IBM Cloud Computing

IBM [IaaS], [SaaS] Smart Analytics, and Lotus Live [SaaS]

The planet will be instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent. We can do it.
--IBM Marketing

IBM approaches cloud computing "from the inside out". They are the premier company to help build an organization’s private cloud, or leverage any of the many IT services that are today provided by IBM through cloud computing, like Capacity on Demand, or the IBM Information Protection Services.

IBM marketing also notes, "Cloud will enable companies that don’t have large IT requirements to gain access to the greater efficiencies and service quality of world class outsourced IT operations, providing them with better quality IT services and lower cost."

This seems to favor a public cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) approach for SMBs. IBM appears to be focusing on converting large enterprises to private cloud offerings.

IBM suggests clients start by trying out their internal cloud offerings. Through more than a dozen Blue Cloud Computing Centers worldwide, IBM provides cloud service labs designed to assist organizations in proving a cloud experience for their constituents.

IBM Research has studied the cost-savings of private test clouds. The team analyzed comparable application testing services; one that used a private test cloud such as IBM Smart Business Test Cloud against the current application testing IT environment, using the same level of IT support for both environments. They discovered:

• Hardware savings of 65% through reduced infrastructure and improved hardware utilization.
• Software savings of 27% from lower license costs from improved utilization.
• System administration savings of 45% from reduced system administration and operation costs.
• Provisioning savings of 76% from labor savings in service request management.

It is interesting to note that IBM does not include public cloud test environments in their comparison.

In summary, we think IBM's strategy of providing private clouds to large enterprises is a good business move. It fits well with their history and client-base.

IBM also provides Smart Analytics, a private cloud offering for business intelligence and Lotus Live email/calendaring solution for $36/user/year as a service to compete with Google Business Gmail at $50/user/year.