Company Announcement - BT today announced that it will provide its corporate customers with the ability to connect directly to Salesforce through BT Cloud Connect, BT’s high-performance connectivity to cloud services. The agreement marks an important milestone in the delivery of BT’s ‘Cloud of Clouds’ vision. Establishing a managed connection to Salesforce’s industry-leading Customer Success Platform enables BT customers to benefit from the highly predictable performance and reliability that come with dedicated connectivity.

Direct and reliable access to data and applications hosted in cloud environments, such as the Salesforce Customer Success Platform, has become a critical need for many organisations. As large corporations move more of their applications to the cloud they are increasingly looking for connectivity options that reduce risk and come with assured performance. BT’s ‘Cloud of Clouds’ vision is based on a new generation of cloud services that allow large organisations around the world to connect easily and securely to the applications and the data they need, independently of where they are hosted. BT’s global network is connected to more than 200 data centres, including 48 BT-owned and operated data centres. Keith Langridge, vice president, network services at BT Global Services, said: “Organisations look to the cloud to help them manage and access the vast amounts of valuable data they hold, including the crucial customer data at the core of their business. Our vision for a ‘Cloud of Clouds’ makes it easier for organisations to embrace the cloud by providing direct, secure and high performance connectivity to the applications hosted in the cloud. Salesforce is an organisation born of the cloud – a true pioneer of the technology – so this is an important milestone in the delivery of our vision.” 

Andrew Lawson, managing director of Salesforce in the United Kingdom and Ireland, said: “Companies are transforming the way they connect with customers, partners and employees to thrive in today’s connected world. BT is accelerating this shift for its customers with the addition of Salesforce to its ‘Cloud of Clouds’ vision.” The service will be rolled out incrementally from February 2016, first in the United States and Europe, and globally thereafter.