VMB will resell Savvis’ VPDC offering, which allows users to access scalable yet dedicated hosted IT infrastructure, to a broader market of small and medium-sized businesses and local government authorities.

"We operate our own data centres, so we could have built our own cloud infrastructure," Matt McCloskey, VMB’s head of applications and services, told Information Age today. "But we decided that we don’t need to provide the entire value chain, and instead chose to partner with Savvis."

Customers will receive three separate service level agreements with VMB, covering the infrastructure, the platform and the network connection. VMB will provide the first line of support, with Savvis providing second-line support from its UK-based support centres.

There has been some technical integration between the two companies, in that VMB has installed some new fibre connectivity into Savvis’ data centre. This allows VMD to offer "assurity" on the availability of the service and security of customer data, McCloskey claimed.

When asked why customers would chose to purchase the VPDC service through VMB, rather than directly from Savvis, Ovum analyst David Molony said the principal difference was a matter of sales culture. "Savvis’ customers are typically multi-national corporations," he said. "If you are a small business, Savvis probably isn’t going to talk to you directly."

Earlier this year, Savvis was acquired by US telco CenturyLink. McCloskey says that VMB has been assured that the company has no plans to launch in the UK.

The fact that Savvis is a US-owned has no consequences for data protection, said Savvis’ EMEA managing director Neil Cresswell. "We have government and business customers here who are governed by the EU, and the fact the we are owned by a US corporation is no impediment to them."