IBM said that it has built a cloud computing environment for Korean telecommunications firm SK Telecom.
IBM said the cloud environment provides developers with the necessary software and hardware to develop applications that will allow SK Telecom to offer up to 20 new services to their customers by the end of 2009, such as sports news feeds and a photo service. It will allow SK Telecom and its business partners to develop, test and publish new end-user services.
The company claims that the new cloud environment offers benefits including, servers, storage and middleware required for application development on a stable environment; reduce investment risks of mobile content developers; and decreases barriers to entry of new services.
For this project, IBM Korea worked jointly with SK Telecom to develop the entire cloud environment, from concept planning to hardware and software selection and implementation. The cloud includes 80 systems, comprised of both System x and blade servers, Xen virtualisation technology and IBM middleware and service management technology.
According to IBM, SK Telecom is using its Tivoli Service Automation Manager to enable software to be leased and installed, and virtual machines provisioned accordingly. In planning the cloud architecture, SK Telecom also utilised implementation services and operation process consulting from IBM Global Technology Services through to implementation services and operation process consulting.
Kang-yoon Lee, head of cloud computing centre at IBM Korea, said: With this new environment SK Telecom will lead in innovation by offering IT infrastructure for software developers through a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model. We believe this project will be a model example in how enterprises in Korea and worldwide can leverage the cloud environment to support business requirements in continual change.
