IBM Solidifies Hybrid Cloud Game Plan At InterConnect 2015

IBM has announced new hybrid cloud strategies at this year’s InterConnect conference in Las Vegas.

The firm’s SVP Robert LeBlanc said IBM will deliver a series of technologies and services that will extend clients’ control, visibility, security and governance in a hybrid cloud environment similar to what clients have in their private cloud and traditional IT systems.

A new class of hybrid

“Today, we are launching a new class of hybrid cloud innovations that extend open standards capabilities for the enterprise. This will help break down the barriers between clouds and on premise IT systems, providing clients with control, visibility and security as they utilise the public and private clouds,” said Robert LeBlanc.

“Data location across an ever growing number of clouds is an increasing concern for customers and we are unveiling new portability and developer services to make this easier to manage.”

New services include IBM DataWorks, a tooling platform to refine and deliver data. This allows developers to subdivide and manipulate data sets from the treasure trove of public and private data. Further ‘collaborative operations’ enable enhanced visibility and control of clients’ hybrid environments with a single, end-to-end view. There were also new orchestration and security features.

IBM revealed it is now dedicating the talents of more than half its cloud development team to hybrid cloud innovations, including hundreds of developers working on open cloud standards. More than 65 percent of enterprise IT organisations will commit to hybrid cloud technologies before 2016, vastly driving the rate and pace of change in IT organisations.

The firm also announced plans to build out SoftLayer’s computing capacity with the addition of new cloud centres in Sydney and Montreal. Both facilities are set to open within the next 30 days. Once launched, IBM will have opened five SoftLayer cloud centres in less than four months, including recently established facilities in Franfurt, Germany; Queretaro, Mexico; and Tokyo, Japan.

Connected to the initial 0,78 £ ( $1.2 [USD])bn investment in cloud services that IBM announced in 2014, the new computing capacity broadens the company’s cloud footprint in both Australia and Canada, bringing the full SoftLayer portfolio to local doorsteps. The new cloud centres are each the second of their kind to be opened in their respective countries, giving customers the option for in-country data redundancy. When asked how further this SoftLayer expansion will continue, LeBlanc told TechWeekEurope that the firm is on a journey. “We will go where the opportunity is,” he said.

Jim Comfort, general manager, IBM Cloud Services, said: “We are responding to broad, global, enterprise demand for SoftLayer services. With each new location, we’re not only adding more computing capacity; we’re also helping customers solve data residency issues, address security and audit controls, run and scale big data applications on bare metal servers, and more. We’re enabling enterprises to move to the cloud at the speed and in a way that makes the most sense for them.”

On the first day of the Interconnect conference, where 21,000 IBM employees and fans have gathered to hear what the firm can bring to hybrid cloud, there were also three new strategic partnerships.

IBM and Turner Broadcasting System Latin America have teamed up to power new authenticated on-demand services in Latin America and Brazil. There is a further partnership with Tech Mahindra, digital transformation and consulting firm. IBM also revealed it is building on its strategic alliance with CSC by extending IBM’s digital innovation platform, Bluemix, to CSC’s strong developer ecosystem to help global customers accelerate their transition to the cloud and modernise their applications.

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