What Should You Tell Cloud Adopters? Five Key Messages

By Frank De Gilio, Smarter Computing blog

Recently I was part of a video debate panel on cloud computing. Actually rather than a debate, it was more of a discussion on the roles of public and private cloud in an enterprise.  Larry Carvalho, Kevin Jackson and I talked about issues in a discussion moderated by David Linthicum. While these discussions were hardly the arguments that make for entertaining video, they leveraged different perspectives to provide a good thumbnail sketch of what enterprises are experiencing when it comes to cloud infrastructure.

David kept the conversation rolling and there were some very interesting topics that are important to businesses trying to create hyper-efficient IT services.  You can see some great clips, as well as the full replay in a blog post here.

The topics discussed by the panel deserve a little more discussion than was possible in the hour allotted. I plan to dedicate a post to each topic in the near future, but for the time being, there are a few messages that came out very strongly. What are those five key messages?

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Greater IBMers, what would you add to this list? Is anything missing?

- Posted by Regan Kelly. Part of our May theme of Emerging Technologies

The Replay: Watch Ginni Rometty’s Historic Speech to the Council on Foreign Relations

In case you missed IBM CEO Ginni Rometty‘s historic speech last week before the Council on Foreign Relations, there’s good news: the replay is now available for you to watch anytime.

Ginni Rometty

In these early days of the 21^st century, Big Data, analytics, cloud, mobile and social technologies are transforming our world.  This new era of computing provides the instrumentation, interconnection and intelligence that make it possible to build a smarter planet.

But, in order to do so, countries, cities, corporations and individuals need to rethink how they go about achieving their goals. Watch the speech, followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

Join the conversation by using the hashtags #IBM and #CFRlive.

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Greater IBMers, let us know your thoughts in the Leave a Reply field below.

– Posted by Regan Kelly, Editor/Community Manager, The Greater IBM Connection

IBM to Acquire Star Analytics, Inc

IBM has announced a definitive agreement to acquire the software portfolio of Star Analytics Inc., a privately held business analytics company headquartered in Redwood City, California. The combination of IBM and Star Analytics software will further advance IBM’s business analytics initiatives, allowing organizations to gain faster access and real-time insight into specialized data sources.

With growing challenges in gaining a more complete view into varying types of data, companies are increasingly looking for ways to automate and provide business users with self-service access to critical information. Star Analytics software addresses a rising challenge for organizations: helping to automatically integrate essential information, reporting applications and business intelligence tools across their enterprises, on premise or from cloud computing environments. The software removes typical custom coding for specialized sources that is hard to maintain, and eliminates cumbersome manual processes.

“IBM sees an enormous opportunity for our clients to apply Star Analytics to the information they have stored in their financial applications,” said Leslie J Rechan, General Manager, IBM Business Analytics.  “And to then easily access it within their IBM performance management and business intelligence solutions.”  Read the rest.

Analytics: New Power Systems from IBM Challenge HP, Oracle and Dell For SMB Apps

- Forbes.com, Tom Groenfeldt

As Dell and HP struggle to figure out their businesses, IBM is moving into their territory with Power Systems starting at $5,947 at the low end of its newly launched Power line of computers. “With these new systems, IBM is forging an aggressive expanding of its Power and Storage Systems business into SMB and growth markets,” said Rod Atkins, senior vice president of IBM Systems and Technology Group.

“Big data and cloud systems that were once only affordable to large enterprises are now available to the masses.”

Colin Parris, VP, IBM Power Systems (photo, IBM Systems Magazine)

The systems have more power, greater stability and manageability because they’re are integrated from design through production, said Colin Parris, general manager, IBM Power Systems. Read the rest of the story.

 

Pakistan’s Mobile-Commerce Provider Monet Selects IBM Cloud Solution

IBM has announced that Monet, one of Pakistan’s leading mobile-commerce providers, has selected a customized IBM cloud-based solution that will enable the company to enhance service efficiency and expand its presence across the country.

Launched in 2012, Monet provides banks, mobile network operators and branchless banking agents in Pakistan with a technology platform that offers end users a simple interface through which they can access a wide range of financial services on their mobile phones.

Mobile banking and financial services are expected to grow significantly in Pakistan in the coming years.

Read the rest of the details here.

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Related:

About IBM Pakistan

More about Monet

Cloud Solutions at IBM

 

IBM Teams with AT&T for Private Enterprise Cloud Service

by Josh Ong, nextweb.com

AT&T and IBM announced on Tuesday a partnership to build a cloud service using private networks instead of the Internet. The joint venture combines AT&T’s virtual private networking technology and IBM’s SmartCloud Enterprise+ product.

Basically, IBM will provide the storage via its cloud data centers and AT&T will act as the network. Both companies represent some of the largest in their fields, as AT&T is the biggest phone service provider in the US, counting both wireless and fixed line, and IBM is one of the top cloud operators.

The service is set to arrive next year and is specifically built for Fortune 1000 companies, all of which already work with AT&T.

“When customers of the new service connect to IBM cloud computing resources across AT&T’s virtual private network, the innovative technology tightly integrates the security protections of both, allowing customers to quickly and reliably shift information or applications between their own data centers (private clouds) and this new cloud service,” the companies said in a statement.

