Guest Blog Post by Stephen Nola,Group Executive, IT-as-a-Service, Dimension Data

At Dimension Data we are all about accelerating ambition and this includes enabling Cisco's ambition to build the world's largest global Intercloud, a network of clouds to address customer requirements for a globally distributed, highly secure cloud platform. Dimension Data is partnering with Cisco to provide our cloud technology in Cisco-branded managed service offerings and the public cloud -a core component of the enterprise hybrid IT solution.

As cloud adoption is maturing, companies are taking a more holistic approach to incorporating cloud into the modern IT landscape. This transformation is increasingly application centric which means that organisations will be sourcing multiple delivery models that are best aligned to applications that are fit for cloud, born for the cloud, and not for the cloud, ever.

The formula for hybrid IT will include public and private cloud, managed hosting and managed services on and off premises. Cisco realizes that Dimension Data's highly connected and integrated solutions leverage new and flexible consumption models for enterprises all over the world. In fact, Dimension Data offers our Managed Cloud Platform on five continents with datacenters strategically located to address regulatory compliance and data sovereignty for multi-national companies.

Dimension Data has been accelerating adoption of Cisco technology for over 23 years. Inclusion in the Intercloud ecosystem is good for our clients and will enable greater reach for Dimension Data's Cloud.  As Cisco Intercloud subscribers, enterprises around the world will leverage Dimension Data's global network of inter-connected cloud datacenters as a core component of their hybrid cloud strategy. Dimension Data is proud of our Cisco heritage and our strategic partnership that will take our companies and our clients into the future.

Stephen Nola, Group Executive -ITaaS
Steve was appointed Group Executive -ItaaS in 2013. Since he joined Dimension Data in 1989, Steve has held a number of key roles in the Group. In 2011, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer, Cloud Business Unit.  Prior to this, Steve was Chief Executive Officer of Dimension Data Australia from 2001.  Before being appointed Chief Executive Officer for the Australia region,  Steve was Chief Executive Officer for Dimension Data Integration, and Joint Managing Director of Dimension Data Australia. Before joining Dimension Data Australia (formerly known as Com Tech Communications) Steve worked for Telstra from 1987 to 1989. Steve is a member of the advisory board at RMIT for the Bachelor of Information Technology course and a member of the Starlight Foundation Victoria Board. He holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Honours) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), majoring in robotics.