New Storage and Management Features for IBM PureSystems Help
Clients Reduce Costs, Increase Utilization
ARMONK, N.Y., Nov.
13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- To help clients increase their
IT utilization and reduce datacenter operation costs, IBM (NYSE:
IBM) today introduced new mobile, management and storage components
for its PureFlex and Flex System portfolios. Key among these
components is a new storage system to help improve storage
utilization as much as 30 percent while delivering extraordinary
ease of use.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )
This storage system is tightly integrated with IBM Flex System
Manager and uses IBM Storwize family virtualization and unique IBM
Real-time Compression technologies to help clients reduce storage
requirements by up to 80 percent. As a result, clients can run
their most important workloads with no application performance
degradation.
IBM also unveiled new capabilities for PureFlex and Flex Systems
that will provide the management and administration tools clients
need to effectively increase their datacenter utilization.
These include: integrated end-to-end storage management; mobile
access to the system for clients through a wide range of mobile
devices (Android, Blackberry and iOS); and centralized control of
user id's and passwords across nodes and chassis for greater system
security. These features will build upon the capabilities of Flex
System Manager to help organizations more efficiently create and
manage their IT infrastructures.
Recent research from IDC illustrates that one of the main
challenges IT organizations face today is around the deployment,
management, and administration of servers – which are consuming a
larger portion of the overall IT budget and consequently leaving
fewer resources to spend on new projects. Sixteen years ago the
bulk of IT budgets was spent on hardware, with less than 30 percent
on management and administration. By 2013, that relationship will
have completely flipped and management now will drive nearly 70
percent of all expenditures. (1)
"Clients are telling us that when they look to upgrade the
legacy servers and storage that constitute their current IT
infrastructures they don't want to spend too much time and effort
tuning and managing the new systems," said Andrew Monshaw, GM IBM PureFlex. "These are the
companies that are turning to PureSystems to reduce their costs and
increase their datacenter utilization."
To date, more than 1,000 PureFlex and Flex Systems have shipped
in more than 40 countries around the world. Clients are installing
IBM PureFlex or Flex System to help reduce IT cost and complexity.
For example:
- Finnish IT outsourcing services and data center services
provider Academica will use PureFlex to rededicate time formerly
spent on IT maintenance and support to driving customer service
support and developing new services. As a result of this new
allocation of resources, Academica will be able to focus on
expanding its business by improving services to meet evolving
customer requirements.
- China's Xi'an University of Architecture and
Technology will use IBM PureFlex to help improve the quality of
education services offered to students and launch the university's
Digital Campus platform and student Campus Card.
- India's Thane Bharat Sahakari
Bank selected a Smarter Computing solution built on IBM PureFlex
over its existing environment to create an intelligent
infrastructure designed to help the bank manage growth, introduce
new client services and boost its profitability.
"IBM PureSystems is the ideal choice because it helps us in
three main areas," said Shriram Date, CEO, Thane Bharat Sahakari
Bank. "First, it reduces our cost and complexity - simplifying and
reducing steps across the complete IT life cycle; second, it
provides additional security by helping reduce enterprise risk with
trusted protection built in from the hardware up; and third,
PureSystems significantly reduces new application deployment
times."
New Flex System Components
The IBM Flex System goes beyond competitor's blade
configurations and provides the elements for IBM
PureFlex. IBM Flex Systems are built-to-order offerings
for clients who want to custom build and tune configurations to
their specific requirements. This allows them to select the
specific compute, systems networking and optional storage and
management required to support their specific workloads.
As part of today's announcement, IBM is unveiling new and
enhanced elements for all four aspects of the Flex System
including:
- Management: A New version of IBM Flex System
Manager that will allow clients to bring new components online
faster, provide better monitoring and alerts and more easily
integrate applications, services and workloads through a new, even
easier user interface and mobile access.
- Storage: Integrated Flex System V7000 storage node with
built-in virtualization, intelligent tiering, and IBM Real-time
Compression® that enables storing up to five times as much
data in the same physical disk space.
- Processors: New POWER7+, x440 and x220 compute nodes
will provide clients with a wide range of advanced processing
technology to deliver workload optimization and choice for client
datacenters. Also, all POWER compute nodes are now available
as build-to-order components in Flex System.
- Networking: New converged fabric switches providing
Fibre Channel over Ethernet and new adaptors will allow clients to
choose from a wide variety of advanced networking technologies that
integrate into existing network topologies and provide optimized
bandwidth for their workloads.
IBM Business Partner Ecosystem Continues to Expand
For IBM Business Partners, PureSystems creates a new services
opportunity to help clients solve the complexity of enterprise IT,
reduce costs and encourage innovation. From resellers to
distributors and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), more than
2500 Business Partners have received PureSystems certifications.
PureSystems currently run tens of thousands of existing ISV
applications across four operating environments including Windows,
Linux, AIX, and IBM i operating system. Additionally, Business
Partners have created more than 250 new solutions and applications
that are optimized to run on PureSystems. These patterns of
expertise, which span 20 industries, can be accessed through the
IBM PureSystems Centre. They include leading solutions from some of
the world's largest ISVs, including ERP systems and applications
for the banking, marketing, healthcare and energy industries.
Additionally, partners are able to perform many of the
configuration and deployment services that previously came only
from IBM and are optional and optionally available to be performed
by qualified business partners.
To help address the new opportunity that PureSystems presents,
IBM is also providing training, marketing, certifications and
technical validation support to its Business Partners. For
instance, dozens of IBM Innovation Centers in cities such as
Bangalore, Dublin, Johannesburg and Shanghai are helping Business Partners develop
and test their applications using IBM PureSystems. Business
Partners can also bring their clients to IBM Innovation Centers to
see PureSystems technology at work.
For more information on IBM PureSystems visit:
www.ibm.com/press/pure
(1) Source: IDC; Converged Systems: End-User Survey Results; Doc
#236966, September 2012;
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Media Contact(s)
Chris Rubsamen
Global Communications
IBM Systems and Technology Group
(914) 766-4280
rubsamen@us.ibm.com
SOURCE IBM