Monthly Archives: December 2011

Private Cloud Supports Governance

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Private Cloud Supports Governance
Private cloud is positioned in every instance to implement business governance.  Governance comes as a set of processes. Governance inside IT means the technology that implements automated process depends on an organizational structure that supports management of decisions. The modern business has moved away from dictatorial intuitive decision making.  The newer management style depends in part on the implementation of cloud computing. Private cloud computing permits the use of analytics and informed decision making.

Private cloud computing is controlled by the internal IT department in the same manner they have always managed the data center, but the cloud provides a more integrated approach to data access.  A private cloud generally gives divisions all over the world access to the same set of information and means that information and analytics can be applied to many different functions and levels to support a set way of getting things done.

IBM private cloud has some technical advantage based on its strong middleware position to support integration across business silos from various departments, creating the opportunity for senior management to achieve better governance of the enterprise in a modern way. Private cloud governance is a way of giving line managers more responsibility. This responsibility is bounded by more control from senior management. IBM globally integrated enterprise private cloud systems permit systems management in the context of a style that makes team input to decision making possible. Line managers can be more easily controlled when private clouds are in place. The effects of different decisions are highly visible in a rapid manner to senior management.

IBM approach to enterprise governance using the private cloud has been able to achieve dramatic improvements for early adopter customers. As IBM has made an effort to pull all the brands and all the varied parts of the company into a cohesive marketing effort and to make combined product and services offering targeted at the line of business as well as at IT a few of the banks and insurance companies have had quantum improvements in governance efficiency.  IBM is able to offer an overarching private cloud computing system to clients that combines software, hardware, and global services offerings as a single package.

The IBM middleware, applications development, messaging, services oriented architecture, development tools, systems management tools, and enterprise systems software are used in the private cloud environment. The private cloud is available to the line of business as it seeks to align priorities, funding, and resources and elevates decision making. Decision rights and accountability can be more easily assigned to the appropriate levels when private cloud computing is in place. Organizations that want to stay competitive in an “always on” world must strive to apply this enterprise-level governance framework, with end-to-end customer experiences, long-term objectives and corporate goals defining the way an organization manages decisions.

IBM private cloud can mean a significant change from the current internal operational model to one that engages the senior leadership team. IBM private cloud is more integrated with the overall enterprise objectives than other vendor offerings. Often, a business will need to adjust its approach to management and move it to a higher level of maturity to achieve business, financial, and productivity gains. This can be done using the private cloud as an enabling technology.

IBM private cloud is positioned as a framework for enterprise architecture which provides the ability to achieve enterprise wide governance. Private cloud supports a comprehensive approach for design, planning, implementation, and governance of an enterprise information architecture and integrated management style.  I will continue to be passing along some insights from some IBM cloud experts, as they continue to grow their enterprise cloud capabilities, showcased on . https://events.unisfair.com/rt/ibm~cloudlaunch Come back often and stay well-informed about cloud computing and x86

Managing A Hybrid Cloud Environment

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Managing A Hybrid Cloud Environment
Hybrid cloud IT environments are emerging as single server, single application computing modules give way to a virtualized systems approach. The hybrid cloud computing environment goes beyond virtualization consisting of a mix of applications on the same group of servers. It also consists of fit to purpose computing where server hardware is optimized to match workloads. Different workloads use different server configurations. Processor intensive jobs like analytics and repetitive database queries run better on a high speed processor distributed server. Online transaction processing back end computing environments and Linux based front end Internet presence computing run on enterprise class servers.
Thus the cloud computing adventure is populated with hybrid computing configurations. Most businesses are still at the “lets try it” stage with cloud computing. They have tried virtualizing 15% of the servers in the data center, they are seeing that different workloads run better in different computing environments. Companies like IBM with its x-Box Cloud Burst try it and see offering are gaining significant traction in the market in this context.
Managing larger cloud implementations means that IT has gone beyond virtualization to providing self-service within applications with drop down menus that provide customization syntax to users. Much of this functionality is first being implemented in develop and test environments. Developers and testers are the most savvy computer users, they are most apt to use syntax from drop down menus that lets them configure a job to suit their needs. IBM has by far the most fully developed systems for develop and test situations to cross the gamut of cloud computing situations.
Cloud systems are designed to make it easy to operate hybrid computing. The cloud needs to be administered and provisioned. A cloud environment can be achieved with IBM CloudBurst’s self-service user interface. These developments in cloud computing bring a revolution driven by the cloudburst approach. We have been following these developments closely I will continue to be passing along some insights from some IBM cloud experts, as they continue to grow their enterprise cloud capabilities, showcased on . https://events.unisfair.com/rt/ibm~cloudlaunch Come back often and stay well-informed about cloud computing and x86.

