Deutsche Telekom's T-Systems serves up a free trial of VMware's private cloud service

T-Systems, the IT and digital services division of Deutsche Telekom, is letting customers kick the tires on private cloud usage via a free trial.

The free trial, which uses VMware's cloud-based service, is slated to start Dec. 1 with a maximum length of six weeks. At next week's Digital X conference, T-Systems will be launching its "Multi & Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure and Management Framework," which it said was well-suited for large corporations and small-to-medium-sized enterprises. At Digital X, which takes place next Monday and Tuesday in Cologne, Germany, companies can sign up for the free trial.

The trial with VMware will allow customers to flexibly use private cloud capacity from a T-Systems data center that will have the same look and feel as public cloud services. T-Systems said similar services for Microsoft Azure Stack and OpenStack will be forthcoming based on the same model.

"We offer companies the security and quality of the private cloud combined with the flexibility and speed of innovation of the public cloud," said Thomas Gierich of T-Systems, in a statement. "This gives companies the infrastructure they need for sector-specific requirements without forsaking the agility of the cloud. What’s more: With the Multi & Hybrid Cloud Management customers can manage and control all their cloud services whether public or private, and obtain full transparency."

T-Systems said that its Multi & Hybrid Cloud Management service could reduce platform costs by up to 25%. As a further enticement, T-Systems will be offering operational support to customers who are taking advantage of the free trial.

RELATED: Deutsche Telekom takes back some of T-Systems' operations as part of re-org

In September, Deutsche Telecom announced it was taking back responsibility for corporate telecom clients as part of a restructuring plan for T-Systems. Frankfurt, Germany-based T-Systems was founded in 2000 as a subsidiary of Deutsche Telecom.