IBM readies virtual enterprise demo

IBM and Linden Lab announce joint project to create secure virtual worlds for businesses

IBM and creator of the virtual world Second Life, Linden Lab, are developing enterprise solutions for the creation of virtual worlds, they announced at the Virtual Worlds 2008 conference in New York.

The purpose of the solution is to give enterprises an opportunity to deploy virtual worlds securely and quickly. The solution will combine the operation scale and security of IBM’s BladeCenter with Second Life’s content creation tools and user community.

To demonstrate the solution, IBM will be hosting the Second Life Grid behind its own firewall. The Second Life Grid is a platform that allows organisations to create a virtual world environment using Linen Lab’s 3-D online virtual world technology.

“We share a vision that virtual world technologies and collaboration represent the future of business communication,” said Ginsu Yoon, Linden Lab business affairs vice president. “Deploying regions of the Second Life Grid behind IBM’s firewall is a major milestone in the evolution of the Internet and will help accelerate he growth and adoption of all virtual worlds.”

IBM has been leading the IT industry in experimenting with virtual worlds. For example, IBM uses the worlds to connect its alumni and for staging meetings and demonstrations with current employees. They have also built virtual retail storefronts for clients such as Sears and Circuit City.