IBM Cloud Infrastructure Has It All — Simple Adjustments, Performance, Reliability, Security, and an Ultra-Modern Minimalist Design

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IBM Cloud Infrastructure Has It All — Simple Adjustments, Performance, Reliability, Security, and an Ultra-Modern Minimalist Design

Posted on December 8, 2011 by susan

IBM cloud Infrastructure has it all — simple adjustments, performance, reliability, security, and an ultra-modern minimalist design. 82 different ways of saving IT costs have been identified.
Cloud computing provides a breakthrough in IT economics. Cloud leverages the economics of smarter computing. WinterGreen Research and IBM case studies illustrate the advantages of optimized systems, solutions built for data, and cloud delivery. And I will continue to be passing along some insights from some IBM cloud experts, as they continue to grow their enterprise cloud capabilities, showcased on . https://events.unisfair.com/rt/ibm~cloudlaunch Come back often and stay well-informed about cloud computing and x86
The IBM cloud Infrastructure has it all — simple adjustments, performance, reliability, security, and an ultra-modern minimalist design – all at an affordable price. The entry cloud form IBM lets users get started and try cloud systems in an effortless manner. Cloud means effortless computing environment, the term is synonymous with a completely new way of implementing computing infrastructure. Users can drop in a box, load up some applications, and the cloud environment handles the systems.
IBM has cloudburst systems designed to scale with the workload. Cloud infrastructure is best at supporting business innovations. Organizations in every industry, regardless of size or geography are embracing cloud computing as a way to reduce the complexity and costs associated with traditional IT approaches. This reality is driven by related shifts:
• Customer, employee and partner expectations are changing, driving changing market conditions that demand flexibility in the IT infrastructure
• Self-service consumption of technology and services has become the standard by which data centers are judged.
• The economics of computing are changing as cloud computing permits organizations to access world-class computing power from anywhere
• Support for the globally integrated enterprise, is provided by IBM cloud burst systems with computing available anytime, anywhere.
• Faster delivery of higher-value products and services is being achieved
• Use of cloud computing permits businesses to address formidable competition and escalating customer and shareholder expectations.
In the era of smarter computing, cloud provides transformative information management with analytics to reinvent the way a business manages process in an automated manner and improves IT and process economics. For example, cloud-based, real-time analytics can help save more than 50 percent in business insight-related costs, and collaborative business process services can help increase employee productivity by 25 percent.
The 82 different ways of saving IT costs that have been identified are articulated in ROI models from WinterGreen Research and described in white paper format.

Infrastructure as a Service

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Infrastructure as a Service

The enterprise computer services business is the model for cloud computing Infrastructure as a service.  IBM Global Services is the world’s largest business and technology services provider.  It has over 190,000 workers across more than 160 countries.  IBM Global Services is helping companies manage their IT operations and resources.  Cloud computing has an IT mission similar to that of global services but with significant enhancements to end user access to computing resources. Cloud represents a profound evolution of IT with revolutionary implications for business and society.
Cloud computing Infrastructure as a Service is positioned to support business ability to respond to changing market conditions, with markets, not surprisingly led by IBM.  Innovation is a key aspect of response to change.  Infrastructure as a Service is emerging for organizations of every size from every part of the planet.

Infrastructure is being used to create more efficient, flexible and collaborative computing models.  IBM clients excel in cloud computing because the infrastructure is secure and reliable.   Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) solutions are just excellent.

With a new cloud computing paradyne, there is an increased focus on community-driven innovation.  Cloud infrastructure IaaS capitalizes on the ability of systems to increase the power of people both inside and outside the organization to define and create new offerings and services.  IT without boundaries is evolving as systems and processes implement real time computing, breaking down traditional silos, and eliminating the old batch processing in favor of web based 24 x 7 systems.

The aim of cloud computing is to simplify access to information in order to deliver better business outcomes.  IBM cloud computing offers organizations dramatic increases in agility and efficiency. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) solutions achieve speedy, cost-effective delivery of products and services.

