Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Friday, March 29, 2024

IBM Servers, Storage Target Hybrid Cloud 

Fleshing out it hybrid cloud strategy, IBM rolled out a batch of servers, storage software and other services during a company event this week that target the growing number of customers integrating existing systems with big data and other new cloud workloads.

A trio of new servers targeting hybrid workloads includes IBM Power System E850 and E880 that stress flexible capacity and scaling. The four-socket 850 server targets cloud service providers and medium to large enterprises deploying multi-tenancy workloads. Larger in-memory databases come with up to 4 TB of installed memory, the company said.

The high-end E880 is said to scale to 192 cores and targets data-intensive enterprise workloads. The purpose behind all the horsepower is to enable linear scaling and increase efficiency for cloud deployments beyond what is delivered by commodity hardware, IBM said.

Augmenting the new hybrid cloud servers is a converged compute, networking and storage platform called "PurePower" that also emphasizes cloud security. Managed by OpenStack, IBM claims the converged infrastructure delivers up to 12 times greater workload density along with a bulletproof virtualization hypervisor.

(In support of its security claim, IBM said its PurePower system is based on PowerVM that, according to a U.S. National Vulnerabilities Database, has zero documented vulnerabilities over the past three years.)

IBM PurePower server.

 

The hybrid cloud menu also includes a new software-as-a-service offering called Spectrum Control Storage Insights along with a "big storage" option. The storage management offering provides data management as a hybrid cloud service to optimize on-premise storage. Among other capabilities, the "insights" label refers to analytics applied to simplify storage capacity planning, IBM noted.

The company's push into "big storage" includes a preview of a new active cloud archiving service for storing large amounts of data that must be easily retrieved. The cloud service is being "piloted" with storage partner Iron Mountain and partners with a "variety of business use cases," the partners said.

Added to the hybrid cloud storage mix is a real-time compression platform called IBM XIV Gen 3. The grid architecture integrates real-time compression technology that can store as much as 80 percent more data with little impact on application performance, IBM claimed.

Finally, IBM is throwing its BlueMix cloud platform into the hybrid mix with a mainframe data access service running on the cloud application development platform. The service provides secure access to data on IBM z Systems mainframes to speed development of hybrid cloud and mobile applications using the Bluemix platform. The service also enables access to data through app development tools like MongoDB APIs, SQL and the REST protocol.

IBM also said it would deliver a "self-service portal" in June intended to allow customers to scale their infrastructure and software license footprint for hybrid deployments using its PureApplication Service.

Most IBM software offerings are available on a monthly licensing basis. Those licenses, including IBM SoftLayer, can be moved between on-premise and private and public clouds.

About the author: George Leopold

George Leopold has written about science and technology for more than 30 years, focusing on electronics and aerospace technology. He previously served as executive editor of Electronic Engineering Times. Leopold is the author of "Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom" (Purdue University Press, 2016).

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