Much has already been said about the healing power of music. But would it ever occur to you to link the healing of broken bones with composing a power ballad? Of course not. Unless you considered the companies that create the tools that help accomplish those feats. Suddenly, the common threads start revealing themselves.

It's about making connections.

Connecting is one of the most powerful things we do as human beings. How we connect is evolving dramatically (we've only just begun to connect digitally — Facebook isn't that old). For instance, we've started to rely on the cloud as a means of storing and sharing all kinds of data, like documents and media. But file sharing is one thing. Creating online tools that can complement a surgeon's scalpel or a guitarist's favorite pick is entirely another. That takes some serious computing power.

Music Mastermind needed that kind of power. Based in Los Angeles, Music Mastermind is an innovative entertainment startup dedicated to creating powerful music-authoring applications. They built Zya, a service that allows users to compose music without traditional musical training. Making music is pretty processor-intensive, and they quickly found that in order to provide a lightweight yet robust solution for their users, they needed to do the heavy lifting themselves. For their designers to build Zya, they'd need a costly server infrastructure that could handle the load, and they simply didn't have the time or money to pull it off.

Finceramica found itself in a similar bind. Finceramica is a biotech company based in Faenza, Italy. They manufacture a unique, custom-made bioceramic material for cranioplasty,which allows bone regeneration in patients who have suffered traumatic skull injuries. The company also works with surgeons worldwide to provide prostheses to people in need. However, actually creating these custom implants was bogged down by 20th-century limitations. To make the implants, surgeons and engineers had to share patient data like CT scans and 3-D prototypes via courier, increasing the chances of human error and delay.

Both of these companies needed a better means of connecting people to shoot their innovative ideas into the stratosphere. They both turned to the cloud.

Music Mastermind teamed up with IBM business partner Micro Strategies, Inc. to quickly and cost-effectively launch a hybrid cloud environment that combined a private cloud architecture with an IBM cloud solution. After shifting to IBM SoftLayer, the company's programmers could continue to tap into their newfound power to help turn Zya into a scalable and fully realized platform for its users. What's more, they could expand and perform a seamless global rollout for Zya, freeing up time to create a revolutionary new music creation game.

Meanwhile, Finceramica joined with Tecla.it to facilitate more effective interactions between surgeons and the engineers creating vital bone implants. They were able to create the Custom Bone Service, a fully integrated and highly secure web portal in the private cloud, which helps surgeons create new clinical cases from virtually any modern browser. They could then upload CT scan data, which aided Finceramica's engineers in constructing 3-D models for custom-made implants. This process allowed Finceramica to reduce its workload by 30 percent.

Connecting is fundamental to any business bent on innovating. Check out IBM's array of cloud business products, and you'll soon see all the ways you can start connecting to people who matter.

Infographic illustration by Tim Van den Broeck

This post is a sponsored collaboration between IBM and Studio@Gawker.