IBM unveiled what it calls the industry's most advanced cloud services and software designed from the ground up for enterprise clients. New IBM SmartCloud services and capabilities provide greater choice, security and portability for cloud implementations, the company says. IBM also says it plans to support about 200 million users by the end of 2012 as clients shift core applications and processes to the IBM SmartCloud.
IBM is also announcing the availability IBM SmartCloud Enterprise+ in the United States, with full global deployment planned by end of 2012. Announced earlier this year, SmartCloud Enterprise + delivers the cost saving and scalability of a public cloud environment plus the flexibility to "dial-in" the security, existing applications, reliability, management and support services more typical of a private environment. IBM intends to make SCE+ available to qualified business partners to resell in the first half of 2012.
"Enterprise clients are much more conservative because their revenue, reputation and supply chain are closely related to the performance and security of their infrastructure," says Erich Clementi, senior vice president with IBM. "Our focus with SmartCloud will bring the benefits of this model in a way that supports enterprise level service, leverages existing investments and opens new doors to productivity and innovation."
The new SmartCloud offerings include IBM SmartCloud Application Services, a new platform-as-a-service that will give enterprises the cost and time savings of a cloud environment for a wide range of enterprise applications while maintaining a high level of control and security over deployment and access. IBM also announced IBM SmartCloud Foundation, a new portfolio of cloud software and hardware that enable enterprises to quickly deploy and control clouds within their own firewalls.
IBM also announced the formation of its SmartCloud Ecosystem, new services for IBM partners and independent software vendors (ISVs) intended to help thousands of small and medium business clients adopt cloud models and manage millions of cloud based transactions by assisting their customers in areas as diverse as banking, communications, healthcare and government to build their own clouds or securely tap into the IBM SmartCloud.
Through the this new enterprise PaaS, clients can achieve the benefits of cloud based economics for the deployment of both traditional and new applications, while at the same time maintaining the security, portability and governance critical to maintaining control in the cloud.
Available in beta in the fourth quarter, IBM SmartCloud Application Services will offer enterprise-grade security, open Java and cross-platform support, and a set of application infrastructure and managed services to enable development and deployment of applications to the cloud.
Additional details about support and availability about new IBM SmartCloud service are available at the IBM website.