IBM Takes Second Life Behind Firewalls

There's always been interest in using Second Life for business. For most corporations, though, it's been too insecure, lacking the ability to hold determinedly private conversations, host the platform behind a firewall, or generally treat the world as an intranet as opposed to the Internet. IBM announced today that it was changing that. In a pilot program, IBM will host its own sections of the Second Life Grid behind a firewall, allowing the company's users to come and go between private and public spaces at will."As virtual world technologies and platforms become more commonplace, we see a need for an enterprise-ready solution that offers the same content creation capabilities of Second Life but adds new levels of security and scalability,"  Colin Parris, vice president, Digital Convergence, IBM, said in a statement. "Combining IBM and Linden Lab’s solutions together has the potential to make custom-created environments a viable option for enterprises."

Running on IBM's  BladeCenter, the private sections will be blocked off from regular Second Life users, though IBM employees will be able to transition between locations without exiting Second Life. The two companies plan to work together through the pilot program to explore the benefits of allowing  enterprises to develop and host private virtual worlds.

"The Second Life Grid was built to allow enterprises to reap the benefits and methodologies of virtual worlds," said Ginsu Yoon, Vice President of Business Affairs, Linden Lab. "We share a vision that virtual world technologies and collaboration represent the future of business communication. 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 the growth and adoption of all virtual worlds."

With Mutliverse's announcement yesterday of services targeting enterprises and a similar plan of allowing companies to host their own private worlds accessible with the same browser as public worlds, it seems safe to say that the virtual worlds industry is seeing another shift in direction.

While businesses first launched into Second Life for marketing and PR, developers and investors have recently begun focusing on media, entertainment, and kids worlds. That market's still going strong, but there's a renewed interest in business applications.  (I can also tell you that tomorrow morning will bring more than a few additional announcements aimed at enterprises.)

Towards that end, IBM and Linden say they are also exploring solutions for interoperability between virtual worlds, as announced in October, and plan continued cooperation with industry-wide efforts.

Comments

[Prokofy Neva]

"It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)."

[len]

The web prefers enablers to disablers.

Taking it behind the firewalls is the natural next step for a technology applied to cultures where walled gardens, elites and hierarchies are a means of prospering. It isn't a world as you know it ending, Prok; it is worlds you aren't a part of beginning.

"Baby's good to me you know, she's happy as can be you know, she said so..."

[Rip]

Prokofy face it, you need to embrace change, and stop trying to put up barriers. Not everyone sees the world the way you do.

[roger]

Prokofy has an informed and accurate view on the IBM strategy. Better still, check out the 'evangelist' execution in the comments:

http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2008/04/i-be-am.html