IBM Looks to Europe for Cloud Computing Answers

IBM has lined up 15 European partners for a cloud computing research initiative. How will North American channel partners potentially benefit from cloud computing experiments performed on the other side of The Big Pond? Hmmm… Here’s some speculation from the VAR Guy.

Despite all the cloud computing hype in the US, IBM says plenty of cloud challenges remain. To wit, IBM claims the research project will tackle the major challenges facing today’s storage clouds, including:

• cost-effectiveness;
• data mobility across cloud providers;
• security guarantees; and
• the massive computing power demands that are affecting quality of service.

Who’s Joining the Party?

The cloud research effort includes media companies, telecommunication companies, healthcare and academic institutions. Together, the organizations will focus on “VISION Cloud,” short for Virtualized Storage Services for the Future Internet. VISION Cloud will be tasked with developing new approaches to the way data is represented, handled and preserved.

VISION has an interesting checklist of required concepts:

• A rich object data model
• Execution of computations close to the stored content
• Content-centric access
• Full data interoperability

Will Channel Partners Care?

But how does this affect you, the VAR? The VAR Guy believes IBM’s efforts have potential implications for channel partners. With IBM’s VISION, we can expect a few interesting things:

• A blueprint for cloud developer and data handlers
• A touchstone or pulse for the direction cloud is headed
• Innovation in the way data is stored

Skeptical of IBM? Is VISION nothing more than marketing rhetoric? Before you dismiss Big Blue let’s look at some other IBM research moves. Rewind nearly a decade and you’ll find that IBM invested roughly $1 billion in Linux-related research and development. The net result: The entire IBM ecosystem — technology partners, VARs and customers — found new ways to benefit from open source.

Fast forward to the present and The VAR Guy has his eye on IBM and its VISION partners.

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