IBM Clients Build More Integrated, Intelligent, Automated Infrastructures to Reduce Costs, Manage Risk, Improve Service
IBM
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Clients including Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation, Tricon Geophysics and the United States Bowling Congress are working with IBM to develop smarter, more intelligent infrastructures that help reduce costs and improve services they provide to their customers. The infrastructure technology helps clients manage and gain insight from an increasing number of things in their physical infrastructure that are being instrumented with intelligent sensors; analyze vast amounts of information; and become more "green" and cost efficient.
IDC estimates the market opportunity for the software, servers, technologies, and services to manage the world's converged IT and physical infrastructure to be $122 billion by 2012.
New dynamic infrastructure clients:
The Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation (THSRC) is using IBM software connected to intelligent sensors to manage maintenance and logistical data for the revolutionary high-speed rail network that runs along the west coast of Taiwan. These sensors identify maintenance issues and track train locations to make sure hundreds of trains carrying passengers between the south and the north are safe and on time. As a result, THSRC is able to greatly improve its customer service. The express trains are capable of traveling at up to 186 miles per hour (