As IBM sees it, businesses face a unique set of challenges as they look to grow in a globally integrated economy. The company described a perfect storm of data deluge, a fluid regulatory environment, and widening gaps in IT skills that add more cost pressures to resource-strapped organizations. Part of the answer, IBM says, is cloud computing.

"We are moving our clients, the industry, and even IBM itself to have a mixture of data and applications that live in the data center and in the cloud," said Willy Chiu, vice president of high-performance on-demand solutions at IBM.

A Four-Pronged Approach

Chiu said feedback from the business world inspired IBM's four-pronged cloud strategy, which includes delivering its own cloud-services portfolio; helping ISVs design, build, deliver and market cloud services; helping clients integrate cloud services into their business; and providing cloud-computing environments to businesses.

As part of its initiative, IBM is launching a free, open beta for Bluehouse, its Web-based social-networking and collaboration cloud service that aims to help professionals work together securely. Lotus Sametime Unyte is also on IBM's cloud to let businesses communicate in real time with a worldwide network of employees, partners and consumers.

IBM is also offering Rational Policy Tester OnDemand. Big Blue said the software helps reduce online risks by automating Web-content scanning to isolate privacy, quality and accessibility compliance issues.

Meanwhile, Rational AppScan OnDemand scans Web applications for security bugs, and Telelogic Focal Point helps product-management teams collect, analyze and prioritize product features in line with broader organizational goals. Finally, IBM's Remote Data Protection aims to reduce the risk associated with information protection.

IBM's Stake in the Cloud

With a flood of announcements and investments in cloud computing, it's clear the concept is more than a flash in the pan. In fact, Dana Gardner, principal analyst at Interarbor Solutions, said organizations concerned about cloud computing's disruptions would rather disrupt themselves than let another company do it for them.

"Every day that the economic crisis grows, there's going to be added emphasis on IT departments to do more for less," Gardner said. "If the delta that is the difference between what certain baseline computing functions and services cost to provide for yourself versus what you would pay on a cloud infrastructure , then any sizable delta like that can't be ignored for any given time."

IBM has significant clout in the IT and business worlds and possesses all the pieces to put together its own cloud offering. Gardner predicts a horse race to see which company can come up with the best set of business-specific and low-risk services.

"This is a substantial and potentially market-changing announcement from IBM that it takes cloud computing very seriously and it's going to be a major player and provider across what the cloud is," Gardner said. "IBM is in this to win. They want to be the world's premier cloud provider."