The new Sun Cloud Strategic Planning Service is aimed at helping customers understand how the efficiencies of cloud computing will impact their IT infrastructures, said Amy O'Connor, vice president of services marketing for Sun.

Cloud computing is a way to dynamically combine and scale server, storage, networking and other resources outside a company's own traditional data center for such purposes as remote data storage or running Software-as-a-Service. A company can build an internal cloud, which allows those resources to be available for its own purposes, or can use external clouds, which are available over the Internet.

However, it is only one of several technologies, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and virtualization, which customers are considering as ways to gain more efficiency from their IT infrastructures, O'Connor said.

"All our services are based on customer requirements, one of which could be working with the cloud," she said.

Sun's push into cloud services stems from the fact that it has a $1 billion services business with people who understand where the cloud is going, and who understand what it takes to improve data center efficiency, O'Connor said.

The initial services Sun is offering to customers include strategic planning for the cloud, architecting for cloud computing and data center efficiency, implementation and management, she said.

Sun has already laid out much of the groundwork for getting its channel partners involved in cloud computing services, including a deal-registration program that makes it clear that the channel partner owns the customer relationship, and a very clear subcontracting system, O'Connor said.

"Our channel partners can work with us in a co-engagement model to deliver these services," she said.

The services are applicable regardless of whether customers require public cloud computing, which is external to their own data center, or private clouds, which are built inside the corporate firewall, O'Connor said.