Modernize your apps with IBM Power Systems in hybrid multicloud

Most people working in IT today have probably heard loud and clear that hybrid multicloud is the new “new normal.” In this blog post, I’ll share an example of how you can use IBM Power® Systems technology in a hybrid multicloud environment with management software available in Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform and IBM Cloud Pak® for Multicloud Management.

By now we’ve all either read about, experimented with or implemented workloads in a container environment. These new container technologies can work together with virtual machines on Power Systems within your data center and on multiple public clouds and still be managed through a single control system. So let’s jump in and take a quick look at how you can get real business value with software that lets you integrate these technologies.

Let’s talk speed and agility

You’ve just completed that design workshop for modernizing your business application. The new design may have components that can take advantage of the new container technology but also need to integrate with existing VM-based applications. IBM Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management running on Red Hat OpenShift can provide a single view and control into a truly hybrid multicloud environment.

Let’s focus on a specific feature that can help speed the development of our new hybrid application. Within the Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management exists the Terraform and Service Automation Module. This module provides the following key capabilities that can assist you in development of a hybrid multicloud solution:

◉ Can deploy VMs to private or public clouds

◉ Can deploy VMs to different cloud architectures, one of which is OpenStack — by providing an OpenStack interface, you can easily connect to your in-house PowerVC environment or to a public cloud that hosts Power architecture, like IBM Cloud. The product has built-in connection templates for over a dozen of the most popular types of clouds

◉ Can orchestrate a workflow that can combine the capabilities described above to create deployments into multiple clouds in a single action

◉ Can integrate with the Multicloud Management catalog, which can then facilitate both container and VM-based deployments from a single view and control point

Now, let’s look at a specific deployment example.

5 steps to a new hybrid app

I have a new application that will ultimately run in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux® (RHEL) OpenShift container in a public cloud, which will request data from a Power VM (AIX, IBM i or Linux) running in my private data center.

Step 1 – Let’s create a connection profile to use our on-premises private cloud (that is, PowerVC) as a target for deployments from the Cloud Pak Multicloud Management Terraform and Service Automation Module. It’s pretty straightforward and requires only a few connection and authentication parameters:

Step 2 – Now we need to create a Terraform template that describes the image on PowerVC where the newly developed VM is sourced. Included in the Cloud Pak is a graphical tool called “Template Designer,” which has many tailored templates that can be used as a starting point. In this template, we also define deployment attributes that can either be hard coded or left open to be specified at deploy time — items such as CPU, memory, network and ssh-keys. The designer tool is integrated such that once finished, you can push the template into the Terraform and Service Automation Module.

Step 3 – Once the template reflecting the VM image and deployment attributes has been created, it can be used to create a “service.” This is where you have the option to orchestrate other activities as part of the deployment. An example might be integrating with a DNS Network IP Registration product to obtain an IP address and hostname, or generating an approval process, or an email notification. Maybe you need 2 VMs deployed together for high availability. There are multiple prebuilt templates available in the tool to allow orchestration steps in a graphical workflow. You drag and drop the action in sequence, and then fill in the specific parameters for that action. The workflow could also include a decision tree that changes the flow based on action outcomes.

Step 4 – Now that we have a service defined, it can be published to the Multicloud Manager Catalog. This is done by simply clicking on a publish button and providing a little information on how you’d like the service to appear in the catalog.

Step 5 – Having this new VM-based application exposed into the Multicloud Manager catalog now makes it visible right along with our partner container and many other services. It’s now possible for various personnel to deploy both the VM to your private PowerVC-based cloud and your container workload into a public cloud.

Now that you have the initial setup, you have the flexibility to allow multiple teams to deploy these workloads over and over, and in ways that make the most sense. Maybe you don’t have enough computer or storage resources in your data center and need to quickly go into the public cloud. You can import your VM image into IBM Cloud PowerVS, add the connection information and modify your target within the service deployment. Maybe you’d like to develop that container-based workload on premises. You can use Red Hat OpenShift running on Power Servers within your data center to keep everything internal until you’re ready to move it out to the public cloud. The flexibility is within your control and with the same tools.

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Everything should go cloud now, right?

From time to time, we invite industry thought leaders to share their opinions and insights on current technology trends on the IBM Systems IT Infrastructure blog. The opinions in these posts are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of IBM.

The state of cloud today

We are now at the stage where the majority of easy workloads have been shifted, representing an estimated 20 percent of compute moved across. We now enter the next phase. This is where the harder workloads will be migrated, those that will likely bring the most advantage to the business and the customer in moving to the cloud. This shift represents more than a simple technology change and will lead to new ways of working, where we shall see the reaping of the optimal benefits of cloud compute.

However, this will be the harder phase and remains the phase where many applications may be found too hard or inappropriate to port for potential benefits. New applications will still get provisioned that do not fit cloud and will remain on premises.

Digital transformation projects are often correlated with everything cloud. And yet, according to an Everest Group survey, due to this 73 percent of enterprises failed to provide any business value whatsoever from their digital transformation efforts.

A transformation is taking something from one state to another, to gain benefit and upside. A digital transformation purely aligns to it being a technical change; you change form factor from one technology approach to another, but this does not necessitate an improvement or transformation of the business process.

Too many assume a digital transformation is the process of moving from legacy on-premises to a cloud-based solution. It should mean a review of processes and technical approaches to gain maximum business advantage for both users and customers, and this may include both hosted and on-premises cloud as appropriate.

IDC stated that by 2020, 55 percent of organizations will be digitally determined, and if they are not, they shall be digitally distressed. We have seen a continued disruption of traditional organizations with many large brand names struggling, restricting, being acquired or simply going out of business through digital distress. They simply have not adjusted to the persona needs of their customer in delivering an omni-channel digital experience. Those lacking effective digitization with speed will risk their business legacy being marginalized or totally disrupted. Technology and its affordability are no longer the barrier; the willingness, capability and effectiveness of the digital change journey will be the determining factors for future success. The challenge facing most businesses now comes from selection of the right form factor or cloud type for the right compute need and reducing the risk that a selection now will provide a restrictive future lock-in commitment!

Applications are everything

This need is the driver of application-level compute demands, application selections driving the underlying platform, much like we experienced in the good old days when organizations found themselves with mixed UNIX, Novell Netware, Lan Manager, NT, and VM environments, driven by the applications selected and the operating systems required to run them. Mixed hybrid and multicloud environments have become the norm, not by design, but by osmosis. We must accept that it is a multicloud world that we will exist in and that the luxury to select one singular public cloud platform now and for the future is an assumed expectation.

