Dell to launch a European public cloud service this summer

Dell is set to launch its vCloud-based public cloud service across Europe and is planning to open a modular data centre in Slough next month as the first stage in the European launch.

The company is planning a full launch of the service on 31 August, and, as well as Dell vCloud Datacenter Service, will be offering additional services, such as security services from SecureWorks and data encryption from Trend Micro. According to Dell's vice president cloud solutions, Ricky Santos, the new data centre will be of modular design, providing a highly-integrated, multi-tenanted cloud offering.

Santos said that Europe presented a new challenge to the company as it looked to get to grips with the different privacy structure within the EU. “We're working very closely with the European commission ensuring that what we're doing is relevant to the privacy directive. But,” he added, “because we've worked extensively in the healthcare sector, where there's a huge emphasis on data privacy, it will make it easier to meet those concerns within our cloud offerings.”

He said that Dell's heritage could help in the ways too.“When Michael Dell set up the company,” he said, “ there was a strong emphasis on making a variety of options available to customers. That's not all that different from our approach to the cloud where we're going to be offering a selection of choices.”

Santos admitted that Dell was facing a challenge as cloud services would eat into its existing product lines but said that the company was committed to supporting its customers. “We know that we might end up cannibalising some of our existing products but the goal is to supply value for our customers.”

Dell  is launching its cloud service in Canada at a special trial price but European pricing has yet to be announced.