February 10th, 2009
IBM, Juniper make global cloud computing push
IBM continued its major push into cloud computing with announcements today that ranged from the launch of global “overflow clouds” to a testing ground for cloud apps - all part of a Blue Cloud Initiative for businesses. (Statement)
Back in November, the company unveiled a series of cloud computing services, including business consulting to determine return on investment, design and implementation and security architecture - a move that served as an indicator that IBM was looking to meet the needs of corporations toying with the idea of cloud strategies.
Now, it’s stepping up its game by making expanding those efforts, including the appointment of a cloud computing czar in Erich Clementi, whose official title is General Manager for Enterprise Initiatives. In a statement, Clementi said:
Enterprise clients need economically compelling solutions that help them run their businesses in smarter ways, while never taking their eyes off of security, resiliency and compliance. Cloud computing leverages many of IBM’s core strengths — such as open standards, service management, scalable systems and excellence in data center operations – and gives clients the opportunity to leverage cloud computing’s considerable cost advantages, while maintaining the highest levels of integrity, responsibility and control.
At a press event at the company’s Silicon Valley Cloud Center, executives from IBM and Juniper Networks demonstrated technologies that create a hybrid cloud environment between private clouds and remote servers in a secure public cloud across IBM’s 13 worldwide cloud labs.
Managed via a fairly simple UI, companies can improve performance and better utilize resources by giving high-priority apps a preference over lower-priority ones when the resources become constrained. For example, when a start-up launches a Facebook app and the traffic quickly becomes overwhelming, the company has the ability to shift some apps to another data center to scale for the demand and maintain the performance.
The company also announced the IBM Design and Implementation for Cloud Test Environments, which allows its customers to build a cloud platform within their own IT environments to safely test new applications - improving service while saving on the costs of creating their own test environments.
For Juniper, a second-place competitor to Cisco Systems, the partnership with IBM could help the Silicon Valley network equipment maker to gain some ground in the cloud computing space. The economic landscape has changed dramatically in the not-quite-six-months since new CEO Kevin Johnson took over. What Johnson inherited was a company that had a strong outlook with solid demand from enterprises and services providers across all industries, including financial services.
Of course, since then, the economy has gone into a tailspin. While Juniper continues to see growth, the earnings have gone flat and analysts predicted a rough ride through the economy for the company. Juniper had already suspended growth initiatives, frozen raises and still could be looking at a workforce reduction this year. Partnering with a titan like IBM in an area that’s just starting to gain some interest could be just what the economic doctor ordered.
Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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