One cloud doesn’t fit all

The right cloud for a specific application is determined by individual discrete metrics for that app with different app vendors offering varying integration levels for different platforms with different capabilities. This makes it nearly impossible to utilize one cloud platform across all application needs and not be restricting your future flexibility and freedom of choice to other application choices.

Multicloud is a must as we progress forward in a world where digital and first to market will increasingly distance the “haves” and “have nots”. The digital customer is demanding more of all providers, and the consumer will expect agility from their provider or simply have freedom of choice from those who deliver. Multiclouds have the ability to offer great flexibility. However, challenges of compliance, skill sets, development specifics, monitoring and security still remain factors to overcome. The cloud, the network and IT services are converging. Hybrid and multicloud are becoming the norm and a high percentage of workloads are still on-premises. With these in mind it is critical that any cloud transformation accommodates co-existence, flexibility and portability.

The right platform for the right need, the ability to co-exist more effectively and easily and to deliver competitive business advantage is key in today’s economy; however, based on the recent Forrester study 39 percent have achieved a loss of competitive edge as an IT organization, not a gain! What is also clear from the study and from my engagement with leading business clients is that delaying decisions and investment in refreshes and upgrades is not a saving but a hindrance and has far greater cost and negative impact on the business performance.

The Forrester study from IBM cited that key drivers behind the multicloud strategy of clients included: higher performance, flexibility, improved customer experience and the ability to support change. In today’s pressurized world with customers who demands more, employees who expect more, and a business likely built in the past, the ability to transform, adjust and become agile and open to more rapid change is critical.

Achieving this is not a one-size-fits-all fix and is certainly not an easy task that is solved by a single platform or vendor. Hybrid cloud strategies have developed too quickly, become the norm, and have been accepted as the appropriate model for the forward-thinking organization.

Businesses from the largest to the smallest firms are finding that despite the promised land of single vendor-sourced cloud offerings, that in reality the mixing of cloud platforms across Saas, PaaS and IaaS from multiple vendors is quickly becoming the norm.  In order to deliver the maximum upside outcome for the business there is a growing understanding and receptiveness that the true cloud world . . .  will be a hybrid and multicloud world.

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Hyper protect your business for digital transformation

Your customers may be demanding new and better digital products and services. To meet these evolving needs, we see organizations across many industries changing the way they operate by using digital technologies to build new services and improve efficiencies.

In the financial services industry, for example, distributed ledgers and smart contracts have the potential to revolutionize value transfer. The transparency of blockchain combined with the convenience of transacting tokens can make previously illiquid asset classes such as corporate bonds more accessible and attractive. Institutional investors, exchanges, banks and corporations have indicated they have started using digital assets for lending, trading, payment and issuance services, with crypto-specific applications such as staking and blockchain governance emerging.

Financial institutions have a regulatory and fiduciary responsibility to know who has access to digital assets encrypted by private keys. To participate in this new financial landscape and unlock the transformative power of distributed ledger technologies, enterprises need the ability to store and transfer digital assets securely and quickly and maintain control of their encryption keys.

Announcing IBM Hyper Protect Digital Assets Platform

To provide clients with an environment well-suited for digital asset management, we are excited to announce the general availability of the IBM Hyper Protect Digital Assets Platform. It is designed to provide a secured basis for financial institutions and enterprises to deploy their commercial or custom solutions for managing digital assets. Powered by IBM Hyper Protect Virtual Servers, the platform is available on premises with IBM LinuxONE or Linux on IBM Z. The platform is also available in the public cloud with IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services.

Customers such as Hex Trust are enjoying the benefits of the platform. Hex Trust is developing a new institutional custody solution using IBM Hyper Protect Virtual Servers and IBM LinuxONE. Rafal Czerniawski, CTO of Hex Trust, says “The reason we selected IBM’s platform is so that we will be able to sleep at night.” He continues, “We have to make sure that nobody within or outside our company can circumvent approvals, authentications, or policies. The protection offered by IBM Hyper Protect Virtual Servers allows Hex Trust to innovate and to bring more digital assets, like complex derivatives, to the blockchain.”

The platform’s signature near-line storage capability provides digital asset enterprises with the ability to access the benefits of hot wallet liquidity and the security of cold storage by using cryptographic shredding techniques, envelope encryption and hardened custom policies. Digital asset and permissioned blockchain applications are deployed into protected memory enclaves that are designed to maintain isolated execution, application integrity and confidentiality, and defend against internal and external threats. The enclaves leverage tamper-resistant secure boot technology and are backed by FIPS 140-2 level 4 certified Hardware Security Modules (HSM), the highest level of security certification commercially available, featuring a 360-degree envelopment of tamper detection and response.

Digitally transform with cloud-native development

To stay relevant in the eyes of customers, your organization should build and modernize services so you can innovate quickly and efficiently. Recently, we announced that Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform is generally available for IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE, reinforcing the cloud-native world of containers and Kubernetes with the security, scalability and reliability of IBM enterprise servers.

Several new enhancements further your ability to create cloud-native experiences. With Pivotal Cloud Foundry support for IBM z/OS® Cloud Broker, you can now integrate mission-critical apps and data services available on z/OS with container-based applications on another popular open-source cloud platform. And with the latest release of IBM Blockchain v2.1.3, you can extend multicloud capabilities with support for blockchain on Red Hat OpenShift on LinuxONE and Linux on Z.

Look to your IT infrastructure to help you deliver a secured yet open hybrid multicloud environment. With IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE, you can deploy the cloud operating model you want with the privacy and security you need.

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Storage solutions for the edge

We described some of the critical infrastructure requirements for edge computing. Here, we will discuss some practical solutions from IBM Storage.

IBM Storage has decades of experience offering a wide range of edge solutions. Interestingly, industry-leading technologies from IBM Storage for data and AI solutions normally associated with central computing installations also offer advantageous edge computing solutions.

IBM Spectrum Scale has been an industry leader in file management for over 25 years. It is state-of-the-art software-defined storage (SDS) that offers a long list of leading-edge data management and security features. It has been deployed in some of the most demanding commercial and research environments.

IBM Cloud Object Storage is another industry leader from IBM Storage for data and AI solutions, including edge solutions.  IBM Cloud Object Storage is a highly scalable cost-efficient cloud storage solution with concurrent parallel access for edge solutions in the data center and in the public cloud. It enables enterprises to store and manage massive amounts of data more efficiently and securely, with extreme system reliability and accessibility from any location.

While IBM Spectrum Scale brings decades of successful production deployments in large, centralized installations, it also offers features and capabilities that make it exceptional for edge computing use cases. For example, the Active File Management (AFM) feature automatically shares and caches data across geographically distributed sites to gain performance similar to local data and innovative transparent cloud tiering allows non-disruptive, intelligent data migration between on-premises and cloud storage, enabling IBM Spectrum Scale to integrate edge locations and central data centers with simplified single-pane management.