Cloud infrastructure technologies from IBM enable speed and dexterity across an organization for faster delivery of new offerings and services. With SmartCloud Foundation, IBM can help an organization build an environment that encourages innovation.  By simplifying and standardizing underlying infrastructure, improving efficiencies through dynamic provisioning and scheduling, implementing self-service through automation, and preserving integrity of data and processes through a security-rich environment, cloud infrastructure systems bring new capabilities.

IaaS frees up resources.  The cloud infrastructure approach is suited for resource intensive activities, development and testing, advanced management capabilities, service assurance and integration for on and off-premise cloud resources.

This is the power of cloud computing.  The cloud computing infrastructure is a new model of consuming and delivering IT and business services.  It enables self-services.  Users can get what they need, as they need it.  Now ordinary computer users are able to leverage advanced analytics, previously reserved for the most sophisticated scientific and military projects.  Applications users can leverage analytics inside an IT cloud infrastructure.

https://events.unisfair.com/rt/ibm~cloudlaunch Come back often and stay well-informed about cloud computing and x86

IBM Cloud Computing –Dominates Software as a Service

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IBM Cloud Computing –Dominates Software as a Service

Software as a Service adapts cloud computing capabilities to allow users to integrate and share applications data across facilities in different locations.  Management teams use software as a service.  SaaS applications enhance collaboration.  SaaS improves communication between employees, customers and partners.

Software as a service is able to transform business because it provides direct access to applications without having users or departments worrying about systems administration and IT.  Remote systems can be configured with information, and integrated with an on-premise system.  High standards of security and reliability, high standards of availability and scalability, high realization of capability for shared workload multiprocessing characterize cloud computing SaaS Software as a Service.

SaaS services from IBM are of the highest quality.  Software as a service is competitively priced at $4 per month per person for IBM Lotus Live.  A SaaS solution can scale up on demand, taking advantage of a flexible and reliable model that minimizes risk, guarantees up-time, and provides customer satisfaction.  Users can leverage SaaS experts to guide systems implementation.  IBM has a huge lead in software as a service analytics and cloud software as a service project initiatives.  IBM SaaS initiatives number over 10,000.

Software as a Service Key Benefits
•    Implementation of analytics based on rules
•    Simplicity of systems: easy to set up and use
•    Affordability of a subscription-based service
•    Guarantee of 99.7% to 99.999% availability
•    Flexibility to move between service levels
•    On-premise or remote based cloud services
•    Security
•    Isolated data
•    Risk mitigation
•    Access integrity
•    Real-time analytics
•    Smarter business decisions
•    Higher close rates

Software as a Service is offered as a targeted solution to a particular industry segment or horizontal application type, thus comes in many flavors and variations.  Software as a service can provide a specific solution.

Users can use SaaS to sell effectively with sales tracking and real-time visibility using high powered IBM analytics. Every step of a sale—from phone calls and emails to collaboration with colleagues—is tracked in one place and lead generation is facilitated by utilization of sophisticated analytics.

Real-time analytics are used to make smarter business decisions and get better insight into the meaning of data. The average SaaS customer experiences access to applications seamlessly and efficiently.  IBM Software as a Service (SaaS) portfolio is comprehensive illustrated by IBM Tivoli Live – service manager provides integrated service management capabilities as a monthly subscription on the IBM Cloud.   Monitoring services solutions allows customers to quickly adopt and deploy key processes and combine them with performance and availability monitoring, under a common subscription and delivery model. There is no need to purchase hardware, software licenses, or installation services.

IBM LotusLive is helping organizations transform into social businesses.  Collaborating seamlessly across firewalls and time zones is saving businesses money and driving innovation. Cloud services are focused on reliability and enhanced security.  Online collaboration tools, e-mail and social networking services work together. SaaS can help businesses of all sizes reduce IT costs, increase productivity, and save money.

https://events.unisfair.com/rt/ibm~cloudlaunch Come back often and stay well-informed about cloud computing and x86

Workload Deployer for a Private Cloud

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IBM Workload Deployer (IWD) is a private cloud hardware appliance that provides access to SOA middleware components, virtual images, and patterns.  Do people really need appliances?  What does this appliance do that makes it compelling for users?
There are many ways to make the case for appliances, but I like to keep it simple. When I make the decision to purchase a car, I don’t buy the motor, transmission, carburetor, battery, tires, and other components separately and then assemble it all in my garage. I buy a pre-built machine specifically built for the purpose of getting me from one place to another. Appliances offer the same model of consumption for IT buyers. Instead of buying servers, storage, switches, and software separately, you can buy a pre-integrated device that has been optimized for a specific set of use cases. IBM Workload Deployer is a cloud management device that fits the appliance bill in every way. Its purpose in life is to make the act of creating, deploying, and managing workloads in a private cloud, and it does this via a combination of integrated management components and pre-built, cloud-ready content. This means that users of IBM Workload Deployer benefit from significantly accelerated time to value when building their private clouds.

