International Business Machines Corp. and Google Inc. said they are starting a program on college campuses to promote computer-programming techniques for clusters of processors known as "clouds."
In a joint telephone interview, IBM Chief Executive Samuel Palmisano and Google CEO Eric Schmidt said each company will spend between $20 million and $25 million for hardware, software and services that can be used by computer-science professors and students.
So-called cloud computing -- which lately has attracted the attention of many tech giants, including Microsoft Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. -- allows computers in remote data centers to run parallel, increasing their processing power.
The cloud can run many software applications and can be accessed by many users. It promises to allow companies and universities to share resources and not have to expand their own costly data centers. However, the concept poses daunting questions about security, reliability and ease of use.
In this case, IBM and Google will start by providing some 400 computers, with plans to expand to 4,000, at a number of locations. The computers will be accessible from six universities, led by University of Washington in Seattle, where some of the programming techniques were developed. The other pilot universities are Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley and University of Maryland.
Mr. Palmisano said the idea for collaboration between the two companies developed when he and Mr. Schmidt met at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., last December. They realized they held similar views on the future of cloud computing, which forms the basis of the computer architecture Google uses for its popular search service.
Mr. Palmisano said scientists from each company have expertise that will aid the project. He pointed to IBM's skills at running data centers and managing computer security. Google provides "complementary expertise in Web computing and massively scaled clusters," he said.
The two men said they also shared concerns that computer-science schools were focused on teaching students how to program a single server and not giving them opportunities to learn about parallel programming.
Frank Gens, an analyst with market-research concern IDC in Framingham, Mass., said the companies also are united by a rivalry with Microsoft, and "they'd like to influence the future of online business before Microsoft extends its influence." IBM and Google stressed that much of the infrastructure will be open-source programs that are freely available, rather than proprietary software programs such as those sold by Microsoft.
Microsoft is developing its own approach to cloud computing, as is Hewlett-Packard Co., said executives at the companies. Microsoft hopes to use its expertise in operating systems to develop ways to manage the large numbers of computers used in cloud computing, executives at the software maker said.
Mervyn Adrian, an analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., said, "This is the next generation of computer architecture, and IBM wants to get in front of it." He noted that many students use Google applications and said that "IBM wants to leverage that."
Google's Mr. Schmidt said "IBM doesn't get credit for their architecture because they're held back by the image of the mainframe." But he said IBM's expertise in running data centers and developing software that many companies use to run their computer infrastructures makes it "the logical leader in cloud computing."
Mr. Palmisano said the firms are trying to "take these two sets of skills -- IBM's understanding of how enterprises use computing and Google's understanding of massive data flows and high-speed connections -- and we believe we can create something significant." He jokingly characterized the project as combining Google's young engineers and "the old fat guys" at IBM.
Write to William M. Bulkeley at bill.bulkeley@wsj.com
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