A key requirement of edge computing solutions likely to be far from central IT resources is ease of management. Edge installations must also have the ability to start small and grow as needed.

IBM Storage offers a unique and powerful system implementation of IBM Spectrum Scale that addresses both these requirements. IBM Elastic Storage System 3000 (ESS 3000) is designed to deploy world-class data management technology simply and easily. It leverages the ultra-low latency and massive throughput advantages offered by NVMe-accelerated flash storage.

ESS 3000 utilizes containerized delivery of IBM Spectrum Scale software for simplified installation, management and upgrades. To address the requirement for agile scalability, you can start with a single 2U building block with world-class 40GB/sec performance and as little as 25TB of storage, then grow capacity, performance and resilience linearly as needed by adding more units.

IBM Cloud Object Storage has been bringing the edge to the data center or the core enterprise for many years. We partner with customers to bring mobile and connected devices where local processing can occur closer to their core data center using object storage.

IBM Cloud Object Storage is a highly scalable cost-efficient cloud storage solution with concurrent parallel access to bring data from the edge faster and more efficiently with our geo-dispersed data protection. It enables enterprises to store and manage massive amounts of data more efficiently and securely, with enhanced technology and extreme system reliability and accessibility from any location. In a report from IDC that interviewed IBM Cloud Object Storage customers they found that customers in the report received a return on their investment of 255%, with organizations breaking even on their investment in IBM Cloud Object Storage in an average of eight months.

Customers can start with less than 100TB and grow to 100s of PB or even to EB+ configurations. There is a tremendous amount of data being created at the edge and much of that data needs to be stored securely in the core. IBM has multiple customers storing 100s of PB of data from edge devices simply and efficiently as data requirements continue to grow. IBM Cloud Object Storage is turning storage challenges into business value by simplifying and optimizing the infrastructure for edge data requirements.

IBM Spectrum Scale and IBM Cloud Object Storage are also available as key components of IBM Storage Suite for IBM Cloud Paks, a comprehensive container-ready solution. This Suite delivers pre-tested reference architectures with data resources for file, block and object requirements that can fast track your journey to private cloud with native cloud acceleration and help you to build agile, secure persistent storage resources for your containers.

Source: ibm.com

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Hyper protect your sensitive data and workloads in the cloud

As business leaders in regulated industries look to leverage the cloud for innovation, one of the biggest challenges they face is the protection of sensitive customer data. To address this challenge, IBM recently announced new IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services capabilities built on IBM LinuxONE. These capabilities are designed to give you authority over sensitive data, associated workloads and encryption keys in the public cloud.

Now we are enhancing our capabilities and extending our ecosystem by integrating the IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services portfolio into more applications in order to make it easier to access the services.

Extending data protection in the cloud to a broader ecosystem

Financial institutions around the world are rapidly accelerating digital transformation to keep up with customer demands. To help these organizations protect sensitive workloads as they innovate, Temenos, a leading banking software company, will be publishing its first stack for IBM Cloud in May, leveraging IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services.

“Banks are required to meet stringent regulatory requirements, which drives the need for complete data confidentiality and exclusive control over encryption keys,” says Tony Coleman, Product Director, Technology at Temenos. “Temenos’ cloud-native digital banking platform on IBM Cloud combined with IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services can help meet those requirements and help banks digitally transform.”

Within the healthcare industry, health tracking devices provide consumers with potentially valuable insights that have encouraged many to change their habits and improve their health. In order to maintain consumer trust, developers building applications that leverage personal health data shared in the cloud must ensure that the data is protected. Now, with the IBM Hyper Protect Software Development Kit (SDK) for iOS available in the Apple CareKit open source community, developers can build healthcare apps running on Apple devices with features that address unauthorized party access to their data in the IBM Cloud.

Many financial and healthcare technology startups face the challenge of scaling solutions while keeping highly sensitive data secured. Over the last year, through the IBM Hyper Protect Accelerator Program, IBM has provided 15 companies with resources to build scalable solutions on a highly secured platform. In April, IBM announced the expansion of this program and we are excited to add 30 new startups to the program by year’s end.

Expanding service availability and security

To help companies protect their sensitive data and mission-critical workloads in the cloud, IBM continues to enhance the IBM Cloud Hyper Protect portfolio of services. The services are now available in Dallas, Frankfurt and Sydney, and will also soon be available in Washington, D.C. The services are ready for use with ISO 27001, 27017, and 27018 certifications. We are also expanding certifications—now the services are IRAP Assessed and we expect to receive a SOC 2 Type 1 report in 2Q 2020.

We are also strengthening the security and usability of our portfolio with new capabilities. To allow clients exclusive control of their encryption keys to safeguard data, IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Services provides an industry-leading ‘Keep Your Own Key’ capability. The key management service is backed by FIPS 140-2 level 4 certified Hardware Security Modules (HSM), the highest level of security certification commercially available. This unique capability is now included in a number of IBM Cloud data and storage offerings, including IBM Cloud Hyper Protect DBaaS. For crypto officers to be able to more securely take control of and administer the cloud HSMs, we recently announced smart card support. For workloads with sensitive data or business IP, we launched the IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Virtual Servers with Ubuntu Linux, and we look forward to expanding support soon for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE.

Source: ibm.com

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Are we running to the cloud hills too quickly?

From time to time, we invite industry thought leaders to share their opinions and insights on current technology trends to the IBM Systems IT Infrastructure blog. The opinions in these posts are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of IBM.

With billions gained by cloud technology providers hailing multicloud and hybrid public cloud services as well as native cloud initiatives, are we overlooking some crucial points when discussing technology migrations? Mid to large-cap enterprises have substantial technology that exists either at their on-premises tech estate or housed within any given data center. Infrastructure-wise, there’s a lot to change when talking cloud specifics for said infrastructure, let alone a cloud-first program!

I’m a big advocate of reusing and repurposing data from the outset as this will bring down the multitude of layered services you will be told to purchase to get the most out of your data. But do we need to layer these services around our estate? The answer that will probably be on the tip of your tongue is “It depends.”

