Why SoftLayer can't lift IBM into the clouds

There are only three major cloud companies, and try as it might, IBM isn't going to change that in the near-term with its acquisition of SoftLayer.

This is because the three major public clouds – Amazon Web Services, Windows Azure, and Google Compute Engine – are each supported by a consumer internet giant.

These internet titans have all built their own planet-spanning networks of data centers and edge locations to serve massive (and growing) consumer markets like gaming (Microsoft), advertising (Google), and retail (Amazon), along with a host of other secondary – but still significant – businesses and services.