At events around the world, IBM (NYSE: IBM) will reveal a series of new products, services, clients and partnerships for its Blue Cloud initiative – through which IBM is collaborating to develop and test integrated cloud solutions for businesses.
- Elizabeth Arden, Nexxera, The United States Golf Association, and Indigo Bio Systems sign on as new IBM cloud computing clients; TOTVS expands cloud project with IBM
- Global Services to offer data protection software “as a service” through the cloud, in addition to a new IBM cloud environment for businesses to safely test applications
- New IBM software manages and secures cloud computing environments
- IBM showcases the first live demonstration of a global “overflow cloud” – IBM and Juniper Networks to install hybrid cloud capabilities across IBM’s worldwide Cloud Labs for customer engagements
Read more about five new clients using its cloud computing technologies and services here:
Built from extensive experience working with hundreds of clients in its 13 worldwide cloud centers, IBM today has a cross-company portfolio of cloud computing offerings for business, such as server capacity on demand, online data protection, and Lotus e-mail and collaboration software. Analyst firm IDC predicts that cloud computing services will represent a $42 billion market by 2012;[1]
Due to decades of technology acquisitions to fuel growing businesses, enterprises are now facing a breaking point with their IT systems. Some systems can’t share information and workloads, servers are highly underutilised and the cost of energy is becoming greater than the value of the systems the energy powers. In some cases, nearly 70 percent of companies’ IT budgets can be devoted to managing, maintaining, securing and upgrading systems rather than building new capabilities, services and applications. Cloud computing changes these economics dramatically.
An emerging compute model for delivering IT-related capabilities as a service, cloud computing promises dramatically better ease of use, economies of scale and much greater flexibility in sourcing and adapting to change. The technologies comprising cloud computing – virtualisation, SOA, Software as a Service, request-driven provisioning – are technologies that IBM invented or is well-known for excelling in today. IBM helps its clients and partners realise these goals in three principle ways:
- IBM helps clients build their own cloud environments for internal and external use
- IBM delivers cloud services and software to be consumed by clients and partners directly
- IBM builds an ecosystem of developers, partners, vendors and universities to further cloud computing and standards adoption
With today’s announcements, IBM has the most complete set of hardware, software and services for enterprise clients to harness cloud computing for cost and efficiency benefits – while keeping their businesses secure, resilient and performing at optimal levels.
Further information is available on all the products and services announced today. Please contact IBM Communications for more information of visit www.ibm.com/ie/emerging_business_centre/cloud.html
[1] IDC, IDC Finds Cloud Computing Entering Period of Accelerating Adoption and Poised to Capture IT Spending Growth Over the Next Five Years, Doc # prUS21480708, October 2008.