IBM and AT&T have entered a partnership to offer an enterprise class, private cloud service that includes IBM’s SmartCloud platform and AT&T's network backbone.

The service, to be rolled out in early 2013, would let large businesses use secure, private networks to protect applications as they are moved from on-premise data centers to off-premise cloud hosting sites, the companies said.

[Related: 7 Ways The Cloud Is Changing The Data Center]

The emphasis in their partnership on security is notable because protection of data resources in the cloud remains a significant issue for businesses considering cloud adoption.

Customers would use IBM’s SmartCloud Enterprise+ along with AT&T’s virtual private network in a secure, private cloud.

Enterprise data will be migrated from on-premise data centers to IBM's cloud data centers with security protection from AT&T’s virtual private network.

If security issues are resolved, the enterprise will move toward expanding their presence in the cloud, IBM said.

"As more organizations realize that cloud can be secure, easily managed, and a key part of their business strategy, cloud will quickly evolve as a tool for innovation rather than just for infrastructure," Erich Clementi, senior vice president of IBM Global Technology Services, said in a statement.

Users of the service will have access to a range of IBM’s managed services and be able to perform operations run in both private and public clouds.

With SmartCloud, IBM is aiming to attract its existing large ecosystem of customers and partners as well as new customers to its cloud model as it jockeys for cloud market share with Microsoft, Amazon, Hewlett-Packard and others.

PUBLISHED OCT. 12, 2012