IBM Now Offers ‘Flexible’ Hybrid Cloud Software Licensing

IBM has announced that it is now letting customers move their IBM software licenses between on-premises, private and public clouds as much as they want in the latest step towards a cloud subscription-based IT world.

In a statement released today, the company said: “Clients can freely move monthly licenses between on-premises and public and private clouds as needed including on IBM SoftLayer and third party clouds.”

Standard

Of course, this should be the standard in today’s hybrid cloud world, and many other vendors already offer this kind of support.

Obviously this method comes in stark contrast to the days of legacy IT, where software bought would traditionally be limited to operation on just that machine. But in 2015, with IT ever increasingly running on virtual machines and in the cloud, this approach just doesn’t work anymore.

Hybrid cloud presents software vendors with the problem of just not knowing which machine, server, or computer will be used one day to the next for a customer. In that regard, IBM’s rule amendment shows progress.

The firm said: “Clients are cloud enabling existing enterprise applications and deploying across on-premises and hybrid cloud environments without changing these applications using IBM PureApplication Service on SoftLayer. In June, IBM will deliver a self-service portal for clients to scale their infrastructure and software license footprint for hybrid deployments in minutes using PureApplication Service.”

Hardware

At the Edge 2015 infrastructure conference, being held in Las Vegas this week, Big Blue also announced a range of servers and storage software for its hybrid cloud customers. New IBM Power Systems, Spectrum Storage, z Systems and Big Data storage solutions for Hybrid Clouds products were unveiled, including the IBM Power System E850, IBM Spectrum Control Storage Insights, and the IBM XIV GEN 3.

“IBM hybrid cloud solutions are built for the enterprise and clients are using them to help enable new business models to drive growth,” said Don Boulia, vice president of Cloud Services, IBM Systems.

“Hybrid cloud computing requires new levels of openness, dynamic data management, integration, automation and scalable performance in server, storage and software technologies. IBM brings all of these technologies together from on-premises data centers and inside public and private clouds to more efficiently manage traditional computing with new mobile, big data and social computing workloads.”

Take the TechWeekEurope IBM quiz here to test your knowledge!