A new infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) networks has been launched by virtual data center specialist Claranet in Eindhoven, Holland. Claranet claimed it now has one of the widest such service in Europe and can go after major multi national customers who are not being catered for.

The service lets users build their own data centre in the cloud and provision computing, storage and networking resources. The Claranet Virtual Data Centre (VDC) promises flexible burst capability for periods of unexpectedly high demand.

The Dutch service, which went live on October 31, follows previous launches in France and Germany, adding to UK VDC that Clarenet launched in December 2011.

The service’s MPLS network has a software orchestration layer that makes it work with any hypervisor, claimed Claranet. A portal-based drag-and-drop interface will make provisioning of the data center services user friendly, it claimed. The Dutch IaaS virtual data center will be based within the local Eindhoven data centre.

“Claranet’s Dutch customers have been looking forward to their own local version of VDC ever since the UK version launched,” said Ruud Joosten, MD of Claranet Benelux. Several of the Dutch customers had been using the UK version of VDC since it launched late last year, he said. Claranet will now migrate them across its MPLS network and re-create their data, applications and virtual resources, he said. “Dutch businesses want their data to reside in the same country where they have their headquarters,” said Joosten.

Claranet said its research indicated that the biggest worries that customers have about migration to cloud services are data sovereignty, reliability and the ease of migration.

The expanded European footprint means Claranet Group can target bigger, multi-national corporations who need an integrated network, hypervisor agnosticism and in-country data centers, he said. “We know of no other providers that can boast a comparable service across so many territories in Europe,” continued Joosten.