IBM leads techs in seeking open “cloud” computing

IBM led dozens of tech companies in calling on Monday for open standards to promote “cloud” computing, a fledgling technology the industry hopes will drive growth over the coming decade.

But rival Microsoft Corp dismissed the effort, accusing International Business Machines Corp of seeking to exert control of the field, while cloud-computing pioneers Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc, Salesforce.com Inc were conspicuously absent from a list of companies endorsing it.

“Cloud computing” — one of the hottest buzz words in Silicon Valley — refers to a variety of ways in which technology companies offer services over the Web from remote data centers, seemingly from the cloud of the Internet.

Read more on Reuters by Jim Finkle