ARMONK, N.Y., May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- As businesses
embrace the transformative power of cloud computing to gain a
significant advantage, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today
unveiled advancements to its SmartCloud Services and announced new
customers and partners that demonstrate IBM SmartCloud is a leading
enterprise cloud platform for business.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO
)
IBM has seen rapid adoption of its SmartCloud portfolio as
customers and partners move to the cloud. IBM manages massive
amounts of data and client transactions in itscloud environments,
including:
- 1 million enterprise application users working on the
IBM Cloud
- More than$100 billionin
commerce transactions a year in the cloud
- 4.5 million daily client transactions conducted through
the IBM Cloud
Customers and partners are increasingly choosing IBM SmartCloud
services, software and hardware to expand into new markets, enable
their mobile workforces and develop enterprise applications more
efficiently.
"Companies are starting to understand that cloud is more than
just about gaining efficiencies and cost savings, it's about
driving the kind of fundamental innovation that provides lasting
marketplace advantage," said Paul
Loftus, general manager, IBM Global Technology Services. "We
are helping all kinds of clients manage enterprise applications and
processes in the cloud as well as leverage new cloud centric
applications while meeting their unique requirements for
governance, security and portability."
Open Innovation in the Cloud
TopCoder®, Inc.,
the world's largest Open Innovation Community of digital creators,
is moving its global community of more than 400,000 developers -
the largest community of its kind – to IBM SmartCloud
Enterprise. These developers help organizations succeed by
efficiently and effectively supporting their entire innovation
process—from ideation, software engineering and analytics to
implementation, testing and support.
TopCoder provides high quality application development, mobile
development, user experience and graphic design, and big data
project work through this competitive, multi-disciplinary, global
community of developers.
SmartCloud for SAP Applications
Ogilvy & Mather, an international advertising, marketing and
public relations agency, also turned to IBM to solve its critical
business need to upgrade their IT environment. The IBM team is in
the process of migrating Ogilvy from its current hosted environment
to the SmartCloud for SAP Applications hosted in IBM's
state-of-the-art, green Smarter Data Center in Raleigh North Carolina.
The Ogilvy solution includes the latest infrastructure
technology, full SAP service and is pre-built, pre-configured,
requiring minimal client resources to maintain their entire
production SAP landscape. IBM's SAP Cloud solution also offers
Ogilvy the benefits of solution scalability, and the ability to add
resources for development projects with a short term
commitment.
"Given the attention to cloud-based solutions, it's easy to be
overwhelmed with comparisons and multiple options. However, when it
comes to critical applications like SAP, we were looking for a
mature model that could scale and cater to our unique
prerequisites," said Yuri Aguiar,
Senior Partner and CIO, Ogilvy & Mather. "The SCE+ offering fit
this need very well and had the backing of a reliable
global partner."
Smarter Marketing in the Cloud
OTRUM, a leading
provider of interactive TV solutions and content to the hospitality
industry, utilizes the Cognos analytics tool from IBM to handle
marketing campaigns and highlight repeat behavior patterns
associated with guest interaction and purchasing. This solution
leverages Cognos on SmartCloud Enterprise to deliver custom
analytics to over 500 hotels.
OTRUM has now fully migrated all digital signage clients to the
IBM SmartCloud Enterprise, a move that eliminates the need for
hundreds of physical servers at customer sites. As well as reducing
hardware, the cloud increases efficiency by allowing for central
management and distribution of data.
Expanding IBM Platform-as-a-Service
Launched as
a platform-as-a-service beta program in October 2011, IBM's SmartCloud Application
Services (SCAS) is expanding to a full pilot with new customers
such as CLD Partners, a leading provider of IT consulting services
with a particular focus on cloud computing.
"We share IBM's vision for how enterprise customers can achieve
huge productivity gains by embracing cloud technologies. SCAS
allowed us to utilize world class software in a managed environment
that greatly reduced the complexity of the deployment while also
providing for future scalability that our customers only pay for
when they need it," said Steve
Clune, Founder and CEO of CLD Partners. "Ultimately,
traditional infrastructure planning and configuration that would
have required weeks was literally reduced to hours. And future
flexibility as infrastructure needs change is virtually
limitless."
Connected Healthcare in the Cloud
IBM is
helping improve healthcare delivery in Haiti through its collaboration with 'Colleagues in
Care' Global Healthcare Network. Colleagues in Care is using
the IBM SmartCloud for Social Business to virtually
connect medical workers and volunteers from around the globe. Using
the IBM SmartCloud, the volunteers and those on the front lines
taking care of patients are armed with an online medical knowledge
system that includes treatment options, clinical pathways, and best
practices specific to the situation in Haiti.
The network consists of approximately 200 doctors, nurses, and
business professionals coming together virtually from all around
the globe including Canada,
China, Haiti, France, Ireland, Italy, the United
Kingdom, and the United
States.
To learn more about the work in Haiti, see the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWvcg08-h-w
For additional details about the project, read the following
press release: http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/37743.wss
Additional new clients, including RICOH Company, Ltd.,
Neiman Marcus, University of Texas El Paso, Hindustan Motors,
Bonduelle and Apave have chosen IBM's SmartCloud to help drive
social business adoption across the enterprise. Using IBM social
networking tools in the cloud, these organizations are seamlessly
collaborating and sharing information and ideas, resulting in
increased efficiency and productivity in a security-rich and
cost-effective environment.
