IBM Reveals Blue Box On-Premise OpenStack Cloud

IBM has unveiled an on-premise cloud service that runs on OpenStack that allows customers to run their own private cloud environment within their data centre.

The service, called Blue Box Local, is the result of IBM’s June acquisition of Blue Box, a Seattle-based cloud provider.

The service will go live on November 30, and include all the bells and whistles found in IBM’s current OpenStack services.

Private Cloud-as-a-Service

“Companies now can consume private cloud-as-a-service in the environment that fits their needs,” said Jesse Proudman, CTO at Blue Box.

According to Proudman, IBM customers have “long wanted” to work with OpenStack, but not on OpenStack. “Blue Box facilities that dream,” he said, “regardless of location.”

The acquisition seems it may pay off for IBM. Blue Box launched its OpenStack private cloud service in 2013 and now IBM can offer its customers a wider breadth of cloud platforms for hybrid or on-premise use.

Blue Box also offers Bluemix as an option for hybrid platforms that use PaaS for new application components and more traditional virtual machines for existing application components. In either deployment, IBM said companies will benefit from a cloud experience with IBM’s operations service providing monitoring and maintenance for both Bluemix for PaaS and Blue Box for IaaS.

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