Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) has launched a Cloud Operating System Network (COSN) with Microsoft in the Asia Pacific. It is claimed that the solution makes it possible for enterprise customers to move their data and workload more easily between the public cloud, dedicated private cloud and SingTel’s own virtual private cloud.

SingTel offers its own suite of cloud-centric services through the SingTel Managed Cloud, which is a hybrid cloud platform that allows businesses to procure and deploy IT resources on a private cloud. This is offered through SingTel's data centers in Singapore and Australia to serve the Asia Pacific region.

COSN essentially promises enterprises the flexibility to run Microsoft applications on the SingTel cloud infrastructure.

“This collaboration benefits enterprises which use widely available Microsoft applications as they can now be assured of seamless interoperability between their Microsoft-based private clouds and SingTel Managed Cloud,” said Lee Han Kheng, vice president, global products at SingTel Group Enterprise.

“They can move their workload to any cloud which best meets their price, security, compliance and performance objectives,” he said.

At a media briefing, Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise Group explained that enterprise customers are more likely to adopt cloud solutions if they are offered through a trusted provider. Microsoft is therefore leveraging the existing relationships that enterprises have with SingTel to encourage the deployment of Azure.

Cloud competition in the region is intensifying and data center operators and network providers are responding by forming partnerships, or offering new, regional offerings.

In October 1-Net announced a partnership with Cyber CSF in Indonesia and TCC Technology (TCCT) in Thailand that will see them offering access to each others’ portfolio of services to local customers.

For its part, KVH in May unrceiled a data center bursting service that is capable of delivering bandwidth from 100Mbps to 10Gbps across its pre-wired eco-system of facilities, with a 100Gbps offering expected to become available in Q1, 2015.