#ALGORITHMS: "IT Expertise Integrates Enterprise"

IBM encapsulated its expertise in information technology (IT) with a new family of expert systems. PureSystems, the result of a four year $2 billion development effort, aims for nothing less that an "new era in computing" whereby cloud-ready integration slashes IT cost while drastically increasing efficiency and worker productivity. R. Colin Johnson



Here is what IBM says about its PureSystems: IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced a major step forward in a new, simpler era of computing with the introduction of a new category of "expert integrated systems." This new family is the first with built-in expertise based on IBM's decades of experience running IT operations for tens of thousands of clients in 170 countries.

IBM’s expert integrated systems family – PureSystems – is the result of $2 billion in R&D and acquisitions over four years, an unprecedented move by IBM to integrate all IT elements, both physical and virtual. The new systems family offers clients an alternative to today’s enterprise computing model, where multiple and disparate systems require significant resources to set up and maintain.

The prime challenge facing companies worldwide is the need to spend 70 percent or more of IT budgets on simple operations and maintenance, leaving little to invest in innovation. Two-thirds of corporate IT projects are delivered over budget and behind schedule, according to a recent study by IBM which also found that only one in five corporate IT departments are able to spend the majority of their IT budget on innovation. To join the conversation, visit #IBMPureSystems on Twitter.

With the introduction of the new PureSystems family, IBM is unveiling three major advances that point to a new era of computing technology that is designed to allow businesses to slash the high costs and nagging complexity associated with managing information technology.

“Scale-In” System Design: With PureSystems, IBM is introducing a new concept in system design that integrates the server, storage, and networking into a highly automated, simple-to-manage machine. Scale-in design provides for increased density – PureSystems can handle twice as many applications compared to some IBM systems, doubling the computing power per square foot of data center space.

Patterns of Expertise: For the first time, IBM is embedding technology and industry expertise through first-of-a-kind software that allows the systems to automatically handle basic, time-consuming tasks such as configuration, upgrades, and application requirements.

Cloud Ready integration: Out of the box, all PureSystems family members are built for the cloud, enabling corporations to quickly create private, self-service cloud offerings that can scale up and down automatically.

PureSystems' scale-in design integrates and optimizes all of the critical components required in today’s data center – system networking, storage, compute, management, etc. -- and provides for a single-view management system. The result is a system that is intuitive to set up and can be far less expensive to maintain and upgrade. For example, PureSystems can go from its single shipping crate to being up and running in one-third the time as compared to other IBM technology.

PureSystems can automatically and quickly scale compute resources, networking and storage. At the center of the PureSystems is new software capability – “patterns of expertise” -- that enables operational know-how and knowledge to be built directly into the systems. This first-of-a-kind approach converts technology expertise into reusable, downloadable packages. Patterns are available in three categories:

IBM Patterns: Built-in at the factory and created based on knowledge gleaned from IBM’s smartest IT managers, engineers and technology experts, these sets of patterns are designed to automate time-consuming tasks such as configuring, deploying and upgrading applications -- applications that used to take days to deploy can now be rolled out in hours, for example.
ISV Patterns: IBM has teamed with more than 125 independent software vendors to offer applications that are certified “PureSystems Ready.” A new online catalogue of ISV Patterns, PureCentre, radically simplifies how applications are purchased, deployed and managed. For example, a customer relationship management program that used to take three days to deploy can now be deployed in under one hour. [See separate press release]
Customer Patterns: IT organizations can package the knowledge of their own handcrafted applications into a Pattern. As a result, a company that is interested in expanding into new markets can do so even when skills are not readily available in new regions or markets.
Cloud Ready Systems

With PureSystems, IBM is taking the unprecedented step to completely integrate all of the technology components needed to stand up a private cloud system in minutes. By combining the virtualized servers, storage and networking found in PureSystems with cloud management software, IT organizations have a ready-to-go “cloud system in a box” -- giving them a foundational private cloud environment that can be expanded. The PureSystems cloud is delivered with built-in security, with no single point of failure.

To significantly accelerate the use of the cloud, IBM has included a cloud self-service and provisioning interface directly into PureSystems. An application developer, for example, can use the self-service feature to configure a cloud environment application without any help from the IT department. PureSystems will sense and respond to the needs of the running applications and services and make decisions on how best to deploy IT resources while ensuring maximum efficiency, performance, and control.

PureSystems integrates the same foundational technologies and software used in IBM’s public SmartCloud Services offerings. As a result, by sharing common capabilities and interfaces, application developers can use IBM SmartCloud Services to create and test new applications.
Further Reading