A working definition for cloud computing—a new computer technique with potential for achieving significant cost savings and information technology agility—has been released by a team of computer security experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

In a move that could spur the rise of the nascent computing model known as "cloud," IBM (NYSE: IBM) today said it would introduce a program to validate the resiliency of any company delivering applications or services to clients in the cloud environment.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced new cloud computing services to help businesses of all sizes take advantage of this increasingly-attractive computing model. With today's announcements, IBM is applying its industry-specific consulting expertise and established technology record to offer secure, practical services to companies in public, private and hybrid cloud models.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today launched a company-wide initiative that extends its traditional software delivery model toward a mix of on-premise and cloud computing applications with new software, services and technical resources for clients and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs).

Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) will unveil its ninth cloud computing center worldwide in Tokyo, Japan. The center will give large enterprise customers, universities and governments immediate access to the resources they need to pilot cloud infrastructures and applications, and deliver new and innovative services to their customers.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the opening of new "cloud computing" centers in South Africa and China. Cloud computing enables the delivery of personal and business services from remote, centralized servers (the "cloud") that share computing resources and bandwidth -- to any device, anywhere.

In Shanghai today, IBM unveiled plans for “Blue Cloud,” a series of cloud computing offerings that will allow corporate data centers to operate more like the Internet by enabling computing across a distributed, globally accessible fabric of resources, rather than on local machines or remote server farms.