Computing giant IBM on Monday unveiled a cloud computing strategy and an array of products and services designed to position the company as an experienced alternative to rivals such as Google, Amazon.com, Microsoft,  and AT&T.

Cloud computing, which is also called hosted services and software-as-a-service, is corporate computing that does not reside at the user’s premises. Instead it is owned by a service provider and users access the resources via the Internet.

Businesses pay for only the amount of computing power they need so they can dial up more resources or dial it down based on their computing needs.

The technology and service have been around for a numberof years, but until the last few months it has been developed and delivered primarily by smaller companies. The technology is increasingly attracting a slew of large players including Google, AT&T, Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and Dell.

Unlike the others, IBM is not yet offering commercial cloud computing services directly to business users. Instead it is helping clients and partners integrate cloud services into their businesses and delivering its own traditional software via the cloud.

“If you look at what FedEx and UPS are doing in allowing customers to track a package, that’s cloud computing even if we don’t tend to think of it as such,” said Sean Poulley, IBM’s vice president, online collaboration services.

IBM sees itself as a facilitator rather than a service provider. Companies such as Google, Amazon, and AT&T are using their data centers and immense storage resources to offer cloud services primarily to smaller companies and consumers.

But IBM made one exception to its no-direct-services rule. The company launched a free open beta of Bluehouse, a social networking and collaboration cloud service that allows people from different companies to collaborate securely. Bluehouse lets people share contacts and documents, hold online meetings, and build social-networking communities.

“We think we know a thing or two about collaboration, so that’s why you see us coming to market with our own online collaboration service,” Mr. Poulley said. “We think it solves a problem most businesses have with how they interact with their customers and partners beyond the boundariesof their own company.”

IBM also announced a web conferencing technology called Lotus Sametime Unyte, along with IBM Rational Policy Tester OnDemand, which can test for online risk and compliance.