I’m in the Cloud Mini Tent now. It’s packed with customers, analysts and press. IBMers are only being admitted after all interested customers are seated. It’s that big of a deal.
Hosting the session is Robert LeBlanc, Senior VP, Software Middleware Group. I had the opportunity to meet with Robert yesterday, we talked cloud computing and extended enterprise integration.
To achieve true value from the cloud, you need to Rethink and Reinvent your business. Cloud isn’t just an IT thing. Need to think about services your business can offer, how can you integrate across clouds. Interspersed in Robert’s comments are a bevy of synonyms for speed for agility.
IBM is enabling “us” to consume cloud services. And, to build and connect clouds. Three ways to deliver IT capabilities: software, networking and hardware, pre-packaged applications and as-a-service.
Stating their authority, leadership, Robert is citing IBM’s work over the last 45 years that has allowed the industry to get to cloud computing. ”90% of the hype is public cloud. 90% of the work (implementations) is in private clouds”.
Big reference model chart, articulating the capabilities required for cloud computing in each “-aaS” layer. Robert says don’t make you implement all those services, bundled into capabilities. Moving to the capability chart — looks like a solution chart — there is still a lot of stuff. IBM SmartCloud Enterprise & Enterprise +, SAP Managed Application Services, Smarter Commerce, Workload and Topology Patterns, Image Management, Business Analytics & Optimization, Security, etc.
Drilling into 5 areas:
- Service Automation
- Image Management (machine images) — Tivoli Provisioning Manager
- Deployment Models are Evolving — virtualizing applications rather than machines. Impact on full application infrastructure stack.
- Optimized Web Application Delivery — WebSphere Application Accelerator for public networks (Akami partnership)
- Data & Application Integration — IBM WebSphere Cast Iron (via acquisition)
Moving on, Robert speaks to recent announcement of Cloud Standards Customer Council, which OMG is managing. Over 70 customer organizations are already signed-up. The customer council will identify standards requirements, influence the various standards communities. They will not be (yet another) standards group.
Carlos Matos of Kaiser Permanente is on stage now to share Kaiser’s cloud story. Healthcare is starting to see a lot of virtual care: 27 million member e-visits, 8 million secure emails, 7 million prescription refills, and 21 million laboratory results.
Kaiser is one of 5 major integrated delivery networks within the US. Introduced electronic medical records. Innovating towards “real-time, personalized health-care”.
Technology vision: all of the information about all of the patients all the time. Supporting 4 rings of care, personalized, virtual, consistent and connected.
Challenge: how to dramatically improve Health Care while ensuring IT remains affordable?
Cloud: Automation, Standardization & Consolidation. Three cloud strategies: Vendor Cloud (external), Private cloud (internal) and Hybrid (mix). Kaiser is moving towards private cloud. Create service efficiencies through automation.
Kaiser’s risk model doesn’t allow for public solution. Sweet spot is IaaS.
Implementation challenges:
- data controls
- security & privacy
- audit & assurance
- tax and legal
- backup and DR
- vendor “lock-in”
- IT operations
- IT readiness
- Finance readiness
Recommendations:
- choose partner with longevity
- keep it simple
- start communications early
- plan to spend “quality time” with security and finance groups
- consider dedicated staffing to support intake and candidacy process
Virtualization (on Z and X) is foundation. Next: IaaS / SaaS (on-demand). Future: dynamic business needs, convergence of SOA & Cloud, figure out license model for catalog of services.
End of the day, it’s about business outcomes.
Robert is back. Question he is asked often: Is cloud invention or reinvention? Bringing up a practitioner panel to share perspectives. Panelists: Lowell Gilven, Director of Global Integration, Jabil Circuit, Mel Greer, Senior Fellow, Chief Strategist, SOA/Cloud, Lockheed Martin and Tim Donofrio, VP, IBM.
Q: Invention or re-invention (evolution)?
Lowell: Both. Business as usual from Jabil IT perspective. From nirvana perspectives, rapid deployment and on-boarding of new customers. ”Take what we do best and push it out further”.
Mel: Lockheed Martin is supporting US Government’s Cloud First Policy. Beyond datacenters and IaaS, also gamechanging edge applications and services for the modern warfighter. So, both.
Tim: Both. Rapid segue to IBM’s Smart Cloud, customer counts, IBM Global Services, etc.
Robert: Evidence that cloud is real. Yet, a lot of hype. What are panelists seeing on value?
Mel: Greatest government agency challenge is cloud security. Next set of major challenges is data portability and cloud interoperability. Mel makes a reference to the Cloud Standards Customer Council, of which he is an early member.
Robert: What are clients asking of IBM?
Tim: 3 things. 1) Hosting – customers want same choice and control they get in the enterprise today. As well, want payment flexibility. 2) Seamless integration as move towards the cloud. 3) Help in migrating applications and automations to the cloud. [Conveniently maps to IBM's offerings. I've just exceeded my pitch count.]
[I admit, the format of this panel didn't work for me. I'd love to hear more from Lowell and Mel on their cloud computing journeys, and how they are influencing industry progress and adoption. On the plus, you can connect with Mel via the Cloud Standards Customer Council].
Next session, Architecting the Cloud, Jerry Cuomo and Jason McGee are walking through IBM’s Cloud Reference Architecture with a live-demo of a private cloud implementation.
10 Attributes IBM Cloud:
- Standards Based
- Virtualization – Atomic versus molecular
- Versatile Workloads – From web to BPM
- Versatile Deployments – Hetero-deployitus
- Elasticity – grows to the right size
- Density – shared middleware is key to achieving density, defined as how many enterprise applications you can run in a square foot of rack
- Security & Isolation – Get off of my cloud — policy based, not conflicting with density
- Resilient Discrimination – Biased and keeps going
- Integrated – Extends beyond boundaries
- Simplicity – Self-service, appliance, hosted
Supporting blog post by Jerry Cuomo, google Cuomo + WebSphere.
Now, the demo, which has been running the entire time, demand fueled by tweets to #ibmcloud. There is a Workload Deployer (CloudBurst Appliance) on stage. To see the demo, check the IBM Impact site for a replay of the live stream. Interesting edge scenario on using Workload Deployer to govern SOA runtime requests.
Tagged as:
#ibmimpact
Posted by brenda michelson at 3:09 pm in cloud computing, soa | Permalink
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Yesterday, I traded cloud stories with Dave Linthicum and Bill Russell of 
