devopsy.kinsta.cloud

Tag: IBM Think

  • IBM Extends Cloud Reach to Include Integration

    IBM Extends Cloud Reach to Include Integration

    At the IBM Think 2019 conference this week, IBM unfurled an IBM Cloud Integration Platform that pulls together a range of tools in a single development platform that the company promises will reduce the amount of time it takes to deploy applications by making it easier to reuse integration code.

    Hillery Hunter, vice president and CTO for IBM Cloud Infrastructure, said by bringing all of its primary integration tools into a single cloud platform, IBM is effectively making an integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) environment available for the first time.

    IBM this week also formally rolled out IBM Services for Multicloud Management, a portal through which multiple clouds can be managed using software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications developed by ServiceNow, along with a set of IBM Services for Cloud Strategy and Design through which IBM will advise clients on how to architect the right holistic cloud strategy. The premise of both those services is that organizations soon will be rightsizing workloads to run on whatever cloud or on-premises IT platform that best suits them. The portal developed with ServiceNow provides access to dashboards and analytics designed to enable IT organizations to analyze cloud spend and manage workloads deployed on any platform, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

    IBM is also extending the cloud services it provides to include the IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Service, which makes use of IBM LinuxONE mainframes to provide encryption key management built on the only FIPS 140-2 level 4-based technology.

    Hunter said IBM’s approach assumes organizations have already bought into best DevOps practices and API management to provide the means through which multiple clouds will be managed. The challenge many of those organizations are now wrestling with is implementing processes that determine where a workload not only should be developed and deployed but also moved as its characteristics evolve. To provide that analytics, IBM is employing machine learning algorithms running on distributed instances of Kubernetes to continuously track changes and updates to cloud platforms, said Hunter.

    IBM previously outlined a strategy under which it is trying to meld DevOps and ITIL-based processes to make it easier to manage workloads running on any cloud or on-premises IT environment. While the growth of cloud computing continues at an exponential rate, IBM executives this week took pains to remind conference attendees that 80 percent of enterprise-class workloads still run in on on-premises IT environment. In fact, IBM’s rationalization for spending $34 billion to acquire Red Hat is based on that fact. However, while many workloads will continue to run on-premises, IBM is clearly making a case for centralizing the management of all those platforms on IBM Cloud.

    It most likely will take the better part of the next decade to determine where different types of applications may wind up running. Predictions concerning the percentage of application workloads that will run in the cloud continues to be one of the most hotly debated topics in the IT industry. Whatever the outcome, however, it’s 100 percent certain more than one cloud platform will be involved.

    — Mike Vizard

  • Skytap Announces Upcoming General Availability of First Self-Service, Public Cloud Capabilities for IBM i

    Skytap Cloud support for IBM i and integration with IBM PowerHA will deliver a comprehensive public cloud solution for AIX, IBM i, and Linux applications running on IBM Power Systems

    SEATTLE – February 11, 2019 – Ahead of IBM Think, Skytap, a global, purpose-built public cloud provider, today announced that its support for the IBM i operating systemwill be generally available in Q2 2019, followed by support for IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX Enterprise Edition, which will become available in the second half of 2019. These new capabilities broaden Skytap’s unique value for migrating and running IBM i and AIX applications in the cloud with high availability.

    Skytap is focused on making it easy to build, run, and evolve traditional applications by rapidly migrating them to the cloud, enabling modern development practices, and integrating new cloud architectures. To accelerate enterprise migration and adoption of IBM i applications in the public cloud, Skytap has joined with Rocket Software, HelpSystems, and SyncSort. Together, Skytap and its partners deliver a strong ecosystem of technology, service, and implementation capabilities to drive successful adoption initiatives via Skytap’s public cloud offering.

    “Enterprises are currently operating application portfolios that could benefit from cloud migration but are ill-suited for hyperscale clouds. These portfolios often include large IBM Power Systems installations and present a complex challenge that major providers can’t solve,” said Karri Alexion-Tiernan, SVP of Product Marketing & Digital, Skytap. “Our priority is to help customers and partners address these challenges by charting a better path forward. These added capabilities continue to distinguish Skytap as the preferred public cloud for IBM i applications.”

    Skytap Cloud Offers Comprehensive Support for IBM Power Systems

    Skytap Cloud is purpose-built to accelerate the cloud migration of applications that run on a variety of operating systems, including AIX, IBM i, and Linux on Power Systems. Skytap’s IBM i support will be delivered with a diverse group of best-in-breed partners, providing end-to-end support for enterprises who are defining their modernization journey for IBM i and AIX-based applications in the cloud.

    Rocket Software is actively testing products in Skytap’s IBM i preview program, including its Rocket Aldon application lifecycle management (ALM) and DevOps solution suite. The combination of Skytap Cloud self-service environments and Rocket Aldon will deliver a comprehensive, on-demand solution for faster innovation and automation of IBM i application deployments.

    “Until we started working with Skytap, we did not have a public cloud option for our IBM Power Systems customers. We’re excited to join with Skytap to pioneer a path to cloud for IBM i and AIX, which will unlock significant value for customer applications that previously had no access to public cloud services,” said Daniel Magid VP, Solution Sales, Rocket Software.