A recent Forrester study, in conjunction with IBM, highlights what is on the minds of CTO/CIO’s when making these cloud decisions. Enterprise technology environments have undergone many refreshes over the last few decades and bursting out to hybrid cloud services for the specific line of business applications/services. Our on-premises technology is seen as a management burden, a cost of ownership problem and more often as old technology! Although some of these statements can be viewed as accurate (depending on your standpoint), I would argue the following points:

Digitalization doesn’t necessarily need an external cloud approach; it requires planning and focuses on providing the right solution. If this method is taken, I bet some of you will agree with me when I say “on-premises technology is your first option” before outsourcing some of your critical IT Infrastructure. Most heterogeneous, on-premises technology has evolved to meet the new digital demands with burst out to hybrid services. Static site-based technology has gone through the pain of multiple API services and controls years back now, and we have gotten over the cloud buzz.

The Forrester report findings also sum up current cloud buying trends, highlighting IT enterprise estates not being a “one-size-fits-all solution” and with hybrid cloud adoption being on everyone’s tip of the tongue but not executing… yet.

Platforms such as the IBM Z Systems z Series has had more R&D dollars pumped into them than most tech platforms (billions) and the latest z15 generation reflects those advancements, which is just phenomenal!

The IBM Z series, LinuxONE, or even the now-overused term for this technology–mainframe–are all fantastic pieces of tech and are pretty much a cloud in a box (if you wish to use it that way). I have followed this technology for many years and say unprompted that if I had a choice of multiple vendors delivering services (hybrid cloud models), together with having to wade through endless contracts to ensure all liabilities are covered = I wouldn’t! (who would?). If I can have enterprise technology on premises with some of the best security, speed and resiliency built-in through one provider; I would!

However, it is often the case today that we demand limitless API’s for anything we may need to utilize in the future, and so we opt for the public hybrid cloud highway. But there are so many points to weigh up when considering this option–security, management, agility and scale, speed, access, the list goes on. Why not opt for localized technology that suits your needs with overspill to hybrid cloud vendors?

The IBM Systems platforms not only provide an absolute powerhouse of technology but also have encryption everywhere with speeds that can’t be matched by most conventional mainstream tech. They have built-in hybrid cloud connectors, they encrypt at hardware, software and in transit with the new passport data security options and are fast, very fast!

Supporting 2.4 million Docker containers on a single system and handling 19 billion encrypted web transactions per day without breaking a sweat are two examples that come to mind.

This technology may not apply to some of you, but my point is this. Don’t automatically jump to grab off-premises services using cloud initiatives. Take a look around and take what works for you. Cloud technology will only get more evolved as we progress with more interconnectivity for bespoke services, but they will also become more diverse and complicated to maintain/support.

I have always said that technical revolutions come around every ten years or so, which is also valid in the business world. We see this explosion of services and IT buzzwords that provides too many vendors for each new trend, and then we see a consolidation of them over 5-6 years. We are going through this right now, and if you don’t believe me check out some of the new options that the other prominent tech vendors are offering–on-premises replication from a hybrid cloud service!

Source: ibm.com

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Innovation and synergy with IBM Storage for IBM Z and LinuxONE

In September 2019, IBM announced the IBM z15TM, designed to deliver strong enterprise capabilities with the ability to manage the privacy of customer data across hybrid multicloud environments and to scale from one to four frames. This week, IBM is once again pushing the envelope with the announcement of the new z15 Model T02 and LinuxONE III Model LT2.

And the innovation doesn’t stop there. IBM Storage prides itself on delivering value to our customers by creating strong synergies between IBM Z® and our number one storage systems for enterprise servers–IBM DS8900F all-flash arrays and the IBM TS7700 virtual tape solution.

These enterprise storage solutions offer a crucial advantage over other products in the marketplace–deep integration with IBM Z. The design teams within these market-leading IBM product lines share intellectual capital and synchronize new technology releases.

This advantage is certainly recognized by IBM Business Partners:

“As an IBM Business Partner with a strong commitment to IBM Storage, we’ve watched the recent surge in IBM Enterprise Server sales with great interest,” notes Rusell Schneider, Storage Director of Jeskell Systems, a long-time IBM Storage Business Partner. “Our customers understand that in mission-critical environments, IBM Storage solutions such as DS8900F and TS7700 offer many advantages. The integration among IBM Z and IBM Storage is deeper. Installations are easier. Performance and functionality are simply better. Innovation in integrating IBM Z with IBM Storage in multicloud environments offers our large data center users the flexibility, cost and scalability they want.”

The deep integration between IBM Enterprise Servers and IBM Storage means that the recent focus areas for IBM Z–cloud native, encryption, cyber resilience, and flexible compute–have been major directions of innovation for IBM DS8900F all-flash arrays and TS7700 virtual tape solutions as well. New storage capabilities in these domains demonstrate that IBM continues to invest in advancing IBM DS8900F and TS7700.

IBM Storage supports business transformation into a multicloud ecosystem through a series of innovations centered around Transparent Cloud Tiering (TCT), Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform, IBM Cloud PaksTM and IBM Storage Suite for Cloud Paks, among others. IBM DS8900F and TS7700 TCT functionality enables hybrid multicloud as an extension of the primary storage for data archiving and disaster recovery. It also provides physical separations of systems to help customers prevent widespread corruption of data due to system failures, intentional or accidental human error, malware or ransomware attacks.

IBM Storage Suite for Cloud Paks is the software-defined storage infrastructure supporting IBM Cloud Paks. These solutions are designed to enable organizations to easily deploy modern enterprise software either on premises, in the cloud, or with pre-integrated systems. They also bring workloads to production by seamlessly leveraging Kubernetes as the management framework, supporting production-level qualities of service and end-to-end lifecycle management. This is designed to give clients an open, faster, more secure way to move core business applications for any cloud.

Then, to protect multicloud environments, IBM TS7700 virtual tape systems can now be used as both traditional backup and archive solutions or as object store repositories.

One of the most successful collaborations between IBM Storage and IBM Z has been the implementation of encrypting data everywhere. Both IBM DS8900F and TS7700 solutions offer security integration to extend IBM Z pervasive encryption to the storage by providing encryption of data at rest, in flight and in the cloud.  Additionally, when integrated with tape systems such as IBM TS4500, TS7770 solutions offer the ultimate physical air gap cyber security between data and online cyber threats.

Cyber resilience goes hand-in-hand with data protection. The modern enterprise demands that digital systems and assets be available 24/365. Part of the reason that IBM Z remains as popular as ever for business-critical workloads is due to its reputation for reliability. IBM DS8900F systems complement IBM Z resilience with multiple data replication, backup, and protection capabilities such as IBM HyperSwap and Safeguarded Copy technologies that result in 2 to 4 second recovery point objectives and better than seven nines overall system availability–that’s three seconds of downtime in a 365x7x24 year.

