"Cloud computing will take off when companies can utilize data, applications and services from any device and from any location," said Willy Chiu, IBM vice president for high performance on demand solutions, as IBM this week launched a company-wide initiative expanding enterprise computing from the traditional software delivery model toward a mix of on-premise and cloud computing applications.

"We are moving our clients, the industry and even IBM itself to have a mixture of data and applications that live on the data center and on the cloud," Chiu added.

IBM’s new cloud-enabled services, the company contends, will help businesses of all sizes more easily adopt cloud computing models to better manage data, lower operational costs and make collaboration across the enterprise easier.

Throughout 2008 and 2009, IBM will add cloud-enabled services specialists to its 13 Cloud Computing Centers and 40 IBM Innovation Centers around the world to help clients and partners test applications via cloud computing models.

In an annoucnement IBM added that qualified clients and partners can also "take advantage of special financing on all cloud-enabled services with no payments until 2009 through IBM Global Financing."

IBM’s portfolio includes products and services to help clients and partners adopt cloud computing. New offerings include:

• “Bluehouse” -- IBM is launching a free open beta for “Bluehouse,” the industry’s first online social networking and collaboration service designed for business. “Bluehouse” combines social networking and online collaboration tools to help businesses of all sizes securely work together through firewalls and beyond organizational boundaries. This suite of hosted online technologies allows individuals to share documents, contacts, engage in joint project activities, host online meetings and build communities via cloud computing through a Web browser The “Bluehouse” beta is available today at http://bluehouse.lotus.com. An example of IBM's Tomorrow at Work initiative to anticipate trends in work styles, “Bluehouse” can be used by anyone to collaborate with co-workers and just as easily and securely work with external groups such as partners, agencies, suppliers, customers and outside experts. Small and medium-sized businesses will benefit from minimal up-front costs and maintenance of this SaaS platform, and departments in larger companies will have a quick, simple way to work with their key stakeholders in their intranet and on the open Web.
  
  
• Lotus Sametime Unyte -- IBM's first software product designed for delivery as a service via cloud computing, Lotus Sametime Unyte arranges quick, easy Web conferences including the sharing of documents, presentations or applications, regardless of location or Web connection. No on-site software deployment or support is needed. IBM has built in several enhancements to Sametime Unyte to enable global customer use through multi-language support and faster network performance. By enabling businesses to communicate in real-time with a worldwide network of employees, partners and customers, Sametime Unyte is helping local companies take their place as global trading partners. In addition, several new features making online meetings easier include a “waiting room” for meeting participants to gather, and specialized alerts and prompts for meeting hosts. Soon IBM will integrate Sametime Unyte with Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime to allow people working in email or instant messaging to join Web conferences with a single click of a button.
  
  
• IBM Rational Policy Tester On Demand -- Helps reduce online risks by automating Web content scanning to isolate privacy, quality and accessibility compliance issues. Available as a SaaS subscription on an annual basis, this software helps improve trust by detecting online usability and compliance-related issues before they affect visitors.
  
  
• IBM Rational AppScan On Demand –- Software that scans Web applications for security bugs allowing customers to immediately identify sources of online risk without the necessary time and investment for in-house training and resources. This offering is available as a SaaS subscription on an annual basis.
  
  
• Telelogic Focal Point –- Visualization, prioritization, planning, and analysis software that helps product managers and business analysts set the scope of product and IT delivery based on objective requirements. This value-based approach accelerates time-to-market and helps eliminate "emotional" requirements. Telelogic Focal Point allows a product manager or business analyst to solicit, aggregate and analyze product feature requests from internal and external customers, and make decisions about those requests based on the value they will provide back to the company.