bluehouse.lotus.comIBM announced it's cloud services today here is the link for more details about the press release. (http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/25341.wss)

Products include Bluehouse (SaaS Collaboration Services, https://bluehouse.lotus/ ), AppScan (Application Security)  and SametimeUnyte ( http://www.sametimeunyte.com/ ). Sofar I have been really impressed with the products I have used sofar. Recently I had the opportunity to participate in a 3 hour hands on demonstration for AppScan here in San Francisco. The presentation exceeded my expectations from a traditional hands on traning from different vendors. Sure there was the introduction to the enterprise version of the tool but also when someone asked if AppScan was also available as SaaS, the normal look of "say what?" was replaced with sure SaaS, we got it you can signed up via computer with no server software to deploy and manage.

AppScan includes a living library of application security processes and solutions for keeping your online applications secure from online hacking threats. A lot of times when your focus is on architecture and systems engineering you loose site of the new security threats that are at risk. Thats where AppScan came in to help with my business application security process. For small businesses without the budget for a Chief Security Officer and crowd the SaaS version of the tool is a no brainer. Security on demand. 

First look at BlueHouse was pretty impressive, this tool operates simular to LinkedIn that has an enterprise Webex built in, and the url reminded from alot of the enterprise colloboration tools from Lotus http://bluehouse.lotus.com/ . After the simple signup process there is the immediate opportunity for hosting a meeting.

BlueHost worked perfectly on the first shot, once you hit join a meeting the meeting session begins and you can add email address to whoever needs to join. Also the URL's have improved compared to Webex or other collaboration tools. The URL to my meeting is one you can actually remeber, which is pretty handy when traveling or putting it on a business card. May even improve the value for you business card.

Hope this helps get a short view of the new IBM cloud offerings.

Jason Meiers

CAM Solutions

https://bluehouse.lotus.com/meetings/join?id=415-135