IBM Servers, Software and Solutions to Accelerate Hybrid Cloud Computing

In a move to help more clients create hybrid cloud computing environments, IBM Corp. announced servers and storage software and solutions designed for cloud computing.

IBM also revealed flexible software licensing of its middleware to help clients speed up their adoption of hybrid cloud environments.

IBM PurePower Server
Businesses are increasingly adopting hybrid cloud environments to integrate existing technology investments (systems of record) with new workloads in the cloud (systems of engagement) 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 Power Systems, z Systems, Spectrum Storage, Middleware, SoftLayer and OpenStack software can help clients simply navigate between these environments and gain valuable insights on key business data.

IBM PurePower Server

“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, VP, cloud services, IBM Systems. “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.“

Power Systems, Spectrum Storage, z Systems and big storage solutions for hybrid clouds

IBM Power System E850

• Power System E850 – Introducing a 4-socket system with flexible capacity and up to 70% guaranteed utilization.^[1] The E850 is an 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 Power System E880

• Power System E880 – In conjunction with our latest enhancements to the E880 that allow it to scale to an unprecedented 192 cores, IBM testing has shown that critical data-intensive business workloads like DB2 with BLU Acceleration exhibit ideal linear scaling all the way up to this capacity. That means that cloud deployments will experience rduced loss of efficiency when scaling at this level – a capability that does not exist on commodity hardware.

• PurePower System – Quick-to-deploy compute, networking and storage converged infrastructure with advanced security capabilities. Securely deliver insights in the cloud; managed with OpenStack and adaptable to changing needs, PurePower offers rapid implementation and ROI with up to 12X greater workload density ^[2] than select competitors and a virtualization hypervisor with zero documented vulnerabilities.^[3]

• Spectrum Control Storage Insights – Building on its $1 billion investment in Spectrum Storage, this 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% per gigabyte by optimizing data placement.

IBM XIV storage system architecture
click to enlarge

• XIV GEN 3 – This system designed for cloud with IBM real-time compression that reduces TCO. XIV grid architecture integrated proven real-time compression technology can store 50 to 80% more data and with little or no application impact. This enterprise storage capability dramatically reduces the cost per effective usable capacity. Combined with low cost of management, power efficiency, and patented compression, XIV Gen3 has shown in large deployments an average of 42% lower TCO over three years than HP 3PAR.100000 equivalents. ^[4]

• Big storage technology – A technology preview of a active cloud archive service for clients to store large amounts of data and easily retrieve it on demand, at the lowest cost possible. This enterprise grade cloud service is being piloted with our service partner Iron Mountain, Inc., and design partner clients with a variety of business use cases.

• Rocket’s mainframe data access service on Bluemix: Provides clients a simple, and secure connection to data on the z Systems mainframe for development of 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, including VSAM, ADABAS, IMS, CICS and DB2, SMF, tape and Sys Logs, and allows access to that data through methods developers prefer, including MongoDB APIs, JDBC, web services, SQL and the REST protocol via z/OS Connect.

Zucchetti Group, a Italian IT provider and independent software vendor (ISV), has selected 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 manufacturing, retail, banking, legal and government industries across 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, Zucchetti Group. “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 Communications, Inc. is a provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. The Burlington, MA based company’s speech solutions support up to 50 different languages and are used by nearly two-thirds of Fortune 100 companies. The company uses IBM software-defined storage technology to store and manage its 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, HPC Grid, Nuance Communications Inc. “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.“

Flexible IBM software licensing for hybrid clouds
Many IBM software products are available for monthly licensing including its WebSphere Application Server starting at $166 per month, per core. Clients can move monthly licenses between on-premises and public an private clouds as needed including on SoftLayer and third party clouds.

Clients are cloud enabling existing enterprise applications and deploying across on-premises and hybrid cloud environments without changing these applications using PureApplication Service on SoftLayer. In June, IBM will deliver a self-service portal for clients to scale their infrastructure and software license footprint for hybrid deployments in minutes using PureApplication Service.

IBM is offering try-before-you-buy access to key middleware software products for hybrid cloud computing. For a limited time, clients can use WebSphere Application Server on-premises and run the same capacity in a public cloud at no-charge.

IBM is provider in cloud with a portfolio of open cloud solutions to enable customers for the hybrid cloud era with integration, control over data and expertise. IBM cloud has helped more than 30,000 clients around the world.

^[1] Subject to the terms and conditions of this performance guarantee program, the Power E550 server (machine type-model 8408-E8E) shall perform according to its specifications when operating at an up to 70% utilization.
^[2] See Why your virtualization matters report, page 21, 2014 Solitaire Interglobal, Ltd.
^[3] PurePower System is based on PowerVM which, in a search on National Vulnerabilities Database has zero documented vulnerabilities over the last three years.
^[4] International Technology Group, IBM XIV Storage System and HP 3PAR StoreServComparing costs and capabilities for cloud deployments.