Cloud Explained
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IBM differentiates itself in cloud computing and data centers by optimizing workloads, or types of computing tasks, to specific hardware and software configurations. This improves efficiency and allows organizations to scale IT resources to match their needs. Examples include matching analytics workloads to high performance systems, and moving development/testing workloads to the cloud to reduce costs and speed up processes. Workload optimization is important for both traditional data centers and cloud computing, and allows clients like banks and schools to improve services while reducing IT expenses.
Cloud Explained
- 1. Cloud Explained How IBM is different in cloud and the data center… You’ve probably heard stories about how IBM is transforming how IT is delivered and consumed; striving to adapt cloud computing resources and services to meet clients’ wants and needs; and responding to market demand by opening global Cloud Computing Centers. But many clients still have lingering questions about what cloud computing actually is. IBM has three main data center and cloud differentiators – workload optimization, service management and delivery choice. Let’s take a closer look at workload optimization. Not all workloads are created equal As businesses become exponentially more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent, the sheer volume of data will crush the data center as we know it now. To evolve, the data center is reorganizing itself not around geographic locations or departments within a company, but around the kinds of work that it needs to accomplish -- known as workloads. Each workload has unique characteristics that make it run most efficiently on certain kinds of hardware and software. These efficiencies are becoming critical as future workloads are much greater than what we have now. Some workloads demand speedy transactions of countless volumes of basic data like ATMs for banking. On the other hand, workloads more commonly associated with high performance computing – predictive analytics, for instance – require systems with the ability to handle mathematically intense calculations. Other workloads – such as the Web 2.0 tools – simply demand that their systems process data and distribute it quickly across vast IT networks – putting computing into the hands of entire workforces around the globe. Faced with a need to grow IT capacity quickly and constantly, many organizations historically grew their data centers one server at a time - with less concern for workload optimization than clients have now. The result was a tangled mess of underutilized systems. Workload optimization is a way to untangle the systems by matching tasks with the kind of performance, reliability, security and other operational characteristics required. The Smart Analytics System is one example of how IBM has applied this approach to a specific workload – business analytics. IBM also recently introduced Smart Business cloud offerings for virtual desktop as well as development and test workloads.
- 2. What clients want Workload optimization isn’t just an IBM vision; it’s a reality for clients now. CIOs are making decisions on how they run their in-house IT based on workloads. This is why new delivery models, such as cloud, are developing around workloads. Heavy lifting for clouds We’ve discussed why workload optimization is important in more traditional data center environments. But for cloud computing, it becomes a necessary ingredient for success. We know that enterprise clients will never move entirely to a cloud platform due to compliance and governance concerns, but there are certain types of cloud-specific workloads that can be handled more effectively in this environment. Low risk, infrastructure services for tasks like test and development, desktop, information back-up, some types of high performance computing and collaboration will be handled well in this model. Take a look at development and test. This work can consume massive amounts of infrastructure resources and it’s a fairly painful process for developers to obtain necessary systems. To tackle this, a large United States financial institution uses IBM’s Smart Business Test Cloud Service to slash the time needed for internal processes from weeks to minutes. The bank’s application developers immediately build new or improve existing customer services, such as online account transactions. By only paying for the capacity they use, their department’s cost and time spent on developing and testing products are expected to drop by more than 50 percent. And through resource consolidation, the bank has seen a major reduction in the number of assets required and a dramatic increase in utilization. Desktop and PCs can also be a huge drain on IT resources for a company. By using IBM’s Smart Business Desktop Cloud, users log on over a secure connection through the Internet, enter an IP address and are connected to applications normally accessed in a PC environment. A manufacturing company in Taiwan was facing challenges on how to keep pace in its fast moving industry. One key area for them was enabling their researchers to collaborate more effectively, get access to information more quickly and accelerate the speed of development. Working with IBM, they developed a virtual research environment, a desktop cloud, which enables both quick access to information and the ability to collaborate and share within the cloud environment, no matter where the researchers themselves are located. They were able to dramatically improve the overall productivity of their research and development, while simultaneously reducing their costs and improving the service of the delivery of the desktop and collaboration environment. Kentucky’s Pike County school system also uses IBM’s Smart Business Desktop Cloud. The computers may look like old PCs, but because they’re merely access points to a private cloud, they harness the power of a remote data center. Now, all 27 Pike County schools have equal access to education content while reducing end-user support costs by 62 percent. And they were able to get extra life out of older PCs.
- 3. Leading in systems workloads IBM has long been the leader in building systems - ATM, travel reservation, self checkout, massively scalable super computers. Each of these was created to optimize a specific task and each continues to provide a platform for IBM market leadership. In a world that is becoming smarter – more interconnected, instrumented and intelligent – a one-size-fits-all approach won’t drive the level of service that is needed to make the world work better. But aligning new delivery methods like cloud computing with workloads, generates better performance, scale and efficiency – paving the way for IBM’s next generation of leadership in the data center.