It's one thing to talk about cloud computing, but it's another to launch a cloud service. IBM did just that on Tuesday, offering a collection of hardware, software and services for large organizations looking to build private storage clouds that would offer access to all archived data, even if it's stored on tape.

That's not all. IBM also announced plans for a business-grade public cloud that would offer "flexible consumption models and a self-service user interface to fully abstract the technology from the end user." Big Blue did not announce a timetable or prices. Nevertheless, it is a big step forward into the world of cloud computing. With private and public sector organizations clamoring for cloud services, IBM is right on the mark to move into that market.

Cloud computing is especially attractive for companies trying to cut costs. The cloud can reduce storage costs and help deal with massive data growth and overworked IT staff. And remarkably, IBM has figured out how to deal with archived tape.

"The archived data can be accessed in a private cloud computing environment, even if it's stored on tape media," IBM said in a statement. "This capability is critical as an increasing amount of data is expected to exist in archived formats."

For more on IBM's cloud computing:
- check out this InformationWeek.com article

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