Inside IBM's only European Cloud Centre

There is nothing very high-tech-looking about the Cloud Centre. In the main, it looks like any other place for holding seminars.

IBM said a number of times during our visit that it sees the cloud in every part of everything that it does as a company, and that it is looking for any application that can have a useful role in it.

For example, IBM is looking at using the cloud to handle data tasks for large-scale, complex graphics, such as those used in modern animated movies. The company explained there are two parts to producing high-quality animation: the main processing and the rendering of the images. Of the two, the rendering is the heavier task, and this can routinely take a lot of time to complete, even when done by modern supercomputers.

IBM is working on the theory that the cloud could allow this work to be spread around many systems. Large numbers of small computers gathered in its cloud could produce the next animated blockbuster at less cost than a supercomputer.