What are private clouds?  They are resources that enables businesses to run applications and sources using virtualized workloads.  The servers that run the applications are generally configured by IT departments across various data centers.

IBM’s WebSphere Appliance stores virtualized images of applications in their xSeries servers.  When the customers are ready, the applications can be plugged into private clouds and can be called upon on demand.

As of right now, the virtualized images will be store in VMware ESX Server file formats.  Other formats will follow in the near future according to Tom Rosamilia, GM of apps and integration middleware at IBM.

The WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition will also be stored as a virtualized image that can be called on demand.  The Hypervisor Edition is part of IBM’s WebSphere Application Server line of products and will be running on the x86 server series.  The appliance and server will cost roughly $45,000.