IBM has deployed cloud computing infrastructure to help university researchers in Qatar, South Africa and Japan accelerate projects that were previously constrained by IT resources. Here's a look at the initiatives the company is announcing today:
- The Qatar Cloud Computing Initiative, driven by three universities, will open its infrastructure to local businesses and industries to test applications and complete various projects, including seismic modeling and the exploration for oil and gas. The infrastructure is housed at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, with other participants including Qatar University and Texas A&M University at Qatar. The universities will collaborate with IBM on building the infrastructure, and then collaborate on developing apps using Hadoop.
- The University of Pretoria in South Africa, will use IBM's platform to test the development of drugs to slow the progression of serious illnesses in Africa. Students will seek ways to slow the progression of serious illnesses by studying drug absorption rates.
- The Higher Education Alliance for Leadership Through Health (HEALTH Alliance), a consortium of seven universities in East Africa, is working with IBM on online education through virtual computing labs that students access remotely. The HEALTH Alliance hopes to migrate its cloud solution from IBM's South Africa Cloud Computing Center to an on-site cloud hosted at one of the seven participating universities over time.
- Students at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan will use IBM's cloud center to access hands-on classes to help them understand the cloud computing management system and design applications and cloud infrastructures. The cloud computing environment at Kyushu University has been operational since November.
IBM now operates 13 cloud computing centers around the world, from which it manages cloud computing platforms that can be used by local students, researchers and application developers.
"For decades, clients have turned to IBM to integrate new technologies and computing paradigms into their operations – in recent years Linux, open source and the Internet," said Willy Chiu, Vice President, IBM Cloud Labs. "We're thrilled to be a part of projects like these that not only make organizations more efficient, but move the needle forward for the world."
