(8 November 2012): It’s apparent to many of us that cloud computing, the Internet and the transition from legacy technologies to IP-driven technologies continue to disrupt the old ways of doing business that telcos have enjoyed for the past six decades.

Next generation telecommunications firms must adapt to this new reality. While the pace of change can be uncomfortable, the opportunities are enormous for a trusted provider of mission critical services.

The “consumerization of IT” means that whatever happens in the world of Apple and Android very quickly impacts the CIOs of large multinational corporations who must allow their employees to use the latest tools and services but also maintain delicate system integrity. In the world of Facebook, Twitter and Salesforce.com, everything is delivered as a service via the Internet. All these new services must be delivered to mobile devices users who are the fastest growing consumers of data and also demand lightning fast response times from services and remote applications.

That’s where Instant Servers comes in…

Earlier this week, we rolled out Instant Servers, Telefónica Digital’s new cloud computing service. We’ve been running a cloud node in Madrid for a few months now but we just lit up a London node and are looking at bigger expansion plans in Europe and Latin America in the near future.

As our partner, we chose Joyent, a cloud computing systems and software company that happens to also run one of the world’s largest public clouds. (Telefónica is also an investor in Joyent). First, we hope you’ll sign up and give us a try or recommend us inside your organization.

Now, what are we doing in the cloud?

In a word or three – moving really fast. The idea of launching a Joyent-powered cloud was hatched less than a year ago. We had our first node up and running within eight months. A year in we have our second node up and we’re already deep in the sales cycle, talking to companies large and small and accepting our first batch of paying customers in London. For an $84 billion global communications giant, this type of speed is unusual (Note: That’s part of why I joined Telefónica). But it is necessary.

Putting mission critical services in the cloud requires the nimble feet of a startup and the experience of a trusted company that has logged decades running the most critical tasks for governments and large enterprises.

We aim to do this using cutting-edge technologies like the systems that Joyent has built, which combine the rock-solid security of Unix with the flexibility of a multi-tenant cloud native operating system and management environment.

The key for us, too, is that this technology allows Instant Servers to run significantly faster than other public clouds. This is particularly true for mobile apps or applications that require both high and dynamic throughput to accommodate lots of data and big spikes in usage.

But don’t take our word for it. Take Instant Servers for a spin. Tell us what you think. Contact me (@alexsalkever or alex.salkever@telefonica.com) or others on the Instant Servers product team with any feedback. And stay tuned for more posts on our newest cloud and our plans going forward.