Sweden based City Network, one of the fastest growing IaaS providers in Europe, continue their global expansion of their OpenStack-based IaaS City Cloud. In July 2015 the company launches two data centers in the US. The expansion is following an increased demand from the company’s customers who need to store data closer to their end users in the US market. Legal requirements and cultural aspects also play an important role for companies operating in the country who are required to store certain data in the United States.
Launched in 2009 and OpenStack-based since 2014, City Networks IaaS City Cloud is already available from several locations in Europe. By launching City Cloud in the US, City Network is the first IaaS provider to offer multiple OpenStack-based data centers in each of the continents of North America and Europe.
– Companies want to have their data and their services as close to their customers as possible and many of our customers have a strong presence on the US market. Therefore it is natural for us to expand our services across the Atlantic, says Johan Christenson, CEO of City Network.
City Networks data centers will be located in New York and Los Angeles. With two locations in the US, customers are offered the possibility of full redundancy, not only between the US and Europe but also within US borders.
– We are now first in the world to offer OpenStack in multiple data centres in each of two continents. The fact that we can offer the capability of full redundancy in both Europe and in the US enables our customers to create secure and always available services from the ground up, says Johan Christenson.
Al Sadowski, Research Director at 451 Research commented on City Networks move with two new OpenStack data centers in the US market:
– We believe that public cloud providers can differentiate with offerings based on OpenStack. As enterprises become increasingly interested in hybrid solutions, OpenStack offers the promise of bridging the gap between private and public clouds. The open source platform has strong momentum and service providers like Swedish City Network are positioned to ride that wave.
City Network finished the transition to OpenStack in all their data centres earlier this year and the demand for the OpenStack IaaS platform is increasing steadily. The scalability and cost efficiency along with open standards are key driving factors behind the growth.