Virtual Office Resource

Dimension Data (News - Alert) has built its own set of managed tools for providing IT services in the cloud. Its focus on providing enterprises with Microsoft communications and collaboration tools such as Exchange, SharePoint, and Skype (News - Alert) for Business has led it into the present where it has acquired Ceryx to accelerate that mission.

Ceryx has, until recently, also worked to provide enterprises with cloud-based communications tools from Microsoft (News - Alert), so its addition to Dimension Data comes as a perfect fit. The Ceryx unified communications services will now exist within the Dimension Data IT-as-a-service unit that will extend the previously mentioned communications software within private and public clouds as well as at a client’s premises.

As Dimension Data Chief Technology Officer Ettienne Reinecke also commented, clients will have the option to mix their deployment methods as they see fit:

“With Ceryx’s technology, Dimension Data can provide clients with a complete managed Microsoft offering delivered via on-premises, private cloud, public cloud, or a hybrid solution,” Reinecke said. “The acquisition expands Dimension Data’s Cloud Services for Microsoft (CSfM), allowing for hybrid deployment between workloads, and accelerates development in this area.”

Together, the companies will be able to offer a virtual office to clients across the globe. The offering of CSfM already exists to give clients access to Exchange, SharePoint, and Skype for Business, and Reinecke indicated that the inclusion of Office 365 will be next. Ceryx’s experience with unified communications could make it easier to extend the reach of this joint effort into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other office tools.

Dimension Data has made a number of partnerships over the years. It showed in 2015 that it was moving forward with its sister company, NTT (News - Alert) DATA, to make migrations to the SAP cloud faster and more cost effective.

Reinecke said finally that the unified communications market could experience some big changes as companies such as Dimension Data progress by moving more applications to the cloud. Beyond office and communications tasks, clients can dig into higher productivity with mobility applications and social media made exclusively for enterprises.