VentureBeat

IBM just announced that it’s preparing a range of new services that it says will make cloud computing palatable to large corporations that largely remain leery of letting their applications and data reside on someone else’s infrastructure. And like all the other big companies who have moved into this market — Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Sun — IBM seems to have its own specific definition of the cloud and of the kind of cloud services it wants to deliver.

For now, the company says its “Smart Business cloud portfolio” focuses on two areas. First, it offers allows companies to develop and test software using infrastructure built or operated by IBM, which allows for more efficient use of hardware while keeping the software secure behind a corporate firewall. Second, it’s offering virtualized desktops where, again, the computing takes place on IBM’s infrastructure and is accessed remotely by the company’s employees.

The news seems to underscore the fact that the cloud has matured to the point that nearly every major tech company needs a cloud computing strategy — and simultaneously that the term has become so broad that it’s not terribly useful. It encompasses everything from on-demand remote infrastructure to applications that you access in your web browser to (in IBM’s case) specific business services. To say that IBM is “entering the cloud” or whatever is accurate, but it also conjures up the largely inaccurate image that it’s going head-to-head with Amazon or Google.

Does that mean journalists will stop using tortured metaphors about clouds? Probably not.

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Tags: co:IBM