Verizon buys up cloud start-up

Cloud software start-up, CloudSwitch, has been snapped up by Verizon for an undisclosed sum. The three-year-old company specialises in high security management of enterprise grade applications running via the cloud. The start-up had raised around $US15 million from Boston based VC firms to date.

Verizon is set to integrate CloudSwitch into its Terremark data centre business unit which it acquired for $US1.4 billion earlier this year.

Under the deal, CloudSwitch's 30 staff including the executive team will remain with the company and be part of the hub of software development for Terremark's cloud services in Boston, the company confirmed in its blog.

The post said, “it’s clear that F1000 companies are looking for enterprise-class cloud services that cover a broad range of their needs – not only commodity clouds, but also higher levels of SLAs, enterprise procurement processes, professional services, security models and dedicated systems. And they want these to be provided by a trusted name in enterprise IT services like Verizon.”

The company added that despite the takeover, it would ensure that Terremark is strategically committed to open policies and will maintain support for multiple clouds and hypervisors.

“We’re also impressed at Verizon’s commitment and leadership strategy in the enterprise cloud market: after acquiring Terremark and creating a subsidiary within Verizon, they’ve now brought on a software company to add software development and innovation capabilities to the team. That’s the kind of leadership the enterprise cloud market requires,” the company said. ®