Comments on: IBM releases new enterprise cloud portfolio

Big Blue launches a new product and service lineup aimed squarely at the heart of the enterprise IT market.

[forever4now]

Cloud apps, whether "private" or "public"-hosted, offer a lot of major benefits:

1. collaboration (multiple users sharing/editing the same documents).

2. accessibility (from any location, at any time, on any device, running any OS).

3. cost savings
- software (reduced development, purchase, installation, maintenance, upgrade costs)
- hardware (reduced CPU/memory/disk/electricity requirements on client devices)
- backups (centralized backups save time/materials versus individual user backups)

4. data integrity
- lost/stolen/broken computers don't compromise data
- reduction/elimination of individual backup media reduces risk of data loss

5. performance (HTML5, NaCl, etc. help cloud apps achieve near desktop app performance).

[virtman]

This sounds like a quickly cooked up response to HP's announcements last week.

[BMG4ME]

I doubt it

[s_hammond]

I like their focused strategy. It will separate them in the cloud conversation and let them position themselves as being best at something.

[c_odonnell]

Interesting to see where IBM will position itself in the cloud race.
Some experiences we had with two start-ups, one in a data center and one in the cloud: http://bit.ly/DC_for_Clouds