Andy Geisse, CEO of AT&T Business Solutions, said the project “marries the security and speed of AT&T’s global network with the control and management capabilities of IBM’s enterprise cloud.”

The announcement cited a financial services company as a possible use case, noting that it could transfer customer data to IBM’s data centers all from within the secure virtual private network. The new cloud service will be customizable, contain “committed service-level agreements” and feature automated security functions and additional security protocols.

Bloomberg reports that this is the “closest relationship” that IBM and AT&T have shared yet, as IBM will receive unprecedented access to AT&T’s network for business clients.

The financial terms of the partnership weren’t disclosed, though IBM senior vice president Erich Clementi did tell Bloomberg that  the venture is a “major component” of the company’s goal to reach $7 billion in revenue from cloud services by 2015.

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About the author

Josh Ong is the China Editor of The Next Web. Anative Californian, he now lives in Beijing. Follow him on Twitter and Sina Weibo.

IBM + Ameriprise = Opportunity for IT Innovation

(from ZDNet)

IBM is extending its partnership with Ameriprise Financial, which is a win-win for both parties.

Essentially, IBM handles the back-end work for Ameriprise while it is also demonstrating its own business and enterprise services around networking, storage and mainframes through a global customer worth $655 billion in assets.

Going back to 2006, IBM has been helping Ameriprise weave together various IT systems with different financial apps and products.

IBM is responsible for hosting Ameriprise PeopleSoft applications, which consists of application and infrastructure tiers for its human resource, financial management, supply chain, and customer relationship management functions, on the IBM SmartCloud.

Furthermore, IBM is supposed to make sure that Ameriprise’s technology infrastructure stays up-to-date and even ahead of the curve. This is where things get interesting for IBM as it represents an opportunity for creating and incorporating innovative technologies around IT and cloud computing.

IBM also asserted that this represents how its Global Services teams are integrating business insights (which are also evolving with IBM’s big data strategy) with the tech giant’s software and services portfolio for deployment on a global scale.

The end goal for IBM customers (not just Ameriprise) is to see return on investment in cutting-edge IT faster while freeing up resources to focus on their own products and strategies.

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Are you an Ameriprise client? Did you know about IBM’s partnership and role in the organization?

Polycom Teams with IBM Research on Cloud/Video Capabilities

Polycom announces co-development Initiative with IBM Research to deliver secure, next-generation innovations and accelerate cloud-delivery of video collaboration applications

from albawaba.com

Polycom, the global leader in open standards-based unified communications, UC, today announced an initiative with IBM Research to co-develop next-generation innovations that are designed to further accelerate cloud-delivered video collaboration applications to support key vertical and social uses. Under the initiative, Polycom will work with IBM Research to explore and develop technologies that leverage the Polycom RealPresence Platform and real-time video capabilities in the cloud, as businesses are increasingly evaluating Video-as-a-Service, VaaS, offerings through private, public and hybrid cloud models.

Polycom and IBM Research are working to ensure Polycom RealPresence video solutions perform optimally in the most rigorous cloud environments to provide the highest levels of security, performance, and reliability, even when systems need to rapidly scale up and down. The companies plan to further develop interoperability between standard and non-standard video environments, including social video applications, to serve organisations requiring face-to-face video meetings regardless of network, platforms, devices, or protocols. This initiative will put special emphasis toward video-enabled mobile social collaboration. The two companies have already worked on a number of initiatives to integrate video, mobile, and social platforms.

Leveraging their development efforts, Polycom and IBM Research plan to create industry solutions that focus on cloud-delivered Communications Enabling Business Processes, CEBP – business activities achieved more effectively through certain communications applications. The combination of leveraging rich presence as well as advanced routing and interoperability creates new possibilities in various industry segments such as insurance, call centers, surveillance, and more. This initiative is designed to broaden the use of RealPresence video solutions and is an important testimony to Polycom’s focus on driving video ubiquity.

“At its heart, this collaboration with IBM is about laying the foundation for more RealPresence innovation in the cloud.  Working with IBM, we’re taking a world-class solution and co-developing technologies to help customers – who are increasingly looking to the cloud for video collaboration applications – better communicate, collaborate, and be more productive,” said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, President of Products and Services, Polycom.  “Customers who choose Polycom will always be at the forefront of the industry because we’re pushing the boundaries of collaboration forward to ensure our customers have the best solutions, both today and in the future. Our work with IBM is yet another step forward in achieving Polycom’s goal of connecting anyone across any environment on any device.”

“Together with Polycom, we can help customers prepare for the future of this industry, whether they choose premises-based video solutions or private, public, or hybrid cloud delivery models,” said Ken King, vice president of business development for IBM Research. “Ultimately, it’s about helping Polycom develop new, innovative video products on a cloud computing platform that creates solutions across various industry verticals. By co-developing with Polycom, we can help customers collaborate and make decisions more quickly.”

The co-developed solutions will be rolled-out in future Polycom RealPresence video collaboration solutions, including for enterprises interested in private or hybrid clouds or through service providers who will deliver VaaS offerings through public clouds to businesses of all sizes.

Today’s announcement builds on the existing Polycom and IBM global partnership which includes product integrations as well as offerings that help customers to deliver, install, integrate, and maintain standards-based Polycom video solutions into unified communications environments.