IBM rolls out SmartCloud

data centres, reveals Bloomberg.

IBM started selling the computing service, called 'SmartCloud,' yesterday to allow large companies save money on equipment and software by letting them store data on IBM's servers and access it over the Internet.

Lockheed Martin, Macy', ING Groep and Kaiser Permanente are among companies that use IBM's cloud-computing technology and may be target customers for SmartCloud, the company said.

IBM SmartCloud comes in two flavours, Enterprise and Enterprise+, with the main difference between the two being the level of control a customer wants, notes Gigaom.

The Enterprise version is pay-per-use AWS pricing model, but offers less features and security than does the Enterprise+ version.

That version - which will be fully available later this year - gives users various options in terms of security, billing models, technology platforms, availability and management.

The Sacramento BEE says IBM is joining with 40 of world's leading enterprises like ADP, CitiGroup, Lockheed Martin, StateStreet, NC State University and others to help advance cloud adoption prioritising key interoperability issues such as management, reference architectures, hybrid cloud, as well as security and compliance.