IBM has announced expanded capabilities to provide clients with the flexibility to choose where to deploy workloads, from on-premise to the IBM public cloud, and drive forward their journey to the hybrid cloud.
The new and enhanced solutions include containerized software across IBM IT Infrastructure via IBM Cloud Paks and advancements in data storage for containers.
According to a recent IBM commissioned Forrester study, "The Key to an Effective Hybrid Multicloud Strategy," 85% of respondents are increasing funding for IT infrastructure outside of public cloud, suggesting that organizations continue to rely on both on-premise and private cloud as part of their technology stack.
Many of IBM's top IBM Z and Power Systems clients are currently running proofs-of-concept with Red Hat OpenShift on Z, and more than 100 additional customers are ready to start. More than 40 IBM clients are also already using IBM Storage as a persistent, highly available repository with strong security capabilities for OpenShift. This builds on a longstanding collaboration between IBM IT Infrastructure and Red Hat as well as previous investments made across IBM Z, LinuxONE, Power, and Storage offerings to support Red Hat OpenShift, an enterprise Kubernetes platform.
IBM announced new and upcoming capabilities designed to help clients implement hybrid cloud with IBM IT Infrastructure, including:
- Ability to infuse AI throughout the business and consolidate databases with IBM Cloud Pak for Data, already available on IBM Power Systems, and planned for November on IBM Z
- Accelerate digital transformation and connect cloud native applications to existing workloads with IBM Cloud Pak for Integration on IBM Z
- Faster cloud native development with integrated runtimes enabled by IBM Cloud Pak for Applications for IBM Z and Power Systems
- Increased visibility, automation, and governance across the hybrid multicloud with IBM Cloud Pak for Multi-Cloud Management for IBM Z and Power Systems
"The global pandemic and ensuing economic disruption have amplified the need for speed and flexibility and accelerated plans for digital transformation," said Tom Rosamilia, senior vice president of IBM Systems and chairman, North America. "Our clients are increasing their investments in AI and cloud. They are moving swiftly to reduce costs while improving security with approaches like confidential computing and resiliency, and IBM's hybrid multi-cloud strategy with Red Hat is at the epicenter of this transformation."
IBM Storage is also adding enhancements to its storage and modern data protection solutions to support the rapidly expanding container and Kubernetes ecosystem, including RedHat OpenShift.
IBM Storage Suite for Cloud Paks is now expanding support for container-native data access on Red Hat OpenShift. This suite aims to provide the greatest flexibility for continuous integration and continuous delivery to teams who often need file, object, and block as software-defined storage.
IBM Spectrum Scale also adds a fully containerized client and run-time operator to provide access to scalable data lakes on any Red Hat OpenShift cluster. IBM Cloud Object Storage adds support for the open source s3fs file to object storage interface bundled with Red Hat OpenShift.
This substantial shift to containers is having an enormous impact on modern data protection. Today's organizations want solutions that unify data recovery, retention, and reuse and also protect critical data workloads in hybrid cloud environments.
For more information, visit www.ibm.com/blogs/systems/storage-made-simple-for-containers-and-hybrid-cloud.