“Because information is now our most valuable business resource, data protection and cyber resilience have become our most important business tasks,” states Andreas Kirrstetter, Platform Manager Tape Infrastructure of IBM client Fiducia & GAD IT AG. “Part of the reason we use IBM Z is for their security and resilience. But this means that our storage and archiving systems must offer just as much security. This is why we’ve turned to IBM solutions such as TS7700 virtual tape libraries. They help us lower costs while allowing us to implement ‘air gaps’ for the ultimate data security. We see IBM TS7700 as the future of data archiving and protection.”

In addition to multicloud capabilities, encryption, and extraordinary cyber resilience, the IBM Z focus on flexible compute solutions means that the power of IBM Z is available for medium to large organizations, thanks to innovations such as the newly announced entry-level IBM z15 Model T02.

IBM Storage has innovated in step with this move toward greater flexibility and accessibility. The IBM DS8900F and TS7700 families both now offer smaller-footprint, lower-entry cost options: The entry-level DS8910F model has been available since last autumn and includes a smaller footprint with a rackless configuration that can be mounted in an industry standard 19-inch rack. This week, TS7700 is also announcing flexible configurations for organizations with different business needs. The same virtual tape capabilities are delivered as prepackaged racked solutions or rack mounted configurations with flexible deployments across client-supplied 19-inch industry standard racks. Enterprises starting with modest investments can surround them with the same deeply integrated, highly functional multicloud storage used by the largest organizations.

And innovation continues at a brisk pace; IBM TS7700 is working on a number of new features that will enhance cyber security, increase object store functionality and accelerate disaster recovery from the cloud.

“One of the significant advantages of IBM Z has always been its tight integration across hardware, operating systems/application software and storage.” states analyst Ray Lucchesi, president and founder of Silverton Consulting. “The new IBM z15 model T02 now brings those capabilities to medium and entry level businesses. So, these businesses can now enjoy the comprehensive data security, cyber resilience and multicloud capabilities as well as the sophisticated functionality of DS8900F AFA and TS7700 virtual tape library storage previously only available to high-end enterprise customers.”

IBM Storage works closely with the IBM Z and LinuxONE teams to synchronize our development and release of new technologies in order to give organizations the greatest benefits and advantages possible. This is the definition of synergy–when the team is greater than the individuals involved. And it’s exactly what IBM Storage gives our clients every day around the world.

Source: ibm.com

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Don’t let cloud exuberance stop other IT infrastructure investments

Cloud computing is a growing component of modern IT infrastructure and it will continue to grow into the foreseeable future… but on-premises computing is not going away. Nor should it!

There are many reasons to continue to embrace and even expand your existing on-premises workloads. Compliance, latency requirements, security and data protection, cost issues, and productivity (among others) are all valid reasons to run computing workloads on premises instead of shifting to the cloud.

IBM commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate how organizations develop and implement their IT infrastructure strategies. The results were published recently in a study titled The Key to Enterprise Hybrid Multicloud Strategy. And this study clearly backs up the premise of this blog post, that the future is hybrid and not everything will migrate to the cloud.

Indeed, one of the key findings of the study is that the push to public cloud doesn’t mean organizations have stopped investing in on premises. Organizations are increasing their funding for on-premises infrastructure at about the same rate as they are increasing cloud funding. While 82 percent of organizations are planning to increase spending on public cloud, 85 percent are planning to increase spending on existing infrastructure, outside of public cloud.

To me, this is not surprising. Given that many of the applications running on your on-premises IT infrastructure are running your business (that is, they are mission critical), it stands to reason that organizations should want to keep them maintained, operational, and efficient. And that requires investment.

We must never forget that the benefit of the applications that run on premises is substantial. These on-premises applications were built over time, perhaps over many decades, and they embody your core business processes. A pragmatic approach means that your existing enterprise applications must not only be maintained, but perhaps bolstered and improved. This is especially so because many of these applications are being used more heavily than ever before as organizations embrace digital transformation, analytical processing and mobile computing.

If you cease to invest in your existing software and hardware that runs your critical applications, it should be no surprise when they stop working efficiently or stop working altogether. Investing in the updates and refreshes required to keep your IT infrastructure operational is important, but unfortunately updates and refreshes tend to be the first thing that fall off the agenda when time/budget is a restriction. It is the silent risk that nobody is talking about.

Isn’t everything going to the cloud?

But what about the industry predictions that everything will be moving to the cloud? This is another example of tech industry over-exuberance. Whenever I hear an absolute term like “everything” I immediately doubt its veracity. Let me put it bluntly: everything will not be moving to the cloud. The cost and effort to do so would not deliver a reasonable return on the investment. There are two primary reasons why this is so:

◉ The majority of existing applications were not built with an understanding of the public cloud and it would take a lot of investment to re-engineer them to properly take advantage of a public cloud architecture.

◉ Even if demand is high, cloud service providers (CSPs) can’t build out their infrastructure fast enough to support all the existing data center capacity “out there” to immediately support everything.

Finally, there are scenarios that do not fit well in public cloud, perhaps in terms of pricing structure or compliance requirements.

The bottom line

The future is hybrid… namely, hybrid multicloud. I’ve written about hybrid multicloud here on the IBM IT Infrastructure blog before, so if that term confuses you be sure to click over and read my definition.

On-premises computing has its place in today’s IT infrastructure and it undoubtedly will in the future. As will, of course, public and private cloud. The bottom line is, and should always be, that you utilize the appropriate platform and technology for the task at hand. And many times, that will mean running applications on your IT infrastructure on premises.

Don’t let cloud obsession curtail your other IT infrastructure investments!

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A tale of two security models

The approach of security as a choice

In your journey to cloud, there are many approaches to securing your workloads. One approach is very common across a variety of cloud vendors: You choose how yours is secured.

In a world where a breach of personal information can cost your enterprise millions of dollars in fines arising from regulatory non-compliance on top of the potential costs derived from loss of consumer confidence, inadequate security poses threats that cannot be taken lightly. The average cost of a data breach is $3.92 million, not to mention the impact to your reputation.

Data breaches, in particular massively impactful ones, are becoming more and more common. The largest factor in reducing the cost of a data breach is the use of encryption, which can render stolen data useless.

Don’t take me wrong, choice and flexibility are wonderful things to have when selecting a cloud provider. An approach which does not enforce the encryption of all data may work for non-sensitive, less critical workloads like DevTest. For workloads with sensitive data, there must be a better way to protect your business.

The approach of security at the core

Companies want to stay out of the news; they do not want publicized breaches and can help to address this by utilizing the highest security possible — by protecting business and customer information. Designed with secure engineering best practices in mind, the IBM Cloud™ Hyper Protect platform has layered security controls across network and infrastructure, which are designed to help you to protect your data from both internal and external threats.

