- IBM (NYSE:IBM -1.3%) has launched Bluemix Local, a service for its Bluemix cloud app development platform (PaaS) that allows companies to build and run cloud apps behind their internal firewalls - useful for industries with strict data security/compliance policies - and thus enables hybrid clouds covering apps deployed both locally and on IBM's public cloud.
- Bluemix's rivals include Microsoft (Azure), Amazon, Salesforce (Heroku), and EMC/VMware's Pivotal unit; Microsoft has strongly emphasized Azure's hybrid cloud abilities. IBM recently updated Bluemix to provide better Java resource support, and has also rolled out a Bluemix-based service for mining Twitter data.
- Also: IBM has announced a $1B 10-year cloud services deal with Norwegian IT services provider EVRY. The deal includes cloud infrastructure services delivered by IBM's SoftLayer unit through a Norwegian data center.
- Meanwhile, IBM researchers state they've found an improved way to build transistors using carbon nanotubes - long an area of interest for the chip industry, as it looks for ways to prolong Moore's Law beyond this decade - instead of silicon. Big Blue thinks the advance, which involves a way to continue shrinking the width of metal wires connected to nanotubes without increasing electrical resistance, could eventually (likely at some point after 2020) reduce the contact point between wires and nanotube transistors to just 40 atoms in width, and 3 years after that 28 atoms.