In the Cloud Computing Gold Rush of '08, IBM has decided to play the storekeep rather than the prospector, and stick with the reliable business of selling pickaxes to all parties instead of grubbing around in the mud with all those hoping for a strike with the new business model.

Big Blue made a series of announcements yesterday for services revolving around consulting, design, and implementation of cloud models, as well as specific security services and "resiliency validation" for cloud services.

IBM business consultants will help clients model the economic benefits of transitioning to cloud models, and help strike a balance between internal and external services which will be of most benefit. Although IBM continues to dabble with its own cloud services, it seems to have decided that it may be both more fun and more profitable to stay out of direct competition with the likes of Amazon and Microsoft in favor of standing back and critiquing and making recommendations to clients seeking to move their operations to those services.

It's inevitable that such consulting operations will spring up around the major providers, and the only surprise is that it's IBM jumping in early on that side of the game rather than trying to compete directly. It's a smart move; Microsoft has good reasons to roll out a cloud initiative to try to hang on to their customers as the market in general moves that direction, and Amazon, Google, and other major players in existing Internet spaces have the hardware and expertise to make a play without any significant retooling. IBM is in neither camp, but has a good reputation and a name that carries some respect with it, and as prospective cloud adoptees search for third-party advice and validation around the model, it seems a good bet that they will turn to IBM before some unknown startup claiming expertise in the field.