IBM Introduces 'Blue Cloud'

IBM Introduces 'Blue Cloud' Computing


The first results of IBM's Blue Cloud effort are expected to be available in the spring of 2008 for Power and x86 processors. More than 200 IBM researchers worldwide are supporting Blue Cloud development, concentrating on breakthroughs that I.T. will need to ensure security, reliability, high use, and efficiency in a distributed environment.

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"Blue Cloud" might sound like the overhanging precipitation that follows a forlorn cartoon character, but if IBM's new initiative of that name is successful, it could brighten the outlook of data center administrators.
On Thursday, the Armonk, N.Y.-based company announced the initiative, which it described as "a series of cloud-computing offerings that will allow corporate data centers to operate more like the Internet" through the use of a "distributed, globally accessible fabric of resources."

Instead of using local machines or even remote server farms, I.T. centers would use these globally available resources via linked pools of systems on an as-needed basis. The company said that cloud computing and applications can be integrated with existing I.T. infrastructures through Web services based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) model.

Coming Spring of 2008
More than 200 IBM researchers worldwide are supporting Blue Cloud development, concentrating on breakthroughs that I.T. will need to ensure security , reliability, high use, and efficiency in a distributed environment.

The first results of the Blue Cloud effort are expected to be available in the spring of next year, for Power and x86 processors. Also, IBM said it would offer in 2008 a cloud environment for a System z mainframe, using a "very large number of virtual machines," and, at some point, a cloud environment based on highly dense rack clusters.The announcement included a demo of how IBM Power- and x86-based BladeCenters running Tivoli service management software can dynamically allocate workloads and resources, providing performance that is keyed to demand. Blue Cloud includes Xen and PowerVM virtualized Linux operating system images and Hadoop parallel workload scheduling.

Currently, one of the first tests will be a pilot program for the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology. The program, called The Vietnam Information for Science and Technology Advance Innovation Portal, will run on a cloud-computing infrastructure and will be made available to communities and researchers.

Massive-Scale Computing
The effort is being driven by the availability of additional processing power over high-speed connections, as well as by an increase in the scale of I.T. environments and in infrastructures whose resource needs fluctuate. IBM Senior Vice President Rod Adkins said in a statement that cloud computing could help I.T. managers "dramatically" reduce their complexities and costs.

IBM also said cloud computing is being driven by the growth in connected devices, real-time data streams, SOAs, and Web 2.0 applications such as mashups, open collaboration, social networking, and mobile commerce.

The newest research initiative, the company said, grows out of its experience in massive-scale computing. One earlier project, the Technology Adoption Program, allowed IBM researchers to request computing resources via software to test and conduct trials. Another project, IBM's Parallel Sysplex, allowed System z mainframes to work together as a single system image.

Source CIO