Logicalis Strengthens Ability to Transition IBM Customers to the Cloud

SLOUGH, England, December 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Solution Provider Inks Partnership Agreement with IBM SoftLayer, 

Expands Integration and Cloud Service Offerings 

Logicalis Group, an international IT solutions and managed services provider (http://www.logicalis.com) and longtime IBM Business Partner in the U.S., U.K., Ireland and Spain, announced today that it has signed a strategic partnership agreement with IBM SoftLayer to expand its already extensive cloud service offerings to clients in North America and Europe.

The agreement comes in response to rapid changes in the way CIOs want to use the cloud to leverage new capabilities and cost savings for their organisations. Logicalis is meeting those needs by adding extended capabilities to its already strong cloud and managed services portfolio - and this relationship with IBM SoftLayer is part of that strategy.

"Cloud services are becoming relevant to a greater number of organisations from the very small businesses that see cloud as the first choice of infrastructure or software consumption to the very large who view cloud as a credible home for core business applications and workloads," says Mark Rogers, President and COO, Logicalis Group.  "IBM SoftLayer will provide a new platform on which our architects can design environments that support a range of workloads, and our managed services and cloud service teams can build, host and manage new offerings.  We are delighted to have extended our IBM relationship to include SoftLayer and also to have extended Logicalis' position as a cloud services operator, builder, and now cloud service integrator."

The company expects to roll out its first offerings by the end of the year, initially in North America and Europe, in three of Logicalis' key go-to-market areas:

• Systems Integration - SoftLayer will be leveraged to design specific environments for clients who need to move existing or new IBM-centric workloads onto the SoftLayer platform.
• Managed Services - Logicalis will utilise SoftLayer to host IBM-centric environments wrapped with Logicalis' portfolio of managed services.
• Cloud Services - By integrating its existing IBM-centric cloud platforms onto the SoftLayer platform, Logicalis will be able to expand its capabilities in business-critical areas such as disaster recovery, high availability and cloud bursting.

About SoftLayer 

SoftLayer, an IBM Company, provides cloud infrastructure as a service from a growing number of data centres and network points of presence around the world. Its customers range from Web startups to global enterprises.

Products and services include bare metal and virtual servers, networking, turnkey big data solutions, private cloud solutions, and more. Its unique advantages include the industry's first Network-Within-a-Network topology for true out-of-band access, and an easy-to-use customer portal and robust API for full remote-access of all product and service management options.

SoftLayer was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It was acquired by IBM in July, 2013. For more information, visit http://www.softlayer.com.

About Logicalis 

Logicalis is an international IT solutions and managed services provider with a breadth of knowledge and expertise in communications and collaboration; data centre and cloud services; and managed services.

Logicalis employs over 3,800 people worldwide, including highly trained service specialists who design, specify, deploy and manage complex IT infrastructures to meet the needs of almost 6,000 corporate and public sector customers.  To achieve this, Logicalis maintains strong partnerships with technology leaders such as Cisco, HP, IBM, CA Technologies, NetApp, Microsoft, VMware and ServiceNow.

The Logicalis Group has annualised revenues of $1.6 billion, from operations in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific, and is one of the leading IT and communications solution integrators, specialising in the areas of advanced technologies and services.

The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg and London AIM Stock Exchanges, with revenues of approximately $6 billion.

For more information, visit http://www.logicalis.com.

Contact: Mumtaz Hussain, +44( 0)7765933389