Marketplace Update. IBM PureFlex System: The Next Smart Step in Enterprise IT Evolution By Charles King, Pund-IT, Inc. May 2012

Transcription

1 Marketplace Update May 2012 IBM PureFlex System: The Next Smart Step in Enterprise IT Evolution By Charles King, Pund-IT, Inc. Pund-IT, Inc. Hayward, CA U.S.A Contact: Office: Mobile:

2 IBM PureFlex System: The Next Smart Step in Enterprise IT Evolution By Charles King, Pund-IT, Inc. Introduction For decades, corporate IT has been driven by two parallel, though not always complementary, evolutionary trends: 1) the appearance of essentially new computing technologies and form factors, and 2) the steady expansion of business processes and use cases to which IT is applied. The chain of events that led to the appearance of mainframe, then scale-up Unix, then scale-out x86 systems offers one example of this transformation. So does the arrival of solutions which presage customer requirements, such as the development of highly flexible, integrated and compact blade server systems. More recently, these same trends have been manifested in two new classes of IT products cloud computing infrastructures and workload- or application-optimized systems and appliances. The former tend to leverage highly virtualized commodity server, storage and networking components and streamlined management tools. That makes them ideal for the easy deployment and quick integration that are so valuable in cloud data centers where rapid growth and flexible resource allocation play key roles. The latter cases often incorporate many of the same commodity hardware components, along with finely tuned middleware and application stacks which are factory- or clientintegrated for particular workloads. Many such solutions are developed for emerging challenges, like IBM s Netezza data analytics offerings. But some vendors are taking the concept considerably farther by focusing on vertically-integrated stacks which, though they sometimes offer compelling performance, tend to be costly and lock customers into long term commitments. So is there a better, more effective approach? Actually, yes IBM s new PureSystems leverage the value of the company s proven system designs and components against its decades of experience in system integration and management. IBM PureSystems are expert integrated systems designed to combine the flexibility of general purpose servers, the elasticity of cloud and the simplicity of appliances tuned for specific workloads. IBM s PureSystems offerings are deeply-optimized, pre-integrated solutions specifically designed to support key business applications and processes, as well as evolving IT infrastructures, including cloud computing. Note: This report was developed by Pund-IT, Inc. with IBM assistance and funding. This report may utilize information, including publicly available data, provided by various companies and sources, including IBM. The opinions are those of the report s author, and do not necessarily represent IBM s position. 2

3 The first two members of IBM s PureSystems family are: IBM PureFlex System Combines compute, storage, networking, virtualization and management into a single infrastructure system that is expert at sensing and anticipating the resources required to optimize an IT infrastructure. IBM PureApplication System A workload-aware, flexible platform designed and tuned specifically for transactional web and database applications. Along with delivering superior performance and measurably improving time to value, IBM s PureSystems family represents a new class of IT solutions which have been designed from the ground up for the well-being and peace of mind of customers, not their IT vendors. Status Quo The Once and Future Data Center Challenge Simply put, supporting the data center status quo is crippling IT today and strangling hopes of capturing future benefits. Numerous projections suggest that nearly three quarters of the $3.5T spent annually on IT budgets worldwide are spent just keeping the lights on in data centers. Partly as a result of that, it is estimated that IT backlogs can run up to 18 months and that about a fifth of new data center projects fail from the get-go. But while those numbers are shocking, the problem is actually more insidious. Companies are so used to this state of affairs that long wait times for projects to get up and running have become an acceptable practice, as is over-provisioning (buying more product than required) to ensure organizations will have as much performance, capacity and/or bandwidth as they need. As a result, creating custom solutions to make the best use of whatever is on hand becomes the order of the day, layering additional complexity onto already overly complicated IT environments. But given the quick pace of change that most companies experience, the value of customized proprietary solutions tends to erode ever more rapidly. So what do organizations actually want? How about easy-to-deploy systems with better options, deeper integration, greater native performance and robust capacity/bandwidth? How about solutions with simplified yet highly effective automated management tools? How about working with vendors whose products deliver improved time to value today but are also flexible and adaptable enough to meet constantly changing requirements tomorrow? Those are the principles IBM addressed in the development of its new expert integrated PureSystems family, including the PureFlex System and PureApplication System offerings. Why IBM? Before looking at the IBM PureFlex System in detail, let s consider the company s overall situation and why so many enterprises have come to depend on IBM as a trusted vendor. First, we would cite IBM s notable experience/expertise in virtually all phases of enterprise hardware, software, system and infrastructure management and facilities solutions and ser- 3

