IBM makes Big Data and Cloud computing push

Now, organizations challenged by limited IT skills and resources can quickly comb through massive volumes of data and uncover critical trends that can dramatically impact their business. The new PureSystems models also help to remove the complexity of developing cloud-based services by making it easier to provision, deploy and manage a secure cloud environment. Together, these moves by IBM further extend its leadership in big data and next generation computing environments such as cloud computing, while opening up new opportunities within growth markets and with organizations such as managed service providers (MSPs).

Across all industries and geographies, organizations of various sizes are being challenged to find simpler and faster ways to analyze massive amounts of data and better meet client needs. According to IDC, the market for big data technology and services will reach $16.9 billion by 2015, up from $3.2 billion in 2010.1 At the same time, an IBM study found that almost three-fourths of leaders surveyed indicated their companies had piloted, adopted or substantially implemented cloud in their organizations - and 90 percent expect to have done so in three years.2 While the demand is high, many organizations do not have the resources or skills to embrace it.

Today's news includes PureData System for Analytics to capitalize on big data opportunities; a smaller PureApplication System to accelerate cloud deployments for a broader range of organizations; PureApplication System on POWER7+ to ease management of transaction and analytics applications in the cloud; additional options for MSPs across the PureSystems family including flexible financing options and specific MSP Editions to support new services models; and SmartCloud Desktop Infrastructure to ease management of virtual desktop solutions.

New Systems Tuned for Big Data

The new IBM PureData System for Analytics, powered by Netezza technology, features 50 percent greater data capacity per racdata capacity per rack3 and is able to crunch data 3x faster4, making this system a top performer, while also addressing the challenges of big data. The IBM PureData System for Analytics is designed to assist organizations with managing more data while maintaining efficiency in the data center - a major concern for clients of all sizes.

With IBM PureData System for Analytics, physicians can analyze patient information faster and retailers can better gain insight into customer behavior. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) relies on PureData System for Analytics to handle an enormous volume of data in its trading systems and identify and investigate trading anomalies faster and easier.

"NYSE needs to store and analyze seven years of historical data and be able to search through approximately one terabyte of data per day, which amounts to hundreds in total," said Emile Werr, head of product development, NYSE Big Data Group and global head of Enterprise Data Architecture and Identity Access Management for NYSE Euronext. "The PureData System for Analytics powered by Netezza system provides the scalability, simplicity and performance critical in being able to analyze our big data to deliver results eight hours faster than on the previous solution, which in our world is a game changer when you look at the impact on businesses every second that passes."

The Nielsen Company, leading global information and measurement company, provides clients with a comprehensive understanding of consumers and their behavior leveraging Netezza technology to deliver complex analytic capabilities.

"Recently, Nielsen tested two major competitors with their latest products to tackle our highly complex analytic workload," said John Naduvathusseril, chief data architect, the Nielsen Company. "Both vendors did not match up on consistent performance, simplicity, data refresh speed and overall performance of our reporting needs. Other vendors require customization, which we cannot sustain and they still did not deliver the kind of performance as the PureData System for Analytics."

The IBM PureData System for Analytics is powered by Netezza technology. It is a strategic part of the IBM Big Data Platform, an integrated architecture that is intended to help organizations achieve Smarter Analytics by leveraging workload optimized systems that work together to tackle advanced analytics.

To help clients assess their big data competency, visit: www.unlockingbigdata.com.

IBM Makes Cloud Simpler for All Businesses to Adopt

By simplifying and accelerating cloud deployment platforms, organizations of all sizes and across geographies can increase business agility, minimize business risk and speed time-to-revenue.

One segment of the market in particular that will benefit from today's announcement is MSPs. MSPs are helping midmarket companies solve complex challenges. However, to grow their businesses, MSPs need to expand their IT infrastructure and service delivery capabilities while minimizing the disruption and risk that often comes with growth. Today, IBM brings to market new offerings designed specifically for MSPs including new MSP Editions, flexible "pay as you grow" financing options, and enhanced marketing and sales support. These offerings are all designed to help MSPs deliver a robust cloud infrastructure that will enable them to drive new revenue streams.

Overall, IBM is introducing new cloud options tailored for the data center that allow businesses of all sizes to free up time and money to focus on innovation. These offerings include:

Smaller PureApplication System: This new "mini" model offers organizations with limited budgets and resources a "cloud in a box." It provides all of the infrastructure and management software necessary to quickly develop and deploy new applications in the cloud or on-premise, while helping to remove complex, time- and labor-intensive processes. With smaller configurations, this model opens up new opportunities for MSPs and within growth markets without sacrificing performance.

PureApplication System on POWER7+: This system provides larger enterprises, particularly those in financial services and insurance, the ability to better manage and maintain compute and transaction-intensive applications across environments, including the cloud, where up-time and performance are mission critical. In growth markets where large enterprises are already running many high performance applications on Power systems, this new offering helps them get to the cloud quickly and run those applications more efficiently. IBM issued a related announcement today with details on its new Power Systems and Storage Systems.

Expanded Software Patterns Catalogue: Accessible through the PureSystems Centre, patterns are an innovative approach that automates software management - dramatically reducing the time it takes to install, manage and maintain applications. In addition to third-party ISV patterns, new patterns for IBM software include those for mobile application management, application integration, asset management and social business including IBM Web Experience Patterns for WebSphere Portal Server and Web Content Manager; IBM Connections Hypervisor Edition; and IBM Mixed Language Application Modernization Pattern.

Managed Service Provider Editions for PureFlex System and Flex Systems: IBM has created "MSP Editions" for IBM PureFlex System and IBM Flex Systems that provide an accelerated cloud deployment platform that is faster to implement, easier to manage, and more cost effective than the MSP having to build the platform themselves, helping them to cut operating expenses, such as systems administration and setup. As part of the MSP Editions, and only available to MSPs that are registered IBM Business Partners, IBM is offering attractive pricing and finance options that are designed to match the cash flow considerations and investment priorities of MSPs.

SmartCloud Desktop Infrastructure: IBM is also announcing a new SmartCloud Desktop Infrastructure offering, for IBM PureFlex System and Flex Systems. This new offering will enhance the overall quality and reliability of virtual desktops and enables IT managers to easily manage, secure and deploy virtual desktop solutions. Clients can now securely deploy desktop access to mobile devices. This capability will allow clients to set up desktop access in minutes and provides rapid recovery from theft, failure and disasters.

PureSystems is part of IBM SmartCloud offerings, a portfolio of enterprise-class cloud computing technologies and services built on open standards that provides flexible deployment options including PureSystems and IBM SmartCloud services. IBM helps clients build private clouds with IBM SmartCloud Foundation, which provides a common cloud operating environment across the different deployment options. IBM SmartCloud helps clients quickly build and scale private clouds and hybrid clouds for cloud capabilities such as Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service.

PureApplication System also continues to gain momentum with the independent software vendor (ISV) community. IBM works with 275 ISVs to offer more than 325 applications across 21 industries that are validated "Ready for PureSystems."

"IBM PureApplication System with the POWER7+ architecture offers a greater level of stability and flexibility for our shared customers. Most importantly, we expect to offer an even lower cost of ownership to our customers by optimizing the Manhattan Supply Chain Process Platform with the IBM PureApplication System," said David Landau, vice president product management, Manhattan Associates.