IBM today announced it will establish the first Cloud Computing Center for software companies in China, offering emerging Chinese software companies the ability to tap into a virtual computing environment to support their development activities. It will be established, the company said in an announcement, through an agreement signed today between IBM and Wuxi Tai Lake Industry Investment and Development Company Limited.

"Like many new software companies seeking growth opportunities both locally and abroad, these Chinese software companies will rely on technical infrastructures built on open standards and delivered as a service. This open approach to computing will help them deliver innovation and pursue global market opportunities," said Steve Mills, Senior Vice President and Group Executive, IBM Software Group.

"Cloud computing is helping to foster the growth of new software companies in China," Mills added.

The Wuxi Tai Hu New Town Science and Education Industrial Park will be home to dozens of new software companies and represents a multimillion dollar investment. iSoftStone, one of the new software companies in the park, plans to develop account settlement software for the financial services industry. Wuxi is classified as an investment zone by the Chinese government and has been named a "National Model City of Science and Technology Advancement" for five consecutive years.

"Being one of the model zones to offer outsourcing services in China, the city of Wuxi is committed to providing companies in our park with the environment and tools that are needed for rapid growth," said Mr. Zhu Weiping, Party Secretary of Bin Hu District, Wuxi Municipal Government. "We are proud to be the first in the world to offer the power of cloud computing to companies in Wuxi Tai Hu New Town Science and Education Industrial Park." 

Companies in the park will be able to access these common services provided by the center at any time -- just as they use utilities and other shared services. The technologies being offered to the community include IBM Rational software development tools, WebSphere Application Server software and DB2 database software running on IBM System x, System p and BladeCenter servers. IBM Tivoli systems management software will manage the cloud computing environment.