SOURCE: IBM
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March 19, 2008 00:01 ET
Made in IBM Labs: IBM Announces European Cloud Computing Hub in Dublin
Unveils New Cloud Computing Service for Generating New Business Ideas via Social Networking
DUBLIN, IRELAND and ARMONK, NY--(Marketwire - March 19, 2008) - Today IBM (NYSE: IBM) and
the Industrial Development Agency of Ireland (IDA Ireland) announced the
establishment of Europe's first Cloud Computing Center. Located in Dublin,
the new facility will serve as a hub that will deliver Cloud Computing
research and services to a number of satellite facilities to be built in
Europe, Middle East and Africa. IBM experts from these centers will work
directly with clients in the region, helping them adopt cloud computing
solutions that spur technology research and business development.
One of the Dublin center's first offerings for clients, called IBM Idea
Factory for Cloud Computing, is a new service delivered directly to clients
over a cloud computing environment. Using Web 2.0 technology, it allows
communities of business professionals to be assembled into social networks
to facilitate the development of new business ideas. IBM Idea Factory for
Cloud Computing captures business processes -- from their beginnings as
ideas to commercialization -- speeding up brainstorming among employees,
partners, software developers and other third party participants.
"The selection of Ireland as the location for IBM's European hub for Cloud
Computing highlights Ireland's role as an important contributor to IBM's
global research, development and innovation strategy," said Micheál Martin
TD, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for the Irish government.
"The investment further establishes IBM Ireland's growing reputation as a
high performance computing centre within IBM Corporation. IDA Ireland and
IBM have a proactive long-standing relationship in advancing the Irish
business and the implementation of strategic high value knowledge-based
research and development investments."
"Our investments in cloud computing are a prime example of how IBM is
seeking out emerging global market opportunities and new computing models
that benefit IBM clients," said Steve Mills, Senior Vice President and
Group Executive, IBM Software Group. "Through this new facility and the
cloud computing model, the wealth of talent at IBM's software lab in
Ireland will be accessible to not only the rest of Europe, but Africa and
the Middle East as well."
Cloud computing is an information technology (IT) infrastructure in which
dynamically shared computing resources are virtualized and accessed as a
service. Cloud computing replaces the traditional data center model in
which companies own and manage their own stand alone hardware and software
systems. Cloud computing is an attractive proposition for small to
large-sized companies. It also is a green technology model that reduces
energy consumption by improving IT resource utilization, therefore
requiring fewer servers to handle equivalent workloads.
The need for cloud computing is fueled by the dramatic growth in business
collaboration, connected devices, real-time data streams, and Web 2.0
applications such as streaming media and entertainment, social networking
and mobile commerce.
The first client of the center at Dublin will be the Sogeti Group, a
specialist provider of Local Professional IT Services. Sogeti plans to use
the IBM Idea Factory for Cloud Computing, providing its employees around
the world with the technology to collectively brainstorm online and
generate new ideas about building the "Sogeti of the Future."
"Innovation is at the heart of every successful company," said Michiel
Boreel, CTO of Sogeti. "By utilizing IBM Cloud Computing Center resources,
we expect to generate a wealth of real-world solutions for accelerating
Sogeti's international growth and delivering step-change for our clients.
Another positive benefit is increased interaction and collaboration between
our consultants around the world, as well as hands-on experience with this
leading-edge computing power."
"Responding to demand in the market, we are moving fast to build an
integrated cloud computing operation. We are adding Europe's first Cloud
Computing Center at Dublin and more facilities into a network of existing
centers in China, Vietnam and the U.S. The centers can bring skills and
expertise to serve our clients in building their own new enterprise data
centers," said Dr. Willy Chiu, Vice President of High Performance On Demand
Solutions, IBM Software Group. With such a network of centers, Dr. Chiu
pointed out, "We will also address the need for open interoperability
standards."
The IBM High Performance on Demand Solutions Lab will work with IDA Ireland
to build this center using IBM's "Blue Cloud" technologies, a series of
cloud computing offerings based on industry open standards and open source
software. IBM Tivoli systems management software will manage the Cloud
Computing environment.
The center will place a focus on innovation and research activities. As
part of its ongoing educational initiatives, IBM has also agreed to
facilitate cloud computing training for lecturers at the Dublin Institute
of Technology's School of Computing. The training will help the school to
foster new skills that meet the needs of this emerging computing model.
IBM Cloud Computing Milestones
IBM has been expanding its cloud computing capabilities around the world.
Over the past year, IBM has provided cloud computing services to clients
such as China Telecom, Wuxi Municipal Government of China, the Ministry of
Science and Technology of Vietnam and others. IBM also launched "Blue
Cloud," a series of cloud computing offerings, and entered into
partnerships for cloud computing programs with a number of partners in
Europe.
For more information about IBM cloud computing, please visit
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/zones/hipods/
For more information about IDA Ireland, please visit www.idaireland.com