4 vices development. Along with the market leadership positions of its Power Systems and System z mainframes, the company s x86-based System x servers have consistently delivered superior performance. Finally, IBM invests far more in R&D (averaging $6B annually) than major competitors and has been the top patent recipient among U.S. companies for the past 19 years. Finally, IBM has a long history of close, successful partnerships with vendors of every sort, including competitors such as Oracle and HP, to support the needs of mutual customers. The result? Along with essentially defining enterprise IT, IBM has become a favored destination for enterprise customers that have become dissatisfied with other vendors. IBM PureFlex System The Smarter Difference Given those inherent strengths, what does IBM hope to accomplish with its new PureFlex System? IBM certainly understands the value of learning from the past and maximally leveraging new technologies, including Intel s latest Sandy Bridge Xeon E and IBM POWER7 CPUs. But it also recognizes that the buy it/build it model many companies use when acquiring and deploying new systems is essentially hindering both IT and business goals. The questions then become: 1) what computing/business problems do enterprise customers need to address, and 2) what would a successful solution look like? A simple answer to the former point is: ease, speed, functionality and automation. In short, companies want systems that are simple to acquire, deploy, manage and support, but which deliver top line performance, can be easily integrated into their current environments and are also adaptable to evolving processes and needs. That means that rather than requiring over-provisioning, systems instead can scale automatically for new workloads. Plus, instead of the rat s nest of multiple tools and dashboards so common in heterogeneous systems, ideal solutions would offer a single point of management for compute, storage, networking, software and services. These systems would then deliver both significantly faster time to value and improved lifecycle management. So how can a vendor meet those stringent requirements? IBM knows that deep integration is the only way to achieve reliably robust performance, along with built-in workload elasticity and scalability. In addition, integration can help speed acquisition and deployment processes, and support automated management tools and features. So in the new IBM PureFlex System, the company has basically taken what were once custom solutions and turned them into standard SKUs. Recognizing the need for a system architecture with capabilities appropriate for new and emerging workloads, IBM invested over $2 billion in PureSystems, including related acquisitions and R&D. As a result, the new offerings, including the IBM PureFlex System, leverage the company s considerable experience at developing and integrating hardware and software at the deepest levels. Plus, built- 4

5 in expertise significantly enhances the new systems ability to address increasingly complex and critical business and operational tasks. The IBM PureFlex System is available in three basic configurations (Express, Standard and Enterprise) and can be ordered with Expert Integration (performed at the factory) depending on a customer s needs and IT resources, or upgraded/customized via the system expansion and component options a buyer chooses. IBM is also significantly broadening the availability of integrated solutions and use cases by closely engaging its ISV partners in the process. As a result, not only does the company s approach offer customers optimal flexibility, it also helps them avoid the lock-in implicit in proprietary stacks. IBM PureFlex Under the Hood Before looking at familiar and new aspects of PureFlex System solutions, along with what makes them significantly different from other solutions, here s an overview of the general features and available options in PureFlex Express, Standard and Enterprise configurations: PureFlex Solution Express Standard Enterprise Core Value Affordable entry point Optimized for applications Optimized for high reliability/resiliency Use Case Simple acquisition & quick deployment Support key ISV solutions Support critical applications & cloud deployments Features: IBM PureSystems 42u Yes Yes Yes Rack IBM Flex System Chassis Yes Yes Yes Compute Node Minimum 1 Minimum 1 Minimum 2 Integrated 10GB Networking upgrades 1 & 2 Switch Integrated 8GB FC Switch IBM Flex System Optional Optional Optional 8/16GB SAN Scalable Switch Integrated Management Yes Yes Yes Node IBM Flex System Manager Edition Basic w/1 year of service & support Advanced w/3 years of service & support Advanced w/3 years of service & support Power Supplies 2/6 4/6 6/6 (std/max) 80mm fans (std/max) 4/8 6/8 8/8 IBM Storwize V7000 Disk System IBM Storwize V7000 Software Yes (redundant controller) Yes (redundant controller) Yes (redundant controller) Base w/1 year SW maintenance Base w/3 year SW maintenance Base w/3 year SW maintenance 5