    The First Public Cloud Offering of PowerHA for AIX

    Since announcing support for AIX on Power Systems in 2017, it has become clear there is demand for a cloud-based high availability and disaster recovery solution for AIX. With the inclusion of IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX Enterprise Edition, Skytap will add support for these use cases from on-premises to Skytap Cloud and region-to-region within Skytap Cloud.

    “The ability to run PowerHA for AIX in Skytap Cloud shows a continued commitment to IBM Power Systems and addresses the needs of these critical AIX applications,” said Steven Finnes, IBM PowerHA Product Offering Manager. “Enterprises that have invested in AIX over the years are now looking for a path to the public cloud and Skytap Cloud provides a path forward.”

    Skytap Real-World Impact on Display at IBM Think

    Skytap is a Gold IBM Business Partner and will be demonstrating its new capabilities at IBM Think, Feb. 12-15, in San Francisco. Skytap will once again be powering multiple IBM Learning environments at IBM Think, supporting more than 3,000 hands-on labs including IBM Cloud Private, IBM Cloud Private for Data, PowerSC, and more for thousands of users, totaling 10,000 virtual machines and over 725 Terabytes of storage.

    “Skytap enables us to reliably scale our hands-on technical training for an event this size. We can create identical environment replicas hundreds of times with a click of a button, enabling us to offer real-time learning across our broad portfolio of technologies. It’s a win for both IBM and our customers,” said Erik D. Anderson, IBM Principal Architect, Digital Technical Engagement.

    In addition, notable companies will be presenting the value that Skytap Cloud has brought to their organizations and its capabilities for accelerating the migration and modernization of many applications, including:

    Skytap Powers Multi-Cloud Success with New Terraform Provider

    Multi-cloud adoption continues to accelerate as enterprise organizations adopt different cloud services best suited for specific workloads, and to avoid lock-in. Gartner predicts, “By 2021, over 75% of midsize and large organizations will have adopted a multicloud and/or hybrid IT strategy.”[1] Building on its ability to integrate with other cloud-native services through APIs, Skytap has released an open source provider for Hashicorp Terraform. Customers can now use Terraform to manage Skytap Cloud for traditional application workloads, including IBM Power Systems, alongside hyperscale clouds for cloud-native applications.

    Availability

    Skytap’s support for IBM i will be generally available in Q2, 2019. Support for IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX Enterprise will follow in H2, 2019. Skytap’s Terraform provider is available today as open source code on Github along with documentation.

    Learn More

    About Skytap

    Skytap is a global public cloud purpose-built for modernizing traditional applications. Skytap Cloud makes it easy to build, run, and evolve these hybrid applications by rapidly migrating traditional workloads to the cloud, enabling modern development practices, and integrating new cloud architectures. We power multi- and hybrid-cloud strategies through secure connections to other clouds and on-premises data centers. Our environments technology accelerates application development, simplifies management, and reduces IT costs, enabling hundreds of customers worldwide to modernize at the pace of their business. www.skytap.com

    # # #

    [1] “Predicts 2019: Increasing Reliance on Cloud Computing Tranforms IT and Business Practices,” Gartner, December 2018

  • IBM Think 2018: DevOps Integrated Everywhere

    IBM Think 2018: DevOps Integrated Everywhere

    With the onset of conference season I have been running a bit ragged. But something I noticed at the recent IBM Think 2018 Conference really needs to be called to attention: DevOps was still a prominent theme at IBM Think. But instead of having a dedicated DevOps theater or DevOps section of the show floor, DevOps was integrated into everything—all the various flavors of cloud (hybrid, Cloud Private, public), development, apps, even cognitive and AI … all were integrated with DevOps. I, for one, think this is as it should be.

    It is a sign of DevOps maturity, I think, that instead of DevOps being called out as some special beast—a unicorn, even—it is more just the way things get done. I had a chance to talk to many different people on the show floor, attend several track sessions (which were also done on the show floor—much better than having to go into separate rooms) and, as usual, interviewed more than a few people for our DevOpsTV YouTube channel. While all of them were excited by various announcements and exhibits, it seemed as though DevOps was part of all of them.

    DevOps integrated everywhere

    Two great examples of this are my interview with DevOps Playbook author Sanjeev Sharma:

    and my interview with Mark Howell and James McLeod of Lloyds

    Another really interesting discussion was how DevOps plays into IBM’s Cloud Private offering. Cloud Private is a Kubernetes-based architecture. We spoke with Andy Gower, product marketing manager for Cloud Private. As you would expect with a Kubernetes-based offering, DevOps is right in the middle of things.

    This was the theme time and time again at IBM Think 2018. DevOps was not concentrated in any one area; it was everywhere. Even in the quantum computing area, which I will admit was cool as can be.

    Mainframes also were all about DevOps. This is not new for the IBM Enterprise Systems team. They have really led the way with DevOps and mainframes.

    This was the first year for IBM Think 2018. It represents the merging of several different IBM conferences into one large one. I enjoyed the format and look forward to future IBM Think events.

    Also a note on keynotes: The tone for IBM Think was set by IBM CEO Ginny Rometty. It was plain that IBM as a whole is focused on some key technologies and initiatives. Among these were cognitive and AI, cloud and disruptive technologies on the near horizon such as quantum computing.

    There was a lot going on at IBM Think 2018, check out the YouTube channel to get more of our coverage.

    — Alan Shimel