BT Teams With Rackspace, VMware

Global service provider BT is on a roll this week.

First, the U.K.-based company, which is building out its managed cloud services portfolio, said it has teamed with Rackspace. The efforts target multinational enterprises.

BT will deploy its hybrid cloud services by using Rackspace’s platforms within its data centers. This will give customers access to Rackspace’s cloud management tools — complete with automation, analytics and artificial intelligence — while combining them with BT’s network and security capabilities, BT said.

Rackspace CEO Kevin Jones agreed.

“BT customers will now have access to the best of public cloud, private cloud and traditional hosted environments alongside the speed, security and resilience of BT’s worldwide networks,” he said.

Meanwhile, BT also is partnering with multicloud provider VMware. Together they’ll deliver secure access service edge (SASE) for a cloud-first approach to networking, security and edge computing. That will allow end users to access their public and private cloud applications from where they are located. BT said this will support more trends including the adoption of IoT and hybrid work.

BT will fully manage and support the service on behalf of its customers. Initial features include URL filtering; cloud access security broker safeguards; and content filtering and inspection.

The vendor already offers a similar capability based on VMware’s SD-WAN.

“SASE has emerged as the blueprint for modern networking and security, and we are pleased BT has selected VMware SASE to simplify their customers‘ multicloud journey,” Craig Connors, vice president and general manager for VMware’s SASE business, said.