In today’s world everything is moving to the clouds and virtualization is literally the norm rather than an exception. Some of the companies specialize in providing such virtual services and applications.  VMWare is one these companies which has a virtual solution to the needs of all kinds of clients, from a humble individual requiring desktop services to sophisticated organizations requiring virtual data centers and cloud computing facilities.

Several decades ago, IBM was a giant in the PC sector (IBM gave a big boost to the use of the term “personal computer” with its IBM PC product of the early 1980s). Being “IBM compatible” was a selling point for many machines manufactured by other companies. Over the past 10 to 15 years, IBM has moved steadily away from the hardware sector, focusing instead on IT services. With its release of the eX5 server, however, IBM appears to be making something of a return to hardware.

Bloom Energy was founded in 2001 and has its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The company has a legacy in innovation in the production and consumption of energy. For instance, they have come up with unique on- site power generation systems and technology that produces reliable and affordable power from both traditional and renewable fuels.

One of their products is the solid oxide fuel cell which is the result of decades of research and surmounting challenges associated with commercializing this new technology. Solid oxide fuel cells offer the advantages of low cost ceramic material and high electrical efficiency but also operate at very high temperature and therefore pose engineering challenges. Bloom has worked hard at addressing these issues.

Google is known for its mega presence all over the globe. Google Inc was founded in 1998 and has gone beyond being a search engine. It now has several notches on its corporate belt – productivity software, public cloud computing, social networking tools, mobile phone operating system and quite recently, Google Energy.