In what it is described as the largest update to its systems portfolio this year, IBM introduced 55 new and updated server and storage technologies that can help clients gain actionable insights from data, increase IT capacity and deliver new services faster to create profitable business opportunities. The new offerings include affordable business analytics systems, automated tools for implementing security and compliance standards, and starter kits for establishing private clouds.
Among the announcements were the z/VM 6.2, designed to offer new multi-system virtualization capabilities within the software to help clients avoid virtual machine sprawl. Up to four instances of z/VM can be clustered together as members in a Single System Image, where they can be managed as a single z/VM system and share system resources. zEnterprise Starter Edition for Cloud offers customers an entry-level Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud delivery model for Linux on System z with Tivoli Provisioning Manager. This turn-key "cloud in a box" extends the scope of the enterprise cloud with centralized management of the entire zEnterprise system.
On the cloud side, IBM announced IBM BladeCenter Foundation for Cloud, a converged cloud computing platform that combines server, storage, networking and management technology that enables clients to quickly create an x86-based virtualization environment that is simple to deploy, manage and scale. BladeCenter Foundation for Cloud comes in three sizes - small, medium and large. IBM Active Cloud Engine scales cloud file systems efficiently by moving files where and when they are needed. It gives companies fast access to billions of files and dramatically improves the management and efficiency of cloud storage. Capabilities for global clouds are available on IBM Scale-Out Network Attached Storage R 1.3 (SONAS) and for mid-sized clouds on Storwize V7000 Unified systems. For more complete information on IBM Smarter Computing, visit www-03.ibm.com/systems/info/octannounce.html.