New Storage and Management Features for IBM PureSystems Help Clients Reduce Costs, Increase Utilization

ARMONK, N.Y., Nov. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- To help clients increase their IT utilization and reduce datacenter operation costs, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today introduced new mobile, management and storage components for its PureFlex and Flex System portfolios. Key among these components is a new storage system to help improve storage utilization as much as 30 percent while delivering extraordinary ease of use.

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This storage system is tightly integrated with IBM Flex System Manager and uses IBM Storwize family virtualization and unique IBM Real-time Compression technologies to help clients reduce storage requirements by up to 80 percent. As a result, clients can run their most important workloads with no application performance degradation.

IBM also unveiled new capabilities for PureFlex and Flex Systems that will provide the management and administration tools clients need to effectively increase their datacenter utilization.  These include: integrated end-to-end storage management; mobile access to the system for clients through a wide range of mobile devices (Android, Blackberry and iOS); and centralized control of user id's and passwords across nodes and chassis for greater system security. These features will build upon the capabilities of Flex System Manager to help organizations more efficiently create and manage their IT infrastructures.

Recent research from IDC illustrates that one of the main challenges IT organizations face today is around the deployment, management, and administration of servers – which are consuming a larger portion of the overall IT budget and consequently leaving fewer resources to spend on new projects. Sixteen years ago the bulk of IT budgets was spent on hardware, with less than 30 percent on management and administration. By 2013, that relationship will have completely flipped and management now will drive nearly 70 percent of all expenditures. (1)

"Clients are telling us that when they look to upgrade the legacy servers and storage that constitute their current IT infrastructures they don't want to spend too much time and effort tuning and managing the new systems," said Andrew Monshaw, GM IBM PureFlex. "These are the companies that are turning to PureSystems to reduce their costs and increase their datacenter utilization."

To date, more than 1,000 PureFlex and Flex Systems have shipped in more than 40 countries around the world. Clients are installing IBM PureFlex or Flex System to help reduce IT cost and complexity. For example:

• Finnish IT outsourcing services and data center services provider Academica will use PureFlex to rededicate time formerly spent on IT maintenance and support to driving customer service support and developing new services. As a result of this new allocation of resources, Academica will be able to focus on expanding its business by improving services to meet evolving customer requirements.
• China's Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology will use IBM PureFlex to help improve the quality of education services offered to students and launch the university's Digital Campus platform and student Campus Card.
• India's Thane Bharat Sahakari Bank selected a Smarter Computing solution built on IBM PureFlex over its existing environment to create an intelligent infrastructure designed to help the bank manage growth, introduce new client services and boost its profitability.

"IBM PureSystems is the ideal choice because it helps us in three main areas," said Shriram Date, CEO, Thane Bharat Sahakari Bank. "First, it reduces our cost and complexity - simplifying and reducing steps across the complete IT life cycle; second, it provides additional security by helping reduce enterprise risk with trusted protection built in from the hardware up; and third, PureSystems significantly reduces new application deployment times."

New Flex System Components

The IBM Flex System goes beyond competitor's blade configurations and provides the elements for IBM PureFlex.   IBM Flex Systems are built-to-order offerings for clients who want to custom build and tune configurations to their specific requirements. This allows them to select the specific compute, systems networking and optional storage and management required to support their specific workloads.

As part of today's announcement, IBM is unveiling new and enhanced elements for all four aspects of the Flex System including:

• Management:  A New version of IBM Flex System Manager that will allow clients to bring new components online faster, provide better monitoring and alerts and more easily integrate applications, services and workloads through a new, even easier user interface and mobile access.
• Storage: Integrated Flex System V7000 storage node with built-in virtualization, intelligent tiering, and IBM Real-time Compression® that enables storing up to five times as much data in the same physical disk space.
• Processors: New POWER7+, x440 and x220 compute nodes will provide clients with a wide range of advanced processing technology to deliver workload optimization and choice for client datacenters.  Also, all POWER compute nodes are now available as build-to-order components in Flex System.
• Networking: New converged fabric switches providing Fibre Channel over Ethernet and new adaptors will allow clients to choose from a wide variety of advanced networking technologies that integrate into existing network topologies and provide optimized bandwidth for their workloads.

IBM Business Partner Ecosystem Continues to Expand

For IBM Business Partners, PureSystems creates a new services opportunity to help clients solve the complexity of enterprise IT, reduce costs and encourage innovation. From resellers to distributors and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), more than 2500 Business Partners have received PureSystems certifications. PureSystems currently run tens of thousands of existing ISV applications across four operating environments including Windows, Linux, AIX, and IBM i operating system. Additionally, Business Partners have created more than 250 new solutions and applications that are optimized to run on PureSystems. These patterns of expertise, which span 20 industries, can be accessed through the IBM PureSystems Centre. They include leading solutions from some of the world's largest ISVs, including ERP systems and applications for the banking, marketing, healthcare and energy industries. Additionally, partners are able to perform many of the configuration and deployment services that previously came only from IBM and are optional and optionally available to be performed by qualified business partners.

To help address the new opportunity that PureSystems presents, IBM is also providing training, marketing, certifications and technical validation support to its Business Partners.  For instance, dozens of IBM Innovation Centers in cities such as Bangalore, Dublin, Johannesburg and Shanghai are helping Business Partners develop and test their applications using IBM PureSystems. Business Partners can also bring their clients to IBM Innovation Centers to see PureSystems technology at work. 

For more information on IBM PureSystems visit: www.ibm.com/press/pure

(1) Source: IDC; Converged Systems: End-User Survey Results; Doc #236966, September 2012;

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Chris Rubsamen
Global Communications
IBM Systems and Technology Group
(914) 766-4280 
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SOURCE IBM