ARMONK, N.Y. (
) --
IBM
(IBM) - Get Report
is taking a leap forward in
after clinching a deal to design a major test system for the U.S. Air Force.
The 10-month test project aims to build a cloud computing system capable of protecting sensitive data that can also be shared across different agencies. U.S. Air Force personnel will work closely with IBM on the cloud project, which will be hosted by the technology giant.
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"This is an effort to give them headlights, to let them know what the forward direction is," said Robert Ames, chief technology officer of IBM's federal division. "It's going to take us in a very strong direction."
Security and loss of data control are often cited as the biggest cloud issues by enterprises, and the U.S. government has even more stringent security requirements.
Ames told
TheStreet
that the cloud project will use sensors to monitor traffic on Air Force IT networks as well as deploy a new IBM technology called Trusted Virtual Domains.
"This is basically inserting a security layer between two virtual servers so that they can't contaminate each other," he said. The cloud will also push out security updates across the Air Force network whenever cyber threats are sensed, added Ames.
IBM, however, is not the first big-name tech company to focus on
.
Last year online retailer
Amazon
(AMZN) - Get Report
attempted to
about sending data into the cloud by offering VPN-based access to its services. Networking giant
Cisco
(CSCO) - Get Report
has also been ramping up its efforts in this space, throwing down $183 million for cloud security specialist
last October.
More recently, Cisco
teamed up
with service provider
Savvis
(SVVS)
to offer private clouds geared towards the enterprise. Companies like
AT&T
(T) - Get Report
and
VMware
(VMW) - Get Report
are also
pushing security
as a major selling point of cloud technology, having recently
a major
partnership
.
, which offer compute power and storage via the Internet, are fast becoming one of the tech sector's hottest technologies, thanks in no small part to the IT spending slowdown. Most of tech's biggest names, like
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Report
, are now
as a way for firms to
of hardware and software.
Despite plenty of hype, cloud computing is still its infancy. Stymied by vendor
and users' reluctance to relinquish control of their data, the technology is nowhere near widespread adoption.
The times, though, may be changing.
Last month
Panasonic
(PC)
chose IBM for a major overhaul of its IT infrastructure, which was described as the world's
of cloud computing.
Big Blue nonetheless faces stiff competition in the federal IT space. Rival
Hewlett-Packard
(HPQ) - Get Report
already works with the
Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
on cloud computing initiatives.
-- Reported by James Rogers in New York
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