iSoftStone Holdings Limited and International Business Machines announced a collaboration to build XB-CLOUD, a cloud service platform for small and medium-sized enterprises in Northwest China. The two companies, together with Industry and IT Committee of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Municipal Government, and China Mobile Gansu also recently officially established the Cloud Service Association for SMEs of Gansu Province. These initiatives aim at facilitating SMEs' daily operations through efficient use of cloud computing and promote Lanzhou as a model of the Northwest China in using advance technology to drive industries' growth.

The establishment of XB-CLOUD and Cloud Service Association for SMEs of Gansu Province is an extension of the Cloud Computing Service Center for SMEs in Northwest China co-launched by Lanzhou Municipal Government, China Mobile Gansu and IBM last year. The Cloud Computing Service Center has been built in China Mobile Gansu's Xigu premises, and the initial phase of cloud computing services platform and application development are completed.