What is the value of easily, quickly and repeatedly creating application environments that can be securely deployed and managed in a private cloud?  
Users across the industry have spoken loud and clear about the pains involved in creating and managing their application environments. Namely, the environments take too long to install and they are too hard to correctly configure. These two root causes manifests themselves in the form of inefficient use of existing resource, lack of organizational agility, and slower time to market. The pattern-based approach and rapid deployment capabilities of IBM Workload Deployer mean that companies can quickly and easily configure the application environments that they need to support their business. The result is greater utilization of existing resource, increased agility, and perhaps most importantly, faster time to market for new services.

Time to market is one of the things you mention.  This seems kind of elusive in terms of providing a measurable benefit.  Why does this matter?  Do you have any numbers on this?  Do people sell more if they get to the market quicker?  Do they achieve competitive advantage?  How do you measure this?
I actually believe this is easier to see than we may think. In today’s hyper-competitive economy, you either get services to consumers in a timely manner or you watch your competitors do it. You are either the first to market with a new service, or you play catch up. There are many examples of this, but the one that I think resonates most clearly at this point in time is the smart phone market. A particular provider has been consistently at the forefront of innovation in this market, and they have reaped the rewards that come along with being the recognized industry leader. I think organizations in every industry can learn quite a bit from the way the smart phone market has played out in front of us. That said, in order to consistently deliver meaningful new services, IT organizations have to be in a position to move as fast as consumer demand. Technologies like IBM Workload Deployer can help those organizations do just that.

Can you more fully describe a cloud based workload template?  Is it kind of custom because people build it out of SOA components?   Do the templates end up being industry specific?  Are they reusable, and in what context if they are?
The idea of a workload template, or what we call virtual application patterns, is to give users a means to codify and harden their application environments. Using these patterns, one declaratively describes the components, relationships, and policies that make up an application environment. When users are ready to ‘install’ this application environment, they simply deploy the virtual application pattern. IBM Workload Deployer provides the know-how to translate the application and its policies into a completely configured application environment. Further, the appliance manages the environment over time in accordance with the policies specified by the user. In effect, virtual application patterns enable organizations to focus on the services they want to deliver as opposed to the infrastructure services that go into supporting those services.

Now, the very nature of application environments dictate that these virtual application patterns will be somewhat unique among different users, but that does not mean that each user needs to reinvent the wheel. The idea is that IBM and a strong ecosystem of contributors can deliver a robust set of patterns to meet a wide array of needs. Enterprises can consume existing patterns and make tweaks for their use case, or they can use IBM tools to build customized virtual application patterns from the ground up.

How does the workload deployer appliance hide complexity from the user?  I can imagine that error free deployments are of value, but does this really happen?
There are a number of different ways in which IBM Workload Deployer strives for simplicity. One can first see the focus on simplicity by examining the form factor. By delivering IBM Workload Deployer as a hardware appliance, users do not have to install or configure any software to get started. They simply rack the device, connect it to a network, and start to put IBM Workload Deployer to use. One of the first tasks users complete when initially configuring IBM Workload Deployer is to define their internal cloud. Here again, one finds simplicity in the way IBM Workload Deployer abstracts details of the target virtualization platform and provides simple, automated management of the defined resources.

While those are important points of simplicity, virtual application patterns represent the most obvious elimination of complexity. These patterns bottle up the knowledge necessary to rapidly deploy and autonomically manage complete application environments, from the operating system right up to the application. By being able to confidently offload system configuration and management activities to IBM Workload Deployer and virtual application patterns, users can focus most of their effort on the applications and services they deliver to their consumers.

https://events.unisfair.com/rt/ibm~cloudlaunch Come back often and stay well-informed about cloud computing and x86

Cloud Computing for the Globally Integrated Business

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Cloud Computing for the Globally Integrated Business

