IBM has announced the launch of three new cloud-based offerings that are part of its SmartCloud line. The first, and arguably the most interesting, is IBM SmartCloud Application Services, a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that will launch later this year. Putting IBM in direct competition with Oracle, SmartCloud Application Services will support Java, with enterprise-grade security and no vendor lock-in.
IBM is also debuting SmartCloud Foundation, a set of software and hardware for building private clouds, and SmartCloud Ecosystem, services designed to help partners and ISVs target SMBs who are moving to the cloud.
According to IBM, only 33 percent of businesses have deployed more than one cloud initiative, but more than twice as many plan to do so in the next three years.