The most recent being a report earlier this week that the company had launched range of new cloud-enabled business software services, and resources designed to help developers enable their applications for cloud environments.

Among IBM's major new cloud endeavors is its much talked about Bluehouse project, which the company says combines social networking tools and traditional business applications.

At the heart of all of this is IBM's strategy for cloud computing, which includes a long list of specific projects, as well as a whole lot of more general philosophy.

In order to elucidate some of that strategy, the WHIR spoke to Dennis Quan, director of development in IBM's autonomic computing division, via email. Quan launched the IBM and Google cloud computing partnership in 2007 and was key in the creation of the company's Blue Cloud initiative, announced in November 2007.
 
Over the past few months, we've reported on quite a few IBM cloud computing announcements, from cloud center launches to these new cloud services. IBM clearly has a grand vision in this space. What are the company's overall goals in the cloud computing space?

Dennis Quan: Cloud computing means tapping into a vast network of computers scattered across the world that can be accessed from afar - from a laptop, a cell phone or whatever other device you may be holding in your hand today or tomorrow - to analyze your financial portfolio or access personal health records on demand. When this network is tapped, the power of thousands, maybe even millions of computers can come together to tackle giant workloads in seconds. Think of millions of grains of sand coming together to create one giant sand castle when called upon.

Cloud computing is fundamentally about retooling the world's information infrastructure in the same way the Web retooled the manner in which we presented information and conducted business transactions. But to IBM, cloud computing is much more than the normal evolution of a data center. It is about the game changing - even life changing - applications that will emerge out of the cloud.
 
With regards to the cloud centers, many seem to be going up in emerging markets. Is this for basic cost reasons, or is there more to it than that?

Our cloud efforts have been growing all over the world, including in emerging economies, not for cost reasons but because of the huge opportunities we have found. Analogous to the leap many countries made to mobile, completely skipping fixed line telephone service, many of these markets are eyeing cloud computing as a way to jumpstart the growth of IT and reduce barriers to entry for new technology development.
 
Can we expect to see more cloud center launches in the coming months?

IBM is constantly looking at new growth areas that can benefit from cloud computing - we've launched 13 centers worldwide already - and several other activities and launches are being planned worldwide.
 
Why did you decide to launch this portfolio of cloud services now? Is it something your clients and partners have demanded?

IBM's clients and partners have told us they are looking for new ways to drive additional value out of their IT investments. They want to better manage data, lower operational costs and make collaboration among employees easier. IBM sees cloud services as the next growth area for cloud computing. Traditionally, enterprises use an "on premise" model of deploying software applications on every employee's workstations. This is an expensive and time-consuming proposition: companies have to maintain and cool data centers, keep workstations up-to-date, risk losing data and productivity with faulty equipment, etc. We are now offering a new delivery of software and services via cloud computing to provide more computer power, greater access to applications, lowering overall IT spend (by enabling companies to only pay for what they need when they need it) and potentially lowering energy costs by shifting more resources to cloud computing.
 
Earlier this year, Forrester Research put out a report outlining the idea that cloud computing is here now and is gaining appreciation by SMBs and developers but still being looked at apprehensively by Enterprise IT and won't be embraced by them for at least another five years. Considering IBM is the type of company that enterprises turn to, what are your thoughts on this?

Cloud computing is a very large space with multiple entry points and levels of usage. Many of our clients have existing data centers with low levels of utilization and a strong desire to dramatically improve their energy efficiency. Our cloud computing data center transformation techniques are of particular interest to such clients because we can show how virtualization and service lifecycle management can be introduced over time, in stages, to solve today's business problems and lead them towards cloud computing. Also, our clients have been especially excited about IBM's ability to deliver cloud computing data center efficiencies in their own data centers (so-called "enterprise clouds") as well as through the use of external service providers, since many of our clients want to maintain physical control over their servers. The enterprise cloud route will help lead to much quicker adoption of cloud computing by enterprises in the short term.
 
Can you elaborate a bit more on the October 15-16 event you'll be holding at your Executive Briefing Center in Palisades, NY? What will you discuss and what are your goals for the discussion?

IBM is bringing together ISVs, clients and thought leaders to talk about cloud computing trends including software-as-a-service and new IT delivery models. The goal is to forge new paths for the channel and particularly for SMBs looking to adopt cloud computing models. IBM is experiencing a surge in its SaaS Specialty program having added 100 ISVs this year alone, nearly doubling its SaaS ecosystem.