IBM and AT&T announced a joint effort to extend AT&T NetBond services to the SoftLayer platform to offer customers a combined security and performance solution. This alliance is intended to help enable businesses to create hybrid-computing solutions. AT&T Virtual Private Network (VPN) customers can use AT&T NetBond to connect their IT infrastructure to SoftLayer’s cloud services. The service is being pitched as a more secure alternative to relying on public Internet access.
“AT&T NetBond gives customers a broader range of options as they explore how to best leverage a hybrid cloud,” said Jim Comfort, general manager of IBM Cloud Services. “Customers can easily move workloads to and from SoftLayer as if it were part of their local area network. This added flexibility helps optimize workload performance while allowing customers to scale IT resources in a way that makes sense.”
AT&T NetBond is engineered to combine the security of AT&T virtual private networking with cloud resources. The service also dynamically allocates VPN bandwidth, enabling customers to use as much or as little as they need.
The service works with existing AT&T VPN through APIs, creating an automated experience. Customers don’t need to order or manage any other equipment or access lines. NetBond also features network elasticity that automatically flexes with the needs of the cloud service.
IBM and AT&T expect these capabilities to be available in first quarter of 2015.
For more information SoftLayer, visit www.softlayer.com/info/att-netbond.