IBM permits you to choose how content is secured. IBM Cloud™ Hyper Protect is engineered to enforce encryption by default for all data in transit and at rest. You do not have to decide whether or not you want your data encrypted and subsequently pay for and add on additional services to do so.

You do not have to choose to turn security on, it is always there — providing you 24x7x365 protection.

IBM Cloud™ Hyper Protect Services, in conjunction with strong operational security practices, are designed to help you secure your most valuable assets. IBM Cloud™ Hyper Protect Services are built upon a foundation of security and trust based on over 50 years of experience in enterprise computing. With Hyper Protect the client can choose who is entitled to view their content. All others are blocked from access. They have full sovereignty over their data.

How does it work?

IBM Cloud™ Hyper Protect Services are built on top of the IBM Secure Service Container. The IBM Secure Service Container (SSC) is a specialized technology for installing and executing specific firmware or software appliances. These appliances host cloud workloads on IBM LinuxONE in the IBM Cloud™. Secure Service Container is designed to deliver:

◉ Tamper protection during installation time

◉ Restricted administrator access to help prevent the misuse of privileged user credentials

◉ Automatic encryption of data both in flight and at rest

In addition, Hyper Protect offerings are engineered to radically reduce the likelihood of internal breach by ensuring that:

◉ There is no system administrator access. This removes the potential for all sorts of intentional or unintentional data leakage

◉ Memory access from outside the Secure Service Container is disabled

◉ Storage volumes are encrypted

◉ Debug data (dumps) are encrypted

And, building on top of those, the external attack surface can also be radically reduced by:

◉ preventing OS-level access to the services (IBM or external). There is no shell access to the services

◉ Only secured remote APIs are available which helps prevent attackers from “fishing” around for vulnerabilities in the underlying infrastructure

What’s the key question?

“Do I need to secure my data?”

If the answer is ‘yes,’ then a suggested approach is to choose a platform that starts with security at its core by implementing encryption by default. One which removes access to the common attack vectors by cloud and application administrators as well as by external malicious actors.

Combined with robust secure engineering and operational strategies that incorporate static and dynamic code analysis, monitoring, threat intelligence and other security-related best practices, the IBM Cloud™ Hyper Protect portfolio of services can help advance your cloud and cloud security strategies to the next level.

◉ Off the shelf, IBM Cloud™ Hyper Protect DBaaS provides data confidentiality for sensitive data stored in cloud native databases such as Postgres and MongoDB

◉ IBM Cloud™ Hyper Protect Crypto Services, built on the industry leading FIPS 140-2 Level 4 certified Hardware Security Module (HSM), is designed to provide exclusive control of your encryption keys and the entire key hierarchy including the HSM master key

◉ IBM Cloud™ Hyper Protect Virtual Servers , in beta as of October 2019, is designed for industry-leading workload protection

Source: ibm.com

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To improve customer experience, agents need a new best friend: AI

Customer service representatives (CSRs) are the face of your brand; skilled and empowered reps are essential to improve customer experience and enhance consumer loyalty. Whether customers walk into a retail store where brand reps help them compare products, make recommendations and deliver a personalized sales experience — or speak to a call center agent to resolve an issue or assist with online purchase journeys, the experience delivered by CSRs is fundamental to brand success.

The challenge? Customer reps are under massive pressure to deliver exceptional service on-demand — like ducks on the water, they’re calm on the surface but paddling like mad underneath. According to recent AdWeek data, 52 percent of CSRs feel their company isn’t doing enough to prevent burnout and 35 percent are considering leaving their jobs. In the age of big data, personalized experience and rising consumer expectations, agents need a new best friend to help keep them afloat: Artificial intelligence (AI).

The challenge of staying afloat

Being a CSR isn’t easy. Agent attrition is steep — ranging from 30 to 45 percent — and on-boarding new staff to fill the gaps often causes dips in customer satisfaction. So why the churn? For customer care agents, it’s easy to end up overwhelmed and underwater. Some of their top challenges include:

◉ Lacking tools: 44 percent of CSRs say they lack the right tools, the AdWeek report found; 34 percent of contact center decision-makers say they don’t have access to knowledge management solutions, making it difficult to find, sort and leverage customer data on-demand.

◉ Missing data: 34 percent of respondents to the AdWeek study point to a lack of pertinent customer data, in turn frustrating their efforts to deliver a personalized experience.

◉ Increasing pressure: Call volumes have increased 39 percent in the last 18 months, AdWeek reports — and 92 percent of customers will stop buying from brands after three (or fewer) poor interactions. This puts massive pressure on agents to deliver delightful service with high first call resolution (FCR) rates.

◉ Siloed systems: Data systems are often disparate and difficult to access, meaning CSRs need to rapidly cycle through multiple applications to research the issue — resulting in longer hold times for customers.

◉ Limited context: Context is everything. Cold-start conversations and evolving product lines make it difficult to gauge exactly what consumers want on first contact, leaving CSRs stuck in a loop even as customers get frustrated having to repeat their concerns. A well informed acknowledgement of the issue in the opening greeting from the agent can set a positive tone for the rest of the interaction.

How AI can help

Artificial intelligence tools offer a way to bridge the gap between customer expectations and agent abilities. By leveraging intelligent tools capable of collating disparate data sources, analyzing consumer calls for context and delivering on-demand assistance to agents, there’s potential for companies to improve customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) by 20 to 30 points, and eliminate up to 30 percent of call center costs by implementing AI tools to assist agents. For large organizations handling 100 million+ calls each year, this could mean savings into the billions over time.

No fear: why agents want AI

Fear of AI takeover is dwindling; Tech Republic notes that just 27 percent of call center staff worry that AI will eliminate their jobs. Instead, agents want AI to help them where it matters most: Eliminating redundant processes. Meanwhile, Tech Republic also reports that 70 percent of agents believe that effective automation of routine tasks would allow them to focus on higher-value work. Put simply, human agents and AI working in tandem is the CSR dream.

In their personal lives, CSRs are increasingly exposed to delightful AI-augmented experiences via their mobile phones, such as auto-complete, tailored social media content, digital assistants and contextual personalized search. CSRs expect this same AI augmentation at work to improve their productivity.

Improving AI customer care with human input

More than 50 percent of call center managers recognize the need for new technology, but almost 60 percent highlight ongoing IT issues. This paradox emerges full-force when companies look to implement AI; despite big potential, new deployments don’t always improve customer experience as predicted. The problem? Missing input from the experts — your customer service reps.

