Figuring that the cloud may be the “most significant shift in technology since the outset of the Internet,” IBM is moving to ensure it gets its piece of what could be a $66 billion business in three years.

It’s taking a workload-by-workload approach.

To start, it’s targeting the enterprise – meaning big, largely Blue accounts – with offers of a virtual desktop – either a Microsoft desktop or some stand-in – and the widgetry to move test and development to the cloud.

Dr Kristof Kloeckner keynoted at SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Expo in New York City

Unlike Amazon, IBM’s not interested in the individual developer; it wants all of a major account’s test and development, which it argues absorbs 30%-50% of a company’s infrastructure though 90% of the time it’s idle.

Blue says its widgetry is based on two years of research and hundreds of client engagements. There’s no mention of interoperability with other clouds like Google or Salesforce.com; that will have to be left to third parties like Vordel.

IBM will be offering to run these cloud services from inside its own data center or to set up a private cloud using a client’s own infrastructure.

And, for those who want to go it alone, it’s got CloudBurst 1.1, a pre-integrated cloud-to-go with the hardware, storage, virtualization, networking and management needed to build a private cloud.

Users running their own clouds will be able to access IBM’s cloud for short-term additional resources.

CloudBurst will ship at the end of the week at prices starting around $200k. The entry-level configuration includes a 42U rack, a BladeCenter chassis, eight Intel cores on three blades plus an eight-core management blade, attached storage and middleware.

IBM’s public cloud will be located at its recently announced production-level “Cloud Delivery Center” in Raleigh, North Carolina, where it’s got a bunch of Intel blades, VMware virtualization and its own management widgetry.

The hardware there will come to include mainframes and IBM’s own p blades. Over time that will mean its Rationale and Eclipse tools and the Jazz platform as well as Xen and KVM virtualization.

IBM’s cloud CTO Kristof Kloeckner (pictured above) has found that large accounts aren’t as reluctant to share cloud infrastructure if they know the guys they’re sharing it with are, say, fellow Fortune 5000s and not riffraff.

IBM estimates that the cloud can save up to 73% of the energy used to power traditional desktops and laptops and up to 40% of the support costs.

It reckons its Smart Business Test Cloud can save customers 50%-75% on capex and licensing expenses and 30%-50% on operating and labor costs while reducing defects from faulty configurations and poor modeling by 15%-30%.

IBM is also setting up a subscription public cloud version of the Desktop Cloud. It’s partnering with Desktone, Quest and Wyse.

More Than 60 Companies Sponsored or Exhibited at Cloud Computing Expo New York April 2009
Cloud Computing Conference & Expo West and East (past two events) were sponsored by more than 60 leading global cloud computing technology providers, including: 3Tera, Active Endpoints, AppSense, AppZero, Aria Systems, CA, Inc., Certeon, Cloud.com, Composite Software, Cordys, Corporate Technologies, Cycle Computing, DataDirect Technologies, EMC,, ExactTarget, FreedomOSS, IBM, Intel, Intel SOA Products Group, iTKO, J9 Technologies, Krugle, LynuxWorks, MeettheBoss.com, Metron, Microsoft, mindSHIFT, Moderro Technologies, Mosso, Nastel, Netmagic Solutions, OpenSpan, ParaScale, Platform Computing, QuantumXML, Red Hat, RightScale, Sensedia, Sun Microsystems, Supermicro, Symantec, Tap In Systems, Tranxition, Tripwire, VIRTERA, VMware, Web Age Solutions, and Zeus Technology.

More Than 100 Sponsors and Exhibitors Expected in Silicon Valley
Upcoming Cloud Computing Conference & Expo 2009 West event, which will take place November 2-4, 2009, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley is estimated to have more than 100 sponsors and exhibitors.

For sponsorship and exhibit opportunities please contact Cloud Computing Expo sales department at 201 802-3021 (events at sys-con.com).

Cloud Computing Expo New York April 2009 Sold Out With Record Participation
2nd International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo, colocated with 5th International Virtualization Conference & Expo presented the most distinguished faculty of speakers on any technology conference taking place in 2009. Speakers, general session and keynote presenters included such names as: ,Ajay Anand (Yahoo!), Alan Williamson (AW 2.0 Ltd), Anthony Arrott (Trend Micro), Bill McColl (Cloudscale), Bob Quinn (3Leaf Systems), Brian H. Prince (Microsoft), Brian Zanghi (Kadient), Bryan Wade (ExactTarget), Clod Barrera (IBM), Daniel Beveridge (VIRTERA), David Bernstein (Cisco), David Bressler (Progress Software), David Douglas (Sun Microsytems), David Linthicum (Blue Mountain Labs), Doug Tidwell (IBM), Ed Sullivan (Aria Systems), Glenn Brunette (Sun Microsystems), Jeff Bauer (Forbes.com), Jeremy Geelan (SYS-CON Media), Jim Rymarczyk (IBM), Joe Gregorio (Google), Joel York (Xignite), John Barr (Yieldex), John du Pre Gauntt (Media Dojo), John Laferriere (Corporate Technologies), Jon Pyke (Cordys), JP Morgenthal (J.P. Morgenthal Blog), Kenneth Oestreich (Egenera), Kevin L. Jackson (Dataline), Kristof Kloeckner (IBM), Lucian Lipinsky de Orlov (VIRTERA), Martin Ingram (AppSense), Matt Holleran (Emergence Capital), Michael Hill (IBM), Omer Trajman (Vertica), Owen Garrett (Zeus Technology), Patrick Kerpan (CohesiveFT), Pau Garcia-Mila (eyeOS), Peter Coffee Salesforce.com), Peter Nickolov (3Tera), Phil Fritz (IBM), Prasad Rampalli (Intel), Raghavan Srinivas (Intuit), Ranjith Ramakrishnan (Cumulux), Reuven Cohen (Cloud Interoperability Forum), Rich Wolski (University of California), Ronnie Thomson (Quark), Russ Daniels (HP), Sajai Krishnan (ParaScale), Scott Wiener (Cloud9 Analytics), Simon Wardley (Canonical), Stephen Elliot (CA), Steve Milroy (OnTerra Systems), Stuart Charlton (Elastra), Thorsten von Eicken (RightScale), Tien Tzuo (Zuora), Tim Crawford (Stanford University), Vik Chaudhary (Keynote Systems), Warren Wilbee (Microsoft), Werner Vogels (Amazon.com), William Fellows (The 451 Group).