Alcatel touts channel opportunities as Rainbow platform comes to Australia

Karl Sice (ALE)

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) is to relocate its Rainbow communications platform to Australia in an effort to help partners in the Trans-Tasman region overcome data sovereignty issues.

The communications and infrastructure vendor previously housed the cloud-based video and communications platform in Singaporean and European data centres.

However, the French-American company will now operate Rainbow from its on-premises infrastructure at its Sydney base, plus an Australian third-party colocation centre.

As part of the move, ALE has also relocated cloud leader David Pryke from Singapore to Sydney, where he will eventually form a new team around Rainbow. 

Using OVH as its backbone, the Rainbow platform provides video conferencing of up to 120 participants.

“I am pleased to share that we now have a local instance of the cloud, hosted in a data centre in Sydney, Australia. In addition to the benefits from Rainbow’s enhancements, our local Australia and New Zealand customers will enjoy a superior data security and user experience,” said Karl Sice, country business leader of ALE Australia and New Zealand.

Speaking to ARN, Sice added that having a local data centre is a “must have” for both Australia and New Zealand partners, especially those working with customers with strict data sovereignty rules, like those in government and healthcare.

According to Sice, a go-to-market package will now be available for the A/NZ channel following investment from ALE global, which includes market development and training. 

The relocation coincides with a number of upgrades made to Rainbow, including a streamlined design and user experience, plus more bespoke options.