It’s getting crowded in the computing skies.
This week several developments occurred on the cloud computing front. For starters, it came to light that Dell Computer is attempting to claim the term as its own and has filed for a trademark patent.
Dell apparently filed an application with the United States Patent Office (USPO) on March 23, 2007 looking to trademark the term “cloud computing”. The application has reached the Notice of Allowance stage, where the company receives a notification that the application has survived the opposition period, a period in which parties are able to object to the proposed trademark. This does not mean that Dell has received the trademark - it’s just one step in a number of hurdles towards receiving the patent - but many in the industry were surprised to see Dell’s application had gotten this far.
In its application Dell describes cloud computing as: “Custom manufacture of computer hardware for use in data centers and mega-scale computing environments for others; customization of computer hardware for use in data centers and mega-scale computing environments for others; design and development of networks for use in data centers and mega-scale computing environments for others; Consulting services for data centers and mega-scale computing environments in the fields of design, selection, implementation, customization and use of computer hardware and software systems for others; Consulting services for data centers and mega-scale computing environments in the fields of design, selection, implementation, customization and use of computer hardware and software systems for others.”
In other words it wants to cover pretty much the gamut of cloud computing.
It remains to be seen whether Dell will be successful in its attempt to claim the term for itself. There is no doubt that it is a leading player. Through its Cloud Computing Solutions division it offers a wide range of data center designs, hardware and services. But it is becoming an increasingly crowded field. Technology giants Google, Amazon and IBM are already major players in this field and Microsoft and Apple have been busy ramping up their offerings.
This week AT&T also announced that it was getting into the game. The company launched what it is calling AT&T Synaptic Hosting, a utility computing service with managed networking, security and storage for businesses.
The new offering is part of a $1 billion planned network investment in 2008 and combines technology acquired from USinternetworking with “super Internet data centers” in the U.S., Europe and Asia. The five super data centers will be located in Piscataway, N.J., San Diego, Annapolis, Md., Singapore, and Amsterdam.
As part of the launch AT&T said one of its first customers is the U.S. Olympic Committee.
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