Three communications and technology heavyweights – Atos, EMC and VMware – have formed a strategic alliance in order to offer a full complement of open cloud computing services from a ‘one-stop shop’.

A new company called Canopy is to be formed by the French company Atos, with the other two companies investing into it.

Canopy’s services will include an application store for delivery of software-as-a-service, a Java-based platform-as-a-service geared towards the design and testing of new cloud applications, a standardised cloud stack over a private cloud, and cloud deployment consultancy services. The three companies involved say the services will be set up to allow flexibility in selection of multiple different types of cloud product with a mix of delivery methods.

The services will utilise EMC and VMware technology and will be delivered over Atos’ global data centre networks.
Joe Tucci, chairman and CEO of EMC, said: “Cloud computing is altering forever the way in which IT is designed and consumed across data centres, applications and end user access points. EMC looks forward to working even more closely with Atos, accelerating this shared vision and making the benefits of cloud computing a reality for enterprise customers in key targeted industries.”

The new company will be headquartered in Europe and, as principal shareholder, Atos will appoint the CEO. With shareholder backing, the new company will launch in Q2 2012.