INDIA – Gartner Inc. has positioned Verizon in the Leaders quadrant of the industry analyst firm’s 2010 report, “Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting.”

The report (Gartner Research: “Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting,” L. Leung and T. Chamberlin, Dec. 22, 2010) examines 20 global providers of infrastructure-as-a-service and Web-hosting solutions and cites Verizon for its completeness of vision and ability to execute.

“We believe our placement in this report confirms Verizon’s focus on delivering secure, high-performance cloud-based computing solutions to help enable better business outcomes for our enterprise clients,” said Joseph S. Crawford, chief cloud strategist, Verizon Business.  “Whether we are enabling businesses to be more agile or to find new ways of serving customers through the cloud, Verizon’s ‘everything-as-a-service’ strategy continues to provide new benefits for companies moving beyond traditional IT-delivery models.”

During 2010, Verizon accelerated its investment in cloud capabilities, including an expansion of its global cloud computing footprint.  In August, the company announced field trials of Verizon Computing as a Service enabled by VMware vCloud™ Datacenter and is one of five cloud providers chosen by VMware worldwide to offer its new hybrid cloud technology.  In September, the company introduced Verizon Computing as a Service, SMB, an online cloud service for small and medium businesses. The pay-as-you-go service is billed via a credit card.   In November, the company announced Verizon UC&C with Microsoft Online Services, a cloud-based collaboration solution.

In addition, in July, the company announced the Verizon Health Information Exchange, a cloud-based service that enables the sharing of patient data.

Converged IT Services Via a Cloud Model

Verizon is evolving to an everything-as-a-service IT delivery model in which cloud-based, converged solutions are delivered with built in security via managed and professional services over the company’s global IP network.  Verizon is assembling the key components of this unique and powerful approach to serving enterprises.  The everything-as-a-service platform – with Verizon’s global IP network and data centers as its foundation – is at the heart of the company’s strategy.  Visit the Verizon IT Solutions website for more information.