Blue Cloud?
>http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071115/tc_nm/
ibm_cloud_dc_3;_ylt=AgFJHOwzBc3cj5DdxfAfDF4E1vAI<
Watch the wrap.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - IBM (IBM.N) is staking out a major new
source of business helping clients like banks or retailers manage
data centers on a par with Internet players such as Google or
Microsoft, a top official said on Wednesday.
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Bill Zeitler, the executive in charge of IBM's hardware business,
said the initiative to set up customers with the technology, software
and services to operate data centers could rank in significance with
IBM's support for Linux in recent years or its push to get businesses
on the Internet the 1990s.
IBM has dubbed its new strategy "Blue Cloud."
The name is a play on IBM's corporate nickname "Big Blue" and "cloud
computing," the trend by Internet powerhouses to array huge numbers
of computers in centralized data centers to deliver Web-based
applications to users, rather than making their customers run such
programs on their local machines.
IBM, which pioneered centralized data centers decades ago, is looking
to arm its customers with technology similar to what it has long
offered in the form of hosted services for clients who rely on IBM to
operate their data centers for them.
It now wants to help customers build data centers for themselves
composed of thousands of low-cost personal computers, equipping them
with the data-crunching power of consumer Internet giants Google Inc
(GOOG.O), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) and Amazon.com
Inc (AMZN.O).
"I think Google and Amazon are on to something," Zeitler said. "Our
particular focus is taking these standards of Internet computing and
bringing them to the mainstream in the commercial world."
BIG BUSINESS, BUT HOW BIG?
Zeitler declined to say how much revenue its cloud computing strategy
might produce, saying IBM was still sizing up prospects. "We think
this is a big move in the market and we are going to make a big move
behind it," said Zeitler, a 38-year IBM veteran whose full title is
senior vice president and group executive of IBM's Systems and
Technology Group.
In its initial phase, IBM plans to make 200 IBM researchers available
to work with clients, which may include both businesses large and
small, university research centers as well as government agencies.
The first products of the program are set to be available in spring
of 2008, IBM said.
One initial customer of IBM's Blue Cloud strategy will be the
government of Vietnam, and it is working with a non-US automaker, the
Armonk, New York-based computer company said.
IBM plans to unveil plans for Blue Cloud at an event in Shanghai on
Thursday, where it said it will demonstrate a cloud computing system
running on IBM's BladeCenter brand servers and low-cost Intel-class
microprocessors. It said it also intends to offer a mainframe-class
cloud computer system next year.
HOW CLOUD COMPUTERS WORK
The basic idea is to make corporate data centers operate more like
the Internet by enabling computing to be spread across a large,
distributed pool of computers, rather than on local machines or
remote server farms.
This lets organizations switch to resources to where they are be
needed, virtually gaining access to computers and storage on demand.
The older approach of running individual applications on separate
servers means as little as 10 percent of a stand-alone computer's
capacity is used.
While big Internet players run networks that tie together hundreds of
thousands of computers, large commercial customers may operate tens
of thousands of servers, Zeitler estimated.
As part of the strategy, IBM will offer services and products that
allow customers to implement "cloud computing" strategies of their
own, rather than forcing them to rent space in other data centers and
risk exposing business secrets. Companies are struggling to pack more
computers into cramped data centers while coping with surging
electricity demand.
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