IBM on Monday announced a rating system so that businesses interested in shopping for cloud computing can validate the capabilities of the hundreds of service providers.

The Resilient Cloud Validation program will test cloud computing service providers for the stability of their systems, potential for outages, trustworthiness, security, and resiliency.

“CIOs usually want to see a two- or three-year track record before they commit their workloads, but there may be some time compression because of the economy and the appeal of cloud computing,” said Michael West, vice president of research and consulting firm Saugatuck Technology. “IBM lending its brand validation offers the kind of confidence people are looking for.”

Cloud computing, or corporate computing that a business neither owns nor keeps on premise, has been around through various names and phases for a decade.

Until now it has existed on the periphery of corporate IT, but in the last few years the emergence of broadband and new application programming techniques has pushed cloud computing into the mainstream.

IBM, one of the first major IT products and services firms to commit to cloud computing, has more than 200 cloud computing partners, many of which are startups or small firms moving into the cloud computing services market. (IBM Gears for War With Cisco)

IBM does not offer cloud computing services directly to businesses, but it has staked out a role as a hardware and middleware supplier and a facilitator of the cloud computing market. (IBM Sails for Cloud Computing)

IBM’s brain trust expects large businesses to pick and choose from among an array of non-core business applications such as expense reporting and human resources to farm out to the cloud.