IBM Embraces Cloud Computing, Offers System Validation Services

The new program aims to validate the "resiliency" of any company data center delivering applications or services to clients in the cloud environment, Subrahmonia said. It is designed not only to validate a particular data center to determine its own integrity but also to enable users to identify their own partners and customers as "trustworthy" in IBM's view.

These bundled services—which really aren't new because IBM Global Services has made many of them available for years—are designed for heterogeneous systems, those with various types of hardware and software that are entwined and already working together to process workloads.

IBM said Allscripts, now Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, a provider of software and services for physicians and other health care providers, is the first company to begin the validation process.  The services will enable sensitive patient information and medical documents to be encrypted and easily recovered at a moment's notice.

"Every cloud service provider has the same objective: provide an uninterrupted flow of information for their business," said Philippe Jarre, IBM's general manager of Business Continuity and Resiliency Services. "Since these providers power other businesses, there is a 'network effect' of downtime [and] it's absolutely critical to build to the highest standards of resiliency."

Specifically, the three cloud-related validation services announced Nov. 24 are:

—Industry-Specific Business Consulting Services for Cloud Computing—Uses an economic model for assessing the total cost of ownership for building private clouds or moving data and applications off-site in a public or hybrid cloud model.

—Technology Consulting, Design and Implementation Services—Helps clients install, configure and deliver cloud computing inside the data center.

—Cloud Security—Using IBM systems, software and services and IBM's Research and X-Force arms, this is an effort to redesign technologies and processes to make them more secure and to shield against threats and vulnerabilities in the cloud.