While it’s tempting to offload everything to AI, many agents have in-depth knowledge of specific products, existing service models and customer-facing processes. The result? They don’t want AI to attempt to automate the entire workflow end-to-end. What agents really want are tools capable of collecting key consumer data up front, automating some mundane simple tasks and offering help and recommendations to agents when appropriate. Put simply, this isn’t an all-or-nothing scenario: When AI and human agents work as a team, they can split individual tasks of the workflow.

Clients across industries have partnered with IBM to deploy five key approaches for effective AI-agent teaming. Stay tuned for our upcoming second piece in this AI series to be published shortly.

Source: ibm.com

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How Red Hat OpenShift can support your hybrid multicloud environment

We know that enterprises have moved, or are moving, their workloads to the cloud. It’s rare, however, that a company wants to move all of its applications to the cloud — and even rarer that it would choose a single cloud provider to host those applications. The most common strategy is a mixture of on-premises and public cloud providers, or what is referred to as hybrid multicloud. Most organizations today are already some way along this complex journey.

In this blog post, I’ll explain how enterprise workloads are changing, what it means for businesses, and how Red Hat OpenShift can help organizations with hybrid multicloud.

First, a few definitions

A multicloud strategy encompasses cloud services from more than one cloud provider. As cloud adoption has increased, lines of business often find new ways to consume cloud capabilities to meet their specific demands for compliance, security, scalability or cost. That, along with the client’s reluctance to rely on a single provider, has led to the majority of organizations adopting a multicloud approach.

Hybrid cloud refers to a computing environment that combines private and public clouds within a single organization. Some businesses use a hybrid cloud solution to increase security, whereas others use it to match required performance to a particular application. It allows applications and data to move between these environments.

A hybrid multicloud combines these strategies, providing private and public cloud solutions from more than one provider.

A recent report by Flexera indicated that 84 percent of enterprises have a multicloud strategy, while those planning a hybrid cloud strategy grew to 58 percent.

Our workloads are changing

Not only do we have numerous options on where we can deploy our applications; we now have multiple options on how we can deploy them.

Traditionally, we had stand-alone systems that ran a single operating system, utilizing all the hardware owned by that system, and they normally provided a single-function application. Hypervisor virtualization then brought us the ability to “share” hardware resources, such as processing, memory and I/O. This meant we could pack more virtual machines onto a single server; however, each one still tended to have its own operating system and application. Containerization introduced the concept of operating system virtualization. This allowed us to deploy and run applications in a “trimmed down” environment, consuming far fewer resources than virtual machines as the containers only need to contain the runtime components required for that application.

Figure 1: Comparing virtual machines against containers

What does that mean to an enterprise customer?

Enterprise customers are looking for ways to transform some of their traditional applications into cloud-native applications, but at the same time realize there is a need to keep certain workloads on virtual machines, be it on-premises or in the cloud. This introduces the need to deploy and manage both containerized and virtual machine workloads on the most suited hybrid multicloud environment.

Not only that, but what about managing these containers post deployment? How do we ensure they started correctly, how do we monitor them to ensure they are performing as expected, how do we allow access to those applications and how do we upgrade those applications? This gets more complex in environments where we’re running hundreds or thousands of individual containers.

This is where Red Hat OpenShift can help.

How Red Hat OpenShift can help

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is an enterprise-ready platform as a service built on Kubernetes. Its primary purpose is to provide users with a platform to build and scale containerized microservice applications across a hybrid cloud, and we could write numerous blog posts on all the features available within OpenShift. It can be installed on premises, in a public cloud or delivered through a managed service.

OpenShift Container Platform architecture is based around master hosts and worker nodes.

Master hosts contain the control plane components such as API Server, cluster store (etcd), controller manager, HAProxy and the like, and should be deployed in a highly available configuration to avoid single points of failure. With OpenShift Container Platform v3.11, Master hosts are RHEL/Atomic server running on IBM Power Systems or x86.

The worker nodes are managed by the master hosts and are responsible for running the application containers. These application workloads are scheduled to the worker nodes by the master hosts. With OCP v3.11, worker nodes are RHEL/Atomic/Linux on IBM Z servers running on IBM Power Systems, x86 or IBM Z. Currently, you cannot mix node architectures within the same OCP cluster.

What does OpenShift Container Platform offer?

OpenShift provides a number of deployment methods such as DeploymentConfig, StatefulSets and DaemonSets. These allows us to define how our containerized application should be deployed, including key features such as number of pods, number of replications, which images to use for those pods, scaling options, upgrade options, health checks, monitoring, service IP and routing information, port to listen on and so forth. We can then add that application template to the catalogue and allow self-service portal users to deploy it within their own project space.

We now have a declarative state describing what we want that application to look like, and OpenShift will monitor it to ensure it matches the defined state. Should it deviate from that desired state, OpenShift takes actions to resolve the issues.

Let’s take an example where an application was defined as requiring two pods in its configuration template and for some reason one of those pods terminated. The OpenShift master would notice this deviation and take action (in this case, create a new pod), as shown in the following chart:

Figure 2: OpenShift recreating terminated pod

IBM Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management and Cloud Automation Manager

Not only can Red Hat OpenShift deliver containerized applications; it gives us the ability to manage a multi-cluster environment and drive more traditional IT environments such as on-premises or public cloud virtual machines. IBM Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management allows us to manage multiple Kubernetes clusters both on premises and in the cloud, giving us a single view of all of our clusters and enabling us to perform multi-cluster management tasks.

Figure 3: IBM Multicloud Manager overview

From the Multicloud Management Cloud Pak, we’re able to deploy IBM Cloud Automation Manager (CAM) within our OpenShift cluster. Cloud Automation Manager gives us the ability to provision virtual machine based applications across multiple hybrid clouds by allowing us to register additional cloud providers, such as the on-premises IBM PowerVC (based on OpenStack) and VMware vSphere environments, or public cloud providers such as IBM Cloud, Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and the like.

Once we have our cloud providers added, we can configure terraform based templates that define how a VM should look within the target environment. These templates can be published as service offerings to appear in the OCP catalogue as shown in the following graphic:

Figure 4: OpenShift catalog, including virtual machine options

Source: ibm.com

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The right IT infrastructure is hybrid

From time to time, we invite industry thought leaders to share their opinions and insights on current technology trends on the IBM Systems IT Infrastructure blog. The opinions in these posts are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of IBM.

Gartner forecasts worldwide public cloud revenue will grow 17 percent in 2020. While it’s clear that cloud is still being rapidly adopted, on premises and private cloud are growing as well. My team and I see this on a daily basis as we visit with enterprise clients.

