NCR Joins the Cloud Bandwagon

NCR Corporation, a leading technology and solutions provider for the retail and financial services industry, is the newest entrant in the growing cloud computing market.

NCR recently launched their new cloud hosting service, by the name of NCR Hosting Services, which would enables cloud providers’ to gain access to their IT and service support infrastructure. The new services are targeted to telecom carriers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators. However, the service is currently limited to the USA.

NCR have modeled their services in a rather flexible way, allowing the customers to choose from facility-plus-assets service solution or lease rack space for their own equipment in NCR’s data centers. NCR is currently offering services based out of their high-security, temperature-controlled facility at Beltsville, MD.

According to Nadine Routhier, vice president of NCR Telecom and Technology, “With our new hosting services NCR is able to help cloud service providers scale their businesses quickly while minimizing capital expenditure and risk. We are already trusted by some of the biggest brands in the U.S. to deliver a reliable, high-availability and high-security service.”

Gartner has estimated the worldwide cloud computing market to be worth $150.0 billion by 2014.  The nature of cloud-based services, acting sometimes are utility services, and therefore sometimes referred as utility computing as well, are growing in popularity due to the pay as you go model.  Given the width of options available to suit different kind of customers and the low time to market, cloud computing and services based on it, are fast becoming de-facto way of initiating into business.

According to their press release, “NCR’s state-of-the-art, high-security tier 4 hosting center offers redundant hardware, dual Tier one Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and automatic failover, backed by a comprehensive disaster recovery facility to deliver high system availability. “

Given the increasing focus on cloud security, NCR has shown considerable intent there.  They have put in place different audits, reviews and multiple examinations and certifications for their facilities and services.  This includes but is not limited to, “Type II SAS 70 reviews, U.S. Federal Financial Institution Examination Council (FFIEC) governance and examinations, ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certification”.

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