Talk about starting the year with a big bang! IBM has made headlines again, with two important developments over the last few days: increased cloud computing adoption via LotusLive and building alliances globally.

The New York-based consulting and technology mogul has just announced its move to intensify its utilization and adoption of the public cloud services of LotusLive. LotusLive is a group of business networking and collaboration cloud-based services that provide enterprises with integrated email, web conferencing features, social networking. This recent decision clinched by Forbes’ 33^rd largest company in the world is looking to support IBM’s direction to deliver better and faster solutions and interactions with a reduced computing cost.

The report also stated how confident IBM is with the emergence of cloud computing this 2011: “Adoption of cloud computing is on the rise. Recent IDC research shows that worldwide spending on cloud services will grow almost threefold, reaching $44.2 billion by 2013, as the cloud computing model offers a lower cost way for business to acquire and use IT (1).  With this rising interest and adoption, businesses across the world are embracing LotusLive public cloud services for easy-to-use collaboration tools to connect with colleagues, partners and suppliers quickly.”

IBM initially inked deals with Ariba and SugarCRM that will help clients obtain the benefits of social commerce and social CRM in the cloud. The company also named several clients that are sure to gain advantages from these cloud initiatives.  The list includes  Australian Bureau of Statistics, C&D Foods, Crawford & Company, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, General Milling Corporation, General Motors Component Holdings and the Zoo and the Aquarium Association of Australia.

In the coming months, expect IBM cloud adoption to strengthen the following areas: integrating collaboration and business processes in the cloud, adopting email in the cloud, and accelerating cloud collaboration. From the time 2011 opened, it has been sunny for IBM’s business. It went on to post $5.3 billion net income beat Wall Street Profit estimates of $4.08 billion. Next up is its collaboration with Range Technology to establish green data centers. Lastly, IBM is celebrating its 100 years of existence this year- a feat that is definitely tough to break, especially with the very unpredictable world of information technology.