IBM and AT&T announced a cloud-based service for companies that cannot or do not want their data to be exposed to the public Internet.

The two giants’ cloud service uses private networks to connect IBM’s data centers to customer sites. Customers can combine in-house private clouds with the infrastructure at IBM facilities, creating hybrid-cloud environments.

IBM brings its SmartCloud Enterprise+ technology to the offering, while AT&T’s contribution is its virtual private networking technology and its global network infrastructure.

SmartCloud Enterprise+ is IBM’s Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform optimized for mission-critical enterprise workloads. The infrastructure supporting it is managed by IBM and hosted in IBM data centers.

Andy Geisse, CEO of business solutions at AT&T, said the new service married AT&T’s network speed and security with IBM’s enterprise-cloud chops. “This new service gives companies yet another way to innovate, create new value, and transform their businesses and industries,” he said.

AT&T’s virtual private network technology enables automatic allocation of networking resources to computing resources. This enables quick scaling of both in tandem based on need.