customers to buy bandwidth-on-demand at the network level.
Telstra has launched a global managed security offering on the back of technology gained from it Cognivo acquisition. Cognivo itself originally developed this software for police forces to enable the analysis of unstructured data.
The company is also investing in people. A year ago it bought Company85, a UK business with 100 professional service staff that help their customers get more out of IT investments as well as providing consulting on security services.
Homer says that many companies come to Telstra because of its willingness to partner with innovators (it runs its own venture capital arm, for example) and its strength in Asia. For example, the company has just launched a new offering to provide assured availability on the busy Hong Kong-Singapore-Japan triangle of undersea cable which delivers high capacity, low latency services to the Asian market.
To continue its success, the company says it must increase its software-savviness and its ability to partner. It perceives its channel programme to be critical to future performance. However, it also intends to add points of presence across Europe including in Copenhagen, Dusseldorf and Paris to make its Programmable Network and IPVPN services more widely available.
Homer concludes: “Businesses are increasingly seeking integrated solutions for their network, security and cloud infrastructure, as well as advice on implementation and management. Our vision is to deliver an advanced network together with value-adding technology services such as consulting, security and collaboration solutions, so businesses in Europe can realise the full potential of cloud computing and meet the rapidly growing demand for data and applications.”
