IBM Unveils Cloud Certification, Consulting Plans

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

Only six weeks after a mixed offering ofon-premises and cloud computing applications to partners and affiliated independent software vendors (ISVs), IBM is aiming to move even more of its business into the cloud.

Big Blue today said it would will begin extending its highly lucrative consulting and technology services to the cloud, building on work in its earlier Blue Cloud project. Announced a year ago, Blue Cloud is a combination of software and hardware components designed to enable IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) enterprise customers to experiment with the cloud computing model.

IBM today also unveiled a certification program covering the resiliency of cloud-based applications or services delivered by its partners and ISVs. Think of it as a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for the cloud from IBM.

The moves signal a new stage in IBM’s embrace of cloud computing, which has emerged as something of a source of hope for a tech industry battered by the economic downturn and for enterprises looking to shave costs as demands on their infrastructure grow.

Increasingly, vendors are promoting cloud-based services as a way that enterprises can reduce the expense and complexity associated with hosting, deploying and maintaining their own services — and the allure of the technology has drawn offerings from vendors as diverse as Dell, Amazon and most recently, Microsoft, through its plans around Windows Azure.

For IBM, its effort to build consulting and technical services around cloud computing draws heavily on lessons learned from its Blue Cloud initiative, Brian Reagan, the director of IBM’s business continuity and resiliency services unit, told InternetNews.com.

The new consulting push will see IBM helping customers understand, plan and create their cloud computing initiatives. On the planning front, for example, it will offer an economic model for assessing the total costs of ownership for cloud computing. It will also provide the talent to help clients install, configure and secure cloud computing inside their own datacenters.

“In many cases, we’ll reengineer existing datacenters around the best practices we bring to bear, so clients can take advantage of the cloud in the best way,” Reagan said.

IBM’s hub for its cloud computing infrastructure consists of two datacenters, one in Tokyo and the other being built in its Research Triangle Park facility in Raleigh, N.C.

Seal of approval

Meanwhile, through IBM’s Resilient Cloud Validation program, businesses collaborating with Big Blue on benchmarking and design will be allowed to use the IBM-designed “Resilient Cloud” logo when marketing their services.

The idea is that by creating a certification program, IBM can help craft and enforce some standards around security and reliability in the rapidly growing world of cloud computing.

“You need standards to create interoperability among the elements and technologies in cloud computing,” Reagan said. “And we’ll identify a strategy for clients and help them implement, deploy and operate these cloud computing environments.”

To help develop and push standards, IBM said it plans to partner with providers of virtualization, grid computing, services management and other related technologies, while also leveraging its own platforms, like the z Series mainframes, our BladeCenters, and the I Series platforms, Reagan said.

This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.