6 Now let s consider some of these points more deeply, to gain insight into IBM s technological intentions and how customers can benefit from those efforts: Architecture The core architecture of the System has been designed from the ground up, taking into consideration not only hardware integration but also software integration. During the process, IBM leveraged its deep knowledge of physical integration and consolidation but also leveraged its Tivoli assets to design a truly expert integrated solution. As a result, IBM PureFlex System is designed to provide the best in hardware platform performance along with time tested integration features to help customers lower overall management costs and reduce deployment time so they respond faster to changing business needs. Compute Nodes Similar to other integrated systems, IBM PureFlex System offers a variety of highly flexible compute node solutions featuring the latest 2--socket Intel Xeon E (EP and EN) and IBM POWER7 CPUs. These can be configured for virtually any application/workload or customer use case, from cost-optimized entry products to high density cloud infrastructures to systems leveraging the same core technology as IBM s Watson. Storage The new Systems Flex System storage nodes leverage IBM Storwize V7000 technology to support dense, high-performance storage with integrated management. The storage nodes can also virtualize and manage data on third-party storage from a list of more than 130 products in the same way that IBM SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 systems have supported virtualizing third-party storage. Finally, the PureFlex System offers several solid-state storage options for applications that require high IOPs. Networking Integrated networking has long been a staple in IBM s solutions, but the PureFlex System offerings take the concept to new levels of extreme performance and flexibility for both physical and virtualized applications. That is certainly apparent in the networking solution firsts offered in IBM PureFlex System: first Flex System Fabric 10Gb Scalable Switch, first 40Gb capable Ethernet switch, first 16Gb capable SAN switch; and first 56Gb capable Infiniband FDR switches. But it is also clear in the platform s robust node-to-node communications capabilities. In short, IBM PureFlex System networking solutions can be flexibly adapted to address virtually any customer requirement. Virtualization Virtualization is a core competency in data centers of every size and kind, but IBM well understands that supporting customer choice is critical. To that end, the company offers a wide range of PureFlex System virtualization options, including PowerVM, VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V and KVM solutions. Management A purposely-built, flexibly integrated platform like IBM PureFlex System requires a similarly flexible solution for system management, and the company s new Flex System Manager provides a single point of control backbone for physical, virtual, workload and configuration management. The solution offers a host of key features at launch, and IBM s roadmap includes the addition of significant new functions and capabilities later in

7 The IBM Partner Equation This aspect of IBM s PureFlex System effort tangibly demonstrates the company s dedication to openness and customer choice, and also contrasts starkly with homogeneous, single vendor stacks. IBM s deep hardware and software expertise will help to assure that PureFlex System delivers optimal performance, and solutions, and services available from more than 125 IBM ISV partners should significantly expand the range of applications, processes and industries for which the new solutions can be used. Finally, though deeply integrated systems tend to be used for highly strategic applications today, we believe that efforts by IBM and its partners around PureFlex System will significantly expand the markets for these solutions in the future. The App Store Experience IBM s new PureSystems Centre ( software/brandcatalog/puresystems/centre/) is an easy to use app store where customers can access and learn about PureFlex System solutions and application patterns from IBM and its business partners. Final Analysis For organizations that need to get the most and best out of their IT investments both today and in the future, the status quo is a no-go. That is certainly the case with the buy it/build it customized systems of the past, but it also applies to the simplistic proprietary stacks and one commodity platform fits all product strategies some vendors favor. IBM understands that cookie cutter solutions can never adequately support enterprises critical current and future IT requirements. Instead, those organizations need computing solutions that are simple to acquire, deploy and manage, and which deliver top line performance both today and in future. Those systems should be easy to integrate into existing data centers but should also be adaptable for evolving applications and business processes. That, in a nutshell, is the concept behind the IBM PureFlex System. To achieve this, the company has leveraged lessons learned from decades of system development, integration and management with current best of breed technologies in its own Power Systems, idataplex, BladeCenter and System z platforms, and those of partners including Intel, VMware and Microsoft. The resulting IBM PureSystems solutions are new from the ground-up, delivering innovations and capabilities which are virtually unavailable elsewhere. Just as importantly, tapping into the experience and expertise of over 125 IBM ISV partners will help PureSystems customers avoid the lock-in implicit in proprietary solutions and should also help expand the demand for deeply integrated systems. What effects will IBM s PureFlex System exert on the market? First, we expect the contrast between IBM s devotion to customer choice and other vendors attempts to lock-in clients with proprietary vertical stacks will be starkly obvious to enterprise customers. If that s the case, expect competitors to try emulating IBM s approach, though few have the experiential and technological depth to do so successfully. 7

8 In addition, by fully leveraging its ISV partners offerings and expertise, IBM should also effectively increase demand for deeply integrated, easy to deploy systems far beyond their relatively narrow existing confines. That, in turn, could lead organizations to recognize the difference between what their IT investments payback today and consider how adopting solutions like IBM PureFlex System could affect future returns. Overall, enterprises that wish to capture significantly improved system performance today and enhanced IT investment value in the future would do well to consider the new IBM PureFlex System Pund-IT, Inc. All rights reserved. About Pund-IT, Inc. Pund-IT emphasizes understanding technology and product evolution and interpreting the effects these changes will have on business customers and the greater IT marketplace. 8