Finding Your Way Through The IBM Cloud

Greetings from the Austin Hilton.  It’s the last and final day of SXSW Interactive 2010.

My digits are numbed, my pixels depixellated, my neutrons no longer firing…all of which is a good thing considering that I have to speak this afternoon here at the Hilton.

Folks keep asking me where I’ll be speaking about “Smarter Social Media,” and the answer is Hilton Salon D, 4th Floor.  The session’s an extended one, from 3:30 CST until around 6:00.

I’ll likely go on somewhere near the 5 o’clock hour, but it’s one of those sessions that it’s difficult to know exactly.  Look for our panel chair, Adam Lavelle (Chief Strategy Officer of search firm iCrossing), and follow the bouncing ball.

Of course, I’m never too busy to mention some great news emerging from behind the Big Blue firewall.

Today, IBM announced plans to go online with its commercial cloud service for software development and testing.

IBM, which already delivers a test and development cloud, is now allowing enterprise and government clients to test and develop on an IBM Cloud.

Following a successful beta program, IBM is working with partners in cloud management, cloud security and software development and testing support to provide businesses with a unique mix of flexibility, scalability, enterprise-grade security and control for development and test on the IBM Cloud.

Here’s a sound byte: The average enterprise devotes up to 50 percent of its entire technology infrastructure to development and test…and yet typically up to 90 percent of it remains idle.

IBM has seen that taking advantage of cloud computing within development and testing environments can help reduce IT labor costs by 50 percent, improve quality and drastically reduce time to market.

IBM’s enterprise-friendly approach to cloud complements clients’ current data centers and traditional development efforts, helping clients:

• Reduce provision cycle times from weeks to minutes
• Eliminate software defects by up to 30 percent.
• Reduce time required for test and quality assurance
• Enable rapid redeployment of environments across multiple IT projects

PayPal, the e-payment service, is extending its global payments platform, PayPal X into the cloud.

PayPal is working with the IBM Cloud Labs to allow its ecosystem of developers to not only innovate on the IBM cloud, but to quickly monetize new applications developed and made available via smart phones.

“We want to provide a very simple way to make payments available on all platforms including mobile applications,” said Osama Bedier, PayPal’s vice president of platform and emerging technologies. “The IBM cloud provides a platform for developers to come together as a community, to create, develop and test new applications. We look forward to seeing the payments innovations our developers create through the IBM cloud and bringing the wallet into the cloud.”

Having heard the interest being expressed in cloud testing by customers at the recent IBM Pulse 2010 conference, this is exciting news and also great to hear the likes of PayPay taking advantage of this new capability.

You can learn more about this and our new cloud partnership services here.

SXSW Interactive 2010: Day 3.5 Podcast Recap

Scott and I sat down in the very loud foyer of the Austin Convention Center yesterday, after a very long day, to talk about monkeys with Internet access.

Really.  We did.

And we talked about all the other sessions and highlights from Days 3, 3.5 and 4, including the Clay Shirky and Evan Williams’ keynotes.

Which is a good thing, because I think I can speak for both of us in saying we’re about Southwested out.

Click here to get the podcast. (19:07, MP3)