For these social businesses, IBM is also introducing IBM
SmartCloud Archive Essentials, a cost-effective email archiving
solution. IBM SmartCloud Archive Essentials provides customers with
the confidence of knowing their email is archived continuously and
securely, while making the data accessible for compliance and
e-discovery requirements in the IBM SmartCloud.
Ready for IBM SmartCloud Services
Launched in
February, IBM's Ready for IBM SmartCloud Servicesvalidation
continues to grow with over 30 new Independent Software Vendors
(ISVs) and partners,making it easier for clients to quickly find
technology from Business Partners that are validated for IBM
SmartCloud Services. In the new online directory, certified Business Partner
technologies are divided into categories such as business
applications, collaboration, development and test tools,
infrastructure services, and security and monitoring.
New ISVs and partners include AppZero, Cloud Prime, Cohesive FT,
Convertigo, Corent, Jaspersoft, NViso, SOASTA, Sproxil, SugarCRM,
Vacava, Vision Solutions, Zementis, among many others.
Additionally, IBM is announcing new and expanded capabilities to
its SmartCloud portfolio, including:
SmartCloud Enterprise 2.1
- Offering new and enhanced functionality in a simple to deploy,
robust infrastructure-as-a-service (IAAS) for building and
deploying innovative applications that can optionally integrate
with private cloud and traditional IT elements.
- New service level agreement (SLA) of 99.9% SmartCloud
Enterprise gives clients confidence in factoring cloud-centric
applications for a broad array of workloads.
- Two new Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems; Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5.8 will add new and improved functionality for
enhanced performance, flexibility and security while Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 6.2 delivers improvements in virtualization,
resource management and high availability, and offers new features
in storage, file system performance and identity management.
- Upgrades to the persistent storage system, enabling increased
speed and performance, and upgrades to embedded KVM hypervisors
providing greater security and performance improvements.
SmartCloud Enterprise +
- Now available in North America
and Europe with plans for
additional global roll-out in 3rd quarter 2012.
- Unprecedented support for both x86 and P-Series - running
operating systems including Windows, Linux and AIX on top of either
VMWare or PowerVM hypervisors, and delivered with the proven
expertise of IBM services.
- Migration Services for SmartCloud Enterprise+ with patented
tools and methods to help clients speed up transition from
traditional outsourcing to cloud is projected to be available in
3rd quarter 2012.
- SCE+ is designed to support different workloads and associated
technology platforms including a new System z shared environment
that will be available in the U.S. and U.K. later this
year.
SmartCloud Application Services
- IBM's platform-as-a-service (PaaS)will now be more widely
available to select customers moving from beta to pilot stage.
Customers will be able to take advantage of both Application
Workload Service as well as Collaborative Lifecycle Management
Service to develop and deploy applications on top of SmartCloud
Enterprise to jump-start their SmartCloud Application Services (SCAS)
projects.
- While in the pilot phase, customers will be able to use
SmartCloud Application Services at no charge, except for the
underlying IBM SmartCloud Enterprise infrastructure used by the
SCAS pilot services.
- Available in English around the world, the SmartCloud
Application Services pilot will run from May
15th until general availability projected for 3rd quarter
2012.
- As part of the broader IBM SmartCloud family, SmartCloud
Application Services are compatible with the newly announced IBM
PureSystems family. For example, through SmartCloud Application
Services clients can rapidly design, develop, and test their
dynamic applications on IBM's public cloud and deploy those same
applications on a private cloud built with PureApplication Systems,
or vice versa.
Across both IBM SmartCloud Enterprise and Enterprise+, IBM now
supports Microsoft License Mobility program. Offering new flexible
options for deploying Microsoft applications, such as Microsoft
Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint Server, and Microsoft SQL
Server on IBM's SmartCloud Enterprise, customers can choose between
deploying Microsoft applications on premises or on IBM's SmartCloud
leveraging the value of volume licenses with Microsoft's Software
Assurance. This option can help customers lower operating costs
using IBM's SmartCloud shared infrastructure.
Financing provided by IBM Global Financing, the lending and
leasing arm of IBM, helps credit-qualified clients make the
transition to cloud computing with low-rate financing for cloud
solutions and zero percent loans for IBM software. Financing
helps clients accelerates their cloud project's cash flow
break-even point by spreading upfront costs over time, enabling
them to utilizing cash reserves for other strategic
investments.
For more information on IBM's cloud financing options, visit:
http://www-03.ibm.com/financing/us/cloud/
About IBM Cloud Computing
IBM has helped thousands of
clients adopt cloud models and manages millions of cloud based
transactions every day. IBM assists clients in areas as diverse as
banking, communications, healthcare and government to build their
own clouds or securely tap into IBM cloud-based business and
infrastructure services. IBM is unique in bringing together key
cloud technologies, deep process knowledge, a broad portfolio of
cloud solutions, and a network of global delivery centers. For more
information about IBM cloud solutions, visitwww.ibm.com/smartcloud. Follow us on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/ibmcloud and on our blog at
www.thoughtsoncloud.com.
IBM Media Contact
Steve
Tomasco
IBM Media Relations
917-687-4588
stomasc@us.ibm.com
SOURCE IBM