IBM announced a series of new servers, software and solutions to help enterprises create hybrid cloud environments.
At its IBM Edge 2015 conference in Las Vegas, IBM announced new servers and storage software and solutions designed for cloud computing. IBM also introduced flexible software licensing of its middleware to help clients speed up their adoption of hybrid cloud environments.
Businesses are increasingly adopting hybrid cloud environments to integrate existing technology investments with new workloads in the cloud driven by mobile, big data and social computing. These systems bring new waves of data that can make moving computing workloads around a challenge because they reside in a variety of on-premises data centers and inside public and private clouds. The combination of IBM Power Systems, IBM z Systems, IBM Spectrum Storage, IBM Middleware, IBM SoftLayer and OpenStack software can help clients more simply navigate between these environments and gain valuable insights on key business data, IBM said.
“IBM hybrid cloud solutions are built for the enterprise and clients are using them to help enable new business models to drive growth,” said Don Boulia, vice president of Cloud Services at IBM Systems, in a statement. “Hybrid cloud computing requires new levels of openness, dynamic data management, integration, automation and scalable performance in server, storage and software technologies. IBM brings all of these technologies together from on-premises data centers and inside public and private clouds to more efficiently manage traditional computing with new mobile, big data and social computing workloads.”
At IBM Edge Big Blue announced the IBM Power System E850, a four-socket system with flexible capacity and up to 70 percent guaranteed utilization. The E850 is an ideal solution for cloud service providers or medium and large enterprises looking to securely and efficiently deploy multi-tenancy workloads, while speeding access to data with larger in-memory databases with up to 4TB of installed memory, optimized for the peaks and valleys of business needs. IBM also introduced the IBM Power System E880, which can scale up to 192 cores. IBM testing has shown that critical data-intensive business workloads like IBM DB2 with BLU Acceleration exhibit ideal linear scaling all the way up to this capacity.
The new IBM PurePower System securely delivers insights in the cloud. It is managed with OpenStack and is adaptable to changing needs. PurePower System is Based on PowerVM which, in a search on National Vulnerabilities Database (web.nist.gov) has zero documented vulnerabilities over the last three years.
In addition, IBM introduced new storage technology. The new IBM Spectrum Control Storage Insights builds on the company’s $1 billion investment in IBM Spectrum Storage. This new software-as-a-services solution provides data management as a hybrid cloud service to optimize on-premises storage infrastructures. It provides clients with individual views into storage consumption at the department or application level. Deployed in as little as 30 minutes, Storage Insights simplifies storage management by improving storage visibility and applies analytics to ease capacity planning, enhance performance monitoring, improve storage utilization by reclaiming under-utilized storage and lower the cost of storage up to 50 percent per gigabyte by optimizing data placement, IBM said.
Meanwhile, the new IBM XIV GEN 3 is a new system designed for cloud with IBM Real-time Compression that reduces total cost of ownership. IBM XIV grid architecture integrated proven real-time compression technology can store 50 to 80 percent more data and with little or no application impact. This IBM unique enterprise storage capability reduces the cost per effective usable capacity. IBM XIV Gen3 has shown in large deployments an average of 42 percent lower total cost of ownership over three years than HP 3PAR.100000 equivalents, IBM said.
IBM Intros New Servers, Software, Solutions at Ede 2015
IBM also previewed a new active cloud archive service for clients to store large amounts of data and retrieve it on demand. This enterprise–grade cloud service is being piloted with IBM’s service partner Iron Mountain, and design partner clients with a variety of business use cases.
In the mainframe space, IBM introduced the Rocket Mainframe Data Access Service on Bluemix – IBM’s Platform as a Service. The service provides a simple, seamless and secure connection to data on the IBM z Systems mainframe for developing new mobile and hybrid cloud apps through Bluemix. Starting in June, clients can access a no-charge trial of the service, which provides universal access to the data, regardless of location interface or format.
“Zucchetti, a leading Italian IT provider and independent software vendor (ISV), has selected IBM Power Systems servers with POWER8 processors and Linux to deliver the company’s solutions portfolio via the cloud and speed application data up to three times faster. The company services more than 100,000 clients across various industries in Europe.
“IBM Power Systems allow us to bring our clients the capabilities they need while maintaining a high degree of security, availability and scalability,” said Gregorio Piccoli, CTO of Zucchetti, in a statement. “As the cloud market grows, the combination of Zucchetti’s applications and IBM POWER8 processor-based servers will enable new cloud and competitive opportunities, giving our company the edge it needs in the innovation arena.”
Nuance, a provider of voice and language solutions, is using IBM software- defined storage technology to store and manage data used in the development of its products.
“IBM Spectrum Control Storage Insights deploys very quickly from the cloud, and the browser- based tool is extremely easy to use,” said Bob Oesterlin, senior storage engineer for HPC Grid at Nuance Communications, in a statement. “This is particularly important to small IT teams that are tasked with ensuring storage is performing optimally but don’t have the resources to manage additional on-premises tools.”
IBM said it is helping its customers adopt the new technology with simplified licensing terms. Many IBM Software products are available for monthly licensing, including its WebSphere Application Server, starting at $166 per month, per core. Clients can freely move monthly licenses between on-premises and public and private clouds as needed including on IBM SoftLayer and third party clouds, the company said.
Customers are cloud-enabling existing enterprise applications and deploying them across on-premises and hybrid cloud environments using IBM PureApplication Service on SoftLayer. In June, IBM said it will deliver a self-service portal for clients to scale their infrastructure and software license footprint for hybrid deployments in minutes using PureApplication Service. A list of IBM Software capabilities available for hybrid clouds can be found here.