Cloud and IT Optimization

Ease and scale the transition from virtualization to cloud service delivery. Cloud Service Delivery and Management Whitepaper

How do you manage a cloud?

Cloud computing is changing the entire IT services delivery model. It enables companies to reduce their ownership of IT and lower costs, while increasing their speed, improving their business agility and enabling greater innovation.

Realizing these benefits requires more than virtualization technology. In fact, virtualization often introduces new management challenges such as virtual machine sprawl, application performance, security and data protection. Cloud computing done right can provide the visibility into application performance, help you control key risks and automate manual tasks and processes. There are many approaches to cloud computing from creating infrastructure- or platform-as-a-service private clouds to leveraging public cloud services.

IBM has extensive experience helping clients move from virtualization to cloud computing. Today, 80 percent of Fortune 500 use IBM cloud computing.* Regardless of where you are in your journey to cloud computing, IBM can help by providing SmartCloud Solutions; secure and reliable software as a service (SaaS), SmartCloud Services; infrastructure (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) and SmartCloud Foundation; cloud enabling technologies for building private and hybrid clouds.

IBM Software cloud and virtualization management solutions provide you with the capability to:

  • Speed and scale the delivery of new services while enabling continuous lifecycle updates
  • Reduce IT expense and complexity by controlling high velocity change through responsiveness and flexibility
  • Easily manage and secure mobile devices accessing cloud services

Real results

The University of Bari leveraged a cloud infrastructure based on IBM Software that has enabled the development of innovative applications for the local fishing, wine-making and logistics industries, Results include: Accelerating the sale and delivery of wine and fish and providing real-time information from RFID sensors on cargo.

A major financial services company consolidated a large, complex IBM WebSphere® product environment and projected seven figure savings for enterprise WebSphere implementations, 13 to 15 times faster time to market and six months for initial investment payback.

Discover the IBM Software products that can help you manage cloud and transform your business

* IBM Press Release, Industry Leaders Worldwide Embrace IBM Clouds to Transform Business Processes, April 7, 2011

IBM SmartCloud Foundation podcast
IBM SmartCloud Foundation technologies enable organizations to easily build and rapidly scale private and hybrid clouds with unparalleled time to market, integration and management. Listen to Scott Hebner, IBM Vice President of Marketing, Cloud & Business Infrastructure Management describe why organizations are moving to the cloud and how IBM SmartCloud Foundation technology powers cloud adoption.

Related solutions

IBM SmartCloud Foundation is a set of technologies for building and managing virtualized infrastructures and private and hybrid clouds. Together these technologies can help build a fully functional cloud management system that aids business transformation and new service delivery. Individually, these technologies can help nearly any cloud project make quick and incremental progress towards a longer term cloud strategy.

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Featured products

IBM SmartCloud Provisioning

IBM SmartCloud Provisioning, a true IaaS solution, reduces costs and offers near-zero downtime and automated recovery.

IBM SmartCloud Monitoring

IBM SmartCloud Monitoring helps monitor & optimize virtual infrastructure + virtual servers within, ensuring high availability & policy-driven placement of critical workloads.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments

Tivoli® Storage Manager for Virtual Environments protects virtual machines by offloading backup workloads to a centralized server and enabling near-instant recovery

IBM Workload Deployer

Workload Deployer speeds application deployment to cloud and virtualization environments

IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager

IBM® Tivoli® Usage and Accounting Manager Enterprise Edition accurately assesses shared computing resource usage.

IBM Security Identity and Access Assurance

IBM Security Identity and Access Assurance software administers, protects and monitors user access to resources and provides compliance auditing.

All products - Cloud and IT Optimization

IT service management

Service and IT asset management and process automation across the organization.

Monitoring and performance management

Management and monitoring of application, middleware, server, and network environments for dynamic IT infrastructures.

Provisioning and orchestration

Deployment and orchestration of virtual and cloud environments across the service delivery lifecycle.

Scheduling and systems automation

Transform and automate the provisioning of dynamic workloads using cloud services.

Storage management, backup and recovery

Automate backup and restore, centralize storage management and ensure efficient movement and retention of data.

Offers

Cloud Computing Use Cases

This white paper is a product of the Cloud Standards Customer Council1 (CSCC) and documents a collection of high priority use cases for both the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) cloud computing service models. In general, use cases highlight the benefits of cloud computing and are key to identifying specific technical requirements including the need for open standards that promote portability and interoperability.

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Analyst Report

Thirty-six percent of enterprise IT leaders surveyed said that implementing a private cloud is a high or critical priority for 2012, but Forrester research suggests that most of these companies aren’t operationally ready to make this transition and need to take key operational improvement steps to get there. Read this technology adoption paper and learn about how enterprises are starting their journey to private cloud.

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Cloud Computing on a Smarter Planet

As our planet gets smarter - more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent--the underlying infrastructure needs to capture and analyze increasing amounts of data, deliver results to more users and respond faster across all devices without a coresponding increase in budget. Read IBM's point of view on how cloud is more than just rethining IT, it's about reinventing business.

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Private Cloud for Dummies eBook

Whether public, private, or hybrid, cloud computing is becoming an increasingly integral part of many companies’ business and technology strategy. Many companies want to be able to have pools of computing resources based on a self-service model where the company owns and operates those resources. Private Cloud For Dummies, IBM Limited Edition, helps put the private cloud model of computing into perspective for both business and technical leaders. Download your free copy today!

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IBM SmartCloud communities help you stay connected with your colleagues.

Cloud Management

IBM SmartCloud Foundation offers some of the most advanced technologies and architectures, designed and built by leading cloud experts. By connecting with like-minded leaders in cloud management, you can enhance your professional development, identify ways to improve efficiencies in your organization and position yourself to be a thought leader in cloud computing. Get connected with your Colleagues and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networks to stay up on the latest IBM news and information that's important to you.

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