To quantify this information and measure its impact, IBM recently commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate how organizations develop and implement their IT infrastructure strategies. Forrester conducted an online survey of 350 global enterprise IT decision makers across industries to explore this topic.

There are several key findings in The Key to Enterprise Hybrid Multicloud Strategy study which Forrester Consulting produced on behalf of IBM. One finding is that “on-premises infrastructure is key to enterprise hybrid cloud strategy. Enterprises are making strategic decisions about what types of IT infrastructure to use for which purposes — and on premises continues to play a key role, with 90 percent of IT decision makers agreeing that on-premises infrastructure is a critical part of their hybrid cloud strategies.”

What this data is telling us is that there is a business case for a solid hybrid cloud strategy. Every cloud journey is a bit different, but the common thread is that the business needs to continue to operate without a glitch.

Register to get the full study

Foundationally where they start in the journey is important.  Oftentimes, the starting point is an assessment of the existing on-premises infrastructure.  Why is that?  Because the foundation matters. On-premises infrastructure continues to play a key role in decisions. The Forrester study found that 90% of IT decision makers agreed that on-premises infrastructure represented a critical party of their hybrid cloud strategy. At the end of the day, it’s important to find the right environment for the workload.  A hybrid approach often represents a solution that allows the IT team to work with a known system while gaining the scaling and flexibility that adding cloud services can bring.

In parallel, the demands on existing infrastructure continue to grow as organizations implement hybrid multicloud solutions. It’s important to critically examine the timeline around infrastructure refresh intervals. Too often, there are delays in that refresh cycle of mission-critical infrastructure which exposes the organization to unnecessary risk. The risk of not refreshing that infrastructure includes security vulnerabilities, interoperability and compatibility issues. The impacts end up affecting the bottom line by way of lost or diminished employee productivity as well as diminished performance per the study.

Lack of vision when it comes to hybrid cloud strategy and lack of spend when it comes to the infrastructure has a cascading effect not only for the infrastructure but also for the organization’s health and well-being.

Another key finding tells us that IT decisions makers select the right IT infrastructure strategy according to the job to be done. Technology professionals consider workload, security needs, and time-to-value when designing IT infrastructure strategies. When it comes to workloads, IT decision makers anticipate that more than half of mission-critical workloads and 47 percent of data-intensive workloads will be run either on premises or in an internal private cloud in two years.

It’s important to remember that every hybrid cloud strategy looks a little different. The range of choices to optimize IT may seem overwhelming. Making a choice between a public cloud provider, an on-premises private cloud, a hybrid solution or moving the application to a SaaS provider are options that are all in play. What works best is an alignment of your IT strategy to your business strategy. Understand your application portfolio. Take a look at what others in your industry and vertical are doing. The market and customer demand great products and great service, but racing to the cloud without a solid plan can only lead to shortcuts and potential errors. Cloud is a journey, not a race, and one size does not fit all.

Source: ibm.com

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To cloud or not to cloud . . . that shouldn’t be the question

n my discussions with clients about their journey to cloud, it’s becoming evident that many of them are viewing cloud as a goal, instead of looking at cloud deployments as a capability. In some cases, line-of-business owners are under corporate pressures to “adopt” a cloud-first strategy.

A recent Forrester Consulting study commissioned by IBM, “The Key To Enterprise Hybrid Multicloud Strategy” suggests that “75% [of 350 surveyed global decision makers] have received pushback while advocating for strategies outside of cloud environments.”  The result of this, unfortunately, is the lack of continued investment on their on-premises (“on-prem”) environments.

From my experience, this type of deployment focus may not yield the expected results. We shouldn’t think about problem solving as “To cloud or not to cloud?” Instead, we should ask ourselves, “What is the problem I’m trying to solve?” and “Are cloud deployments (public or private) going to optimize my solution?”

One of the key recommendations in the Forrester Consulting study is to “invest in cloud using a strategy that aligns to your context.” I couldn’t agree with this more. So, let me offer an example of context:

Problem: My mission-critical workloads need a disaster-recovery solution to ensure I can get access to my data in a reliable manner, should the need arise. Proverbially, I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket. I also don’t have the capacity to keep a second copy of all this data on premises.

Solution: Disaster recovery is one use-case that could warrant a good use for public cloud. In such a scenario, data residing primarily on premises could be tiered to the cloud for backup storage, with near real-time mirroring to the on-premises environment to help provide data consistency.

Hybrid workflow: To design and optimize such a solution, you need software which has been designed for a hybrid use case. Designed for means the software provides the same, consistent management interface you’re used to running in your existing on-premises environment and in the public cloud.  Furthermore, this allows you to have a cohesive view of your solution, regardless of the deployment model.

Defining chapter 2 in the journey to cloud

Forrester’s research clearly determines that “organizations that can bring together on-premises with public cloud strategically will be best positioned for operational excellence.” At IBM, we refer to this more complex combination of on premises and cloud as Chapter 2. In order to understand this better, let’s look at the components of the journey:

Born on the cloud – These are cloud-natively built applications and services that use cloud infrastructure tools and microservices to run the application.

Lift and shift – Applications which were originally designed and written to run on premises are now ported to run on cloud infrastructure. In many situations, while this may get the “ticky box” of cloud deployment, you may not see the true operational and scale value of this approach.

Refactored (modernized)– Applications which were originally designed for on-premises consumption and rewritten using cloud microservices architectures or were perhaps located in a containerized environment. Your app may not be born on the cloud, but it’ll act like it was!

Regardless of where you are on your journey to cloud, I’d encourage keeping an eye on your on-premises infrastructure. And by journey, I mean crawl (lift and shift), walk (modernize), and run (hybrid workflows).

Be prudent in your on-premises investment, with an eye towards hybrid!

Nurturing your on-premises environment is critical for long-term sustainable strategy, but it also protects your prior investments. The smarter way to think about cloud is to focus optimization of your environment aligned with your specific use cases. Future-proof your on-premises investments by ensuring they are designed with a hybrid workflow in mind. Does that mean all workflows are hybrid? Not at all. Remember, context (also known as use case) is key!

Here at IBM Storage, we recognize the challenges you face and have equipped the IBM FlashSystem family with software that provides you with an onramp to the cloud. A great example of this is IBM Spectrum Virtualize, an award-winning software foundation that provides simplified storage across heterogeneous environments. With Spectrum Virtualize on premises and IBM Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud, you can have a single cloud solution for your storage needs, rather than a siloed approach with different solutions for different vendors.

Furthermore, the beauty of it is that you can further optimize your hybrid workflow by leveraging software like AI-infused IBM Storage Insights, to monitor your data, regardless of where your data resides, on premises or in the cloud!

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