IBM Readies Communications Service Providers To Capture New Cloud Services Market Opportunity

ARMONK, New York, October 14, 2010 -- IBM today announced a new cloud services platform to help communications service providers (CSPs) capitalize on the growing market opportunity for public cloud services expected to grow to $89 billion by 2015.

 This announcement is about helping communications service providers bring their customers new services to run a business and centralize access to their information. It enables them to offer customers a pay-as-you-go model for hundreds of new services and immediately make those services available.

 The IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform is a comprehensive set of hardware, software and services to help providers rapidly deliver cloud computing on their own. It includes the most advanced, carrier-grade technology with all the essential security and service management to ensure the 99.99% service reliability essential to their own customers.

 It allows Communications Service Providers to rapidly transform their business to deliver new services over their existing networks and drive new sources of revenue. They can use it to deliver "as a service" offerings like collaboration software, customer resource management, storage and back up, and industry-specific applications like claims-processing and specialized mobile applications to small and mid-sized businesses as well as large enterprises.

 For example, a small insurance company may not be able to otherwise afford the hardware and software to support mobile claims processing but access to it as a service from their communications service provider as they need it can help them be more competitive with bigger companies. Physician practices often don't have an IT staff and are reluctant to invest in expensive hardware and software. The ability to access e-prescriptions and even electronic medical records via the cloud can help reduce the administrative headaches that consume some 30 percent of each doctor's day and save on costly equipment.

 This new cloud service management solution can be installed in days, not weeks or months, allowing service providers to:

• Tap thousands of ready-to-use services and applications and accelerate the launch of new partner services from six months to six weeks
• Provision tens of thousands of virtual machines per hour
• Help partners create new services such as unified communications, collaboration and customer relationship management
• Provide developers a secure development and test cloud
• Offer infrastructure services to employees, partners and customers such as secure storage and virtual desktop
• Provision new services in less than a minute
• Scale to manage millions of virtual machines
• Use the Tivoli Netcool service assurance portfolio to manage service quality

 Cloud-based services are emerging as an important new business model for the communications industry. However, providers need to quickly define their strategy if they want to capitalize on this new opportunity. "Communications Service Providers play a fundamental role in society," said Scott Stainken, general manager, IBM global telecommunications industry. "They touch every industry, interconnect them and help make them intelligent. IBM is using its cloud expertise to help the world's existing communications networks take on a whole new meaning."

 Unlike competitors that only offer basic cloud computing, IBM is the only one to offer carrier-grade reliability and the only one of its kind that can deliver cloud computing over diverse types of networks and platforms. Multiple pilots worldwide are already underway on the IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform with clients such as France Telecom, ChinaTel Group and SK Telecom.

 France Telecom Group and its subsidiary Orange Business Services is using the IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform in a pilot project to create new infrastructure-as-a-service offerings for their customers. "IBM is providing a fully integrated stack delivering highly secured virtualized infrastructure that can be used to provide our internal and external customers a new level of infrastructure-as-a-service. For example, automating the extension of our customers' data-center and providing highly customized topologies" said Didier Jaubert, senior vice president Global Services of Orange Business Services. "This integrated platform provided by IBM is an important step for us to expand our capabilities faster and beyond those of other carriers."

 Providers can create services on their own or easily collaborate with IBM and its established Business Partners to extend their cloud infrastructure, market and sell cloud services, and enable new partners to their cloud as part of a new cloud partner program. Companies such as Broadsoft, Corent, deCarta, Jamcracker, Juniper Networks, Netapp, Openet, Rightscale and Wavemaker are supporting the platform today and are joined by a range of cloud builders, application, technology and infrastructure providers, as well as resellers, and cloud aggregators. This ecosystem can be accessed through a global network of 40 IBM Innovation Centers with dedicated technology, marketing and sales resources to help integrate partner applications and vendor technologies. Other vendors leave this complex work to the customer.

 "Shanghai Telecom is piloting IBM's new platform to extend computing and telecommunications into the enterprise market to capture the growing business opportunity to provide infrastructure to businesses and multinational corporations operating in China," said Chen Xiao Qin, vice manager, Shanghai Telecom Marketing Department. "We're making an important shift in the way we do business by providing clients powerful cloud computing services as well as cost savings."

 The IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform is built upon IBM's Integrated Service Management platform, including the Tivoli Netcool network and service assurance portfolio. It provides integrated service management, network monitoring, built-in security, storage, service level agreement management and usage and accounting management.

 IBM also offers services to support a cloud-based model such as business strategy consulting, sales training and education, business intelligence and analytics software and services, application development and testing, and integration services.

 IBM works with more than 1,000 service providers worldwide, including all 20 of the largest global providers. The IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform is currently available worldwide from IBM.

About IBM

For more information on IBM's cloud computing portfolio, research and labs, visit ibm.com/cloud

 For more information on IBM's Cloud Service Provider Platform, visit www.ibm.com/telecom.