Technology giant IBM announced it is
expanding its CloudBurst cloud service platform by delivering the appliance on
Power-based hardware as well as currently installed IBM
and non-IBM systems. The CloudBurst
appliance is designed to automatically integrate hardware, storage, networking,
virtualization and service management software for a private cloud environment.
Core to the new offering is the IBM Service
Delivery Manager, which automates the deployment, monitoring and management of
cloud computing services for the IT staff.
IBM’s CloudBurst 2.1 on Power Systems is
based on IBM Power 750 servers. The
appliance can support from 160 up to 2,900 virtual machines while delivering
enhanced security to keep the data in those applications separate. IBM
estimated that private clouds built on Power systems could be up to 70 percent
less expensive than stand-alone x86 servers. The company said the appliance will
be available starting Dec. 17, 2010.
The company’s Service Delivery Manager solution is based on a preintegrated,
software-only stack for x86 and Power systems. The software can be ordered
separate from the hardware, offering clients the option of using their current IBM
or non-IBM hardware investments to deploy a
cloud computing solution.
It is deployed as a set of virtual images that automate the IT service
deployment and provide resource monitoring, cost management and provisioning of
services in the cloud. Service Delivery Manager for x86 systems is available now,
and Service Delivery Manager for Power systems will be available starting Dec.
17, according to a company release.
In addition, an updated version of the IBM
CloudBurst 2.1 on System x, based on IBM
HS22V blades, is equipped with 50 percent more memory and double the Fibre Channel
bandwidth and with the ability to run 30 or more virtual machines per blade.
Prices start at $220,000 for CloudBurst on System x before discounts; the
product is currently available.
“Automating IT resources to support new applications is critical because at
most companies, a business user typically must wait weeks to get access to new
IT resources due to the manual processes required to set up resources,” said Lauren
States, vice president of Tivoli
Cloud Computing for IBM. “CloudBurst
automates the manual processes to dramatically speed a business’s
time-to-market.”
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