All of IT faces the same fact of life, more data, less budget to manage growth in IT. So, what to do, what to do? Cloud of course. A compelling business case for the cloud comes as a result of increased operating efficiencies, lower energy costs, and increased productivity for the workforce offered to every level of the extended organization.
Building a globally integrated enterprise depends on automated process. Cloud computing gives needed efficiency; it gives the data center the ability to support the line of business in a manner that enhances collaborative effort. Large and mid-size businesses can become globally integrated with a presence in many countries using cloud computing. Cloud computing provides an organization with competitive advantage across different regional segments. The globally integrated enterprise is able to operate efficiently for marketing, sales, online presence, logistics, supply chain, local distribution, channel initiatives, and for back end systems.
We all love cloud computing because the cloud provides access to shared information in a secure and reliable manner. Services go to people from social media, from work, and from government more efficiently and less expensively than has hitherto been possible.
Cloud based services facilitate access to information in an intuitive manner; they encourage the use of analytics to make sense of data, turning it into useful information. Platforms in the cloud provide foundations supporting test and development, and information collection and presentation.
I myself have been interested in the technology, cloud makes it possible to consolidate thousands of servers onto larger virtualized servers or System z mainframes. Fit to purpose technology, tuned to the task — managers can decide what platform is best for a certain workload or set of workloads. Software runs on any platform, manages processor intensive workloads, manages homogeneous workloads, manages processor intensive jobs. And I will be passing along some insights from some IBM cloud experts, as they continue to grow their enterprise cloud capabilities, most recently showcased on October 12 . https://events.unisfair.com/rt/ibm~cloudlaunch Next up after that is some discussion of Infrastructure as a Service and Software a a Service. Come back often and stay well-informed about cloud computing, application servers, and x86

Cloud Computing Overview

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Cloud Computing Overview

The cloud computing engine is a natural extension of the Internet. One of the terrific advantages is the transition to the point where there are no major software upgrade releases; cloud is about building software capability that is continuously improved. It is about hosting software on an Internet platform that works, where the user does not have to worry about the platform. Major software releases are rare on the cloud. Software test and development are an ongoing process and software upgrades are released as appropriate, but certainly on a weekly basis.

Cloud software exposes syntax and applications to users across the board for all different kinds of applications. In a sense, cloud computing is so powerful that we can think of it as a black hole that depends on the creativity of the provider. Cloud initiatives are bound only by the user’s imagination. The quantity of data and the quality of analytics leave the possibility of innovation at every users desktop, laptop, netbook, tablet, smart phone, and Internet accessible device.

Cloud is in a sense another name for self-service computing. In this respect it is the opposite of the old batch oriented mainframe computers. It is a new, fleet footed, sure way for users to independently define and automate tasks in real time, using their own integration syntax and their own ability to create content modules that are meaningful. No more waiting one year for IT to prepare a mailing list that only IT can change, no more running tasks in batch. In the cloud, everything happens using open systems in real time.
Cloud computing provides a consolidated working environment where collaboration is possible and encouraged. Systems are dense. Systems use 80% less energy and transform systems management, creating automated process to replace what previously has taken hundreds of technicians. Hundreds of technicians that have been responsible for managing individual servers can be replaced with six technicians able to run a virtualized system, achieving significant savings in operations costs Running virtualized workloads on consolidated platforms is called modernization. This virtualized, software managed cloud computing environment depends on hypervisors and software systems that streamline workload deployment.

So, from the users perspective the cloud is an altogether new and different approach to computing, a utility like service where the machine is always on, always available, and intuitive to use. But, from the IT administrators perspective, the advent of cloud computing brings some of the old along with the new. The old mainframe workload manger has been revitalized, achieved new capabilities, and been given an industry transformational status, given new life under a new, more powerful cover, the IBM zEnterprise 196. The era of hybrid computing has been ushered in under the name of cloud computing.

More and more, the cloud is used to implement enterprise applications. Customization, optimization, security, privacy, availability, and reliability are key to keeping automated process producing revenue consistently. Modular systems have become key, some are built with some application SOA services orientation, and some to support Web applications based self-service.

Prepackaged, self-contained, purpose-built service delivery platforms combine the best of hardware, software and services to quickly accelerate the creation of service platforms for all types of workload.

Over the next few months I will be sharing with you my thoughts on cloud computing, across topics like the business case for cloud computing, Infrastructure as a Service, Software a a Service, Platform as a Service, and Process as a Service all in the context of cloud virtualized systems. And I will be passing along some insights from some IBM cloud experts, as they continue to grow their enterprise cloud capabilities, most recently showcased on December 1.  https://events.unisfair.com/rt/ibm~cloudlaunch Come back often and stay well-informed about cloud computing.and x86