Aug 19, 2014

Telstra unveils next-gen cloud collaboration service

Australia – Telstra has launched its global cloud-based unified communications service, enabling businesses to communicate and collaborate in real-time regardless of their location around the world.

Nathan Bell, director of marketing, portfolio and pricing, Telstra Global Enterprise and Services, says the global solution, launched in Australia last year in partnership with Cisco, is now available across four continents in 25 countries, consistently delivered over the company’s worldwide network extending to more than 2,000 Points of Presence (PoP).

“Our new global service is a significant development in global collaboration capabilities and has been designed specifically for today’s dynamic workplace where employees use the web, video and voice to drive innovation and improve productivity,” says Bell.  
 
“With Telstra Cloud Collaboration, businesses can roll-out extensive collaboration and communications tools to staff throughout the world, scale user profiles and functionality up and down depending on business requirements and ensure employees working remotely have identical resources to those working in the office – all while minimising traditionally significant upfront investment models.”
  
Bell says the service would be delivered via Telstra’s cloud infrastructure, which now extends to seven locations throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

“Telstra Cloud Collaboration allows global customers to focus on their core business priorities whilst benefiting from a services model managed by Telstra, without the need for on-premise systems. 
 
“It is also a globally consistent platform ensuring that standardisation and collaboration are made that much easier for customers seeking to empower their teams, regardless of the location of their offices or data,” he says. 

“Cisco is excited to offer Telstra tools and capabilities for delivering rich collaboration experiences,” says Thomas Wyatt, vice-president & general manager of Cisco’s Collaboration Infrastructure Technology Group. 

“Telstra is one of Cisco’s key global partners and we are happy to join Telstra in offering one of the most comprehensive portfolios of cloud-based services in the world to be delivered on a Cisco Unified Computing platform,” he says. 
 
Telstra’s service will be available from the end of August to customers on a monthly, ‘per worker’ basis. Worker types are unique to Telstra and have been specifically designed to meet the different needs of employees, categorising them as ‘essential’, ‘office’, ‘information’ or ‘mobile’ workers, making deployments simple and easily scalable.