Unitas Global Talks Custom Private Cloud Solutions with TMCnet at ITEXPO

Despite widespread cloud computing adoption—including the fact that 91 percent of IT decision-makers have a positive opinion of cloud computing, according to a 2012 study—the fact still remains that a good number of CIOs express trepidation about the cloud, regardless of its obvious benefits. And chief among those concerns? Security.

That’s where Unitas Global, , comes in. A trusted provider of enterprise private cloud, data center operations management and IT outsourcing solutions, the four-year-old Unitas was founded to help organizations increase efficiency by focusing on their core competencies.

“We founded the company to create a solution that provides all the benefits of cloud computing but in a way that’s familiar, safe, and comfortable,” Unitas CEO Grant Kirkwood (News - Alert) told TMCnet yesterday at ITEXPO. “Our bread and butter is enterprise private cloud.”


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An Infrastructure as a Service provider, the company was created to make IT infrastructure and operations management easy. In just four short years, Unitas has built a global, world-class team of technology professionals and established support operations centers in Brussels, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong and over 100 data centers around the world.

But Unitas’ flagship offering is its Enterprise Private Cloud (EPC), in which each client’s cloud is designed and built on a custom basis, completely vendor and partner agnostic. The offering is specifically orchestrated to quell company concerns about the cloud, namely security. 

“When we explain that private cloud is the same thing you have always done but with some expertise, oversight and dedicated teams, we answer the question of, ‘Is cloud as secure as we are used to?’” Kirkwood explained. “Once our clients understand that it is not some vague, nebulous thing and it’s actually very tangible and custom-designed, that quells the fear.”

“All companies are hearing they have to embrace a cloud initiative, but CIOs are scared because of security,” he added. “When we give them the answer to that, it’s pretty compelling.”

Unitas maintains its competitive edge in the marketplace simply due to the fact that there is no other provider currently out there that is taking the same approach to private cloud. While other providers rely on an out-of-the-box, one-size-fits-all private cloud model, Unitas takes a different approach—customizing solutions and assuming the service provider role.

Though still in its infancy, Unitas has already enjoyed considerable milestones—from signing 14 Fortune 500 companies this year to providing private cloud solutions to the federal government to establishing a presence on all continents except Antarctica.

This week, the company had even more exciting news to celebrate as it was recognized as one of the best places to work in the Los Angeles area by the Los Angeles Business Journal (LABJ), a weekly newspaper which provides award-winning, comprehensive coverage of local business news, and the Best Employers Group. Securing the No. 6 ranking, Unitas joins a list of 100 other winners who were honored at The Best Places to Work awards luncheon, which took place on Wednesday, Aug. 21.

At ITEXPO (News - Alert) West 2013 taking place this week, Unitas will continue to demonstrate its market leadership and subject matter expertise when Kirkwood takes to the panel today, Aug. 27, at 1:45 p.m. for a session titled “Monetizing the Cloud with PaaS.” The session will cover the fact that service providers are increasingly turning to Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings, as a way of differentiation. In fact, Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) contends that PaaS will be the next battleground for service providers, due to the high level of flexibility and ability to reduce costs while developing, testing and deploying new applications.

“The reason we are here and exhibiting is right now 85 percent of business comes from agents and partners that have been traditionally in the telecom space,” Kirkwood said. “They have been selling Internet access to businesses, and those people are trying to figure out how do I take advantage of cloud computing and how do I monetize that.”

“One of the things I will talk about in the panel are the things to listen for and the types of challenges that cloud really inherently solves from an IT agility perspective,” he added.

Be sure to visit Unitas at Booth 124 when the trade show floor opens Wednesday, Aug. 28.