Data#3 and CenturyLink strike cloud services deal

Laurence Baynham - CEO and managing director, Data#3

Data#3 (ASX:DTL) has signed a partner agreement with CenturyLink, with the local integrator now offering the US-headquartered telecommunications and IT services provider’s infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) via its managed services portfolio.

The partnership, which comes as an addition to the existing cloud solutions and partnerships Data#3 already claims, is expected to see the company provide its customers with a new range of complementary enterprise-grade cloud offerings.

“We will continue to work with our existing cloud partners, and we see this new relationship as a great way to expand our customer solutions," Data#3 CEO and managing director, Laurence Baynham, said.

“The new offering aligns seamlessly with our corporate strategy, which focuses on providing innovative cloud-based solutions and services to our customers.

“We look forward to working with the CenturyLink team in delivering outcomes to customers through the use of hybrid cloud solutions."

For CenturyLink which, in its home country, is known for its hosting, telecommunications and data services, the deal presents “great synergy” between the companies.

“CenturyLink is delighted to be partnering with Data#3, a highly respected leader in the Australian IT services market. CenturyLink regional director in Australia and New Zealand, Stuart Mills, said.

The new offering is available now, with Data#3 customers able to access the CenturyLink IaaS offering directly via the integrator or as part of the company’s managed services.

The new agreement comes nearly a year after CenturyLink revealed it had signed five new partners, rounding up to a total number of 11 partners that were able offer the global vendor's cloud platform to Australian enterprises.

The new relationships, which were with AstronTech, DigiCor, Olympus, Oper8 and Regal IT, came off the back of the agreement that made Avnet (now Tech Data) CenturyLink’s first in-market distribution partner in the local market, along with the launch of its cloud node in Sydney.

“We are quite unique in the cloud market in this country in having a 100 per cent channel strategy for cloud and that really sets us apart,” Mills said at the time.

“We are the only VMware-based public cloud in Australia that has global reach, and we could come here and throw the weight around as a big direct vendor, but we decided to do quite the opposite of that and actually work with the Australian IT community, rather than compete with them,” he said.

Mills said at the time that the vendor had another five partners “in the wing” which it expects to have on board by the end of March 2017.