Bloomberg
December 22, 2010
By Katie Hoffmann
- The system will help the military command pull together information from sources such as radar systems, cameras or infrared images that had been separated.
International Business Machines Corp., the world’s biggest computer-services provider, is building a cloud-computing system for NATO in the first such deal for the international military alliance.
The software and hardware will let NATO more quickly collect and analyze data, such as military intelligence in Afghanistan, said E.J. Herold, head of the project for IBM. NATO’s military command department in Norfolk, Virginia, will use the technology first, with the possibility it will expand to other divisions, he said. Terms of the accord weren’t disclosed.
IBM gains a foothold for similar projects for NATO’s other departments, as well as its 28 member countries. The Armonk, New York-based company is betting cloud computing, which helps customers save money by letting them store and access data via the Internet, will be a $3 billion business by 2015.
