WebProNews

Google and IBM began their alliance a couple of years ago in a rather unusual way. IBM CEO Sam Palmisano called up Google CEO Eric Schmidt and asked about distributed computing. Google wanted no part in the matter, but something apparently sparked its interest since the companies began a partnership at that time.

The companies have now announced a plan they consider to be the prominent IT delivery model of the future, and it’s called cloud computing. The cloud computing environment runs on Linux and includes Xen virtualization and an Apache implementation of the Google File System called Hadoop. The infrastructure would allow the companies to deliver software and services to consumer and business users.

The service has been tested by several universities, including Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Stanford, and is now ready for public distribution. Consumers and businesses should have access to the worldwide network of servers within the next year.

The IBM/Google cloud initiative would compete with Microsoft’s software-plus-services strategy.

For more information on the Google and IBM cloud computing effort, tune into the WebProNews video report.