IBM has fleshed out its enterprise Cloud Computing strategy, bridging enterprises' private Clouds with the public Internet in a hybrid model.
Overseeing the Cloud expansion will be IBM's new Enterprise Initiative Group, headed by Erich Clementi as general manager who will report directly to IBM chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano. "Enterprise clients need economically compelling solutions that help them run their businesses in smarter ways, while never taking their eyes off of security, resiliency and compliance," said Clementi. "Cloud Computing leverages many of IBM's core strength ... and gives clients the opportunity to leverage Cloud Computing's considerable cost advantages, while maintaining the highest levels of integrity, responsibility and control."
Companies using a private cloud will be able to assign applications to the "public cloud from a centrally managed console, called the IBM Cloud Management Console. IBM is partnering with Juniper Networks to "demonstrate how a hybrid Cloud could allow enterprises to seamlessly extend their private Clouds to remote servers in a secure public Cloud."
IBM and Juniper's approach uses virtual private LAN Service (VLPS) over Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS). Lower-priority applications are migrated to the public Clouds because their service-level agreements are flexible enough to accept a slowdown due to network latency.
Other Cloud announcements from IBM include:
- The Service Management Centre for Cloud Computing, a set of products that IBM's clients can use to build and deliver Cloud services. These include Tivoli Provisioning Manager 7.1 and Tivoli Service Automation Manager, designed to automate Cloud deployment and management. The Service Management Centre will include at least nine different products this year.
- IBM Rational AppScan 7.8, which helps enterprises ensure that the Web services they publish into a Cloud are secure and comply with regulations and company policies.
- IBM Design and Implementation for Cloud Test Environments, which lets customers build a cloud inside their own environments for testing.
- Tivoli Storage as a Service delivers Tivoli data protection technologies on an online, pay-as-you-go basis. It will be offered through IBM's Business Continuity & Resiliency Services cloud beginning later this year.
The announcements reiterate IBM's commitment to The Cloud, but are not necessarily as 'big news' as IBM reckons, according to one analyst. "IBM's move, while inevitable, is evolutionary rather than revolutionary in that The Cloud is simply the latest incarnation of its long-established remote computing services. By putting together core building blocks, IBM is providing a clearer roadmap for customers to work with Clouds, public or private,” reckons Tony Baer of research firm Ovum.
“What is new is the bundling, which for The Cloud is more important than it sounds. By bundling into logical sets of offerings based on a lifecycle view of The Cloud, enterprises can more readily choose their entry points and not have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to piecing together all the necessary components when, for instance, they are trying to implement service provisioning and termination.
“IBM's moves are clearly evolutionary, not revolutionary, as most of its announced offerings consist of extensions to existing products and services. Furthermore, IBM was essentially preaching a similar message when it recently promoted “On Demand” computing. What the cloud adds to the conversation is the use of commodity technology and virtualization to make what used to be called “on demand,” “software as a service,” or, if you really want to go back, “time sharing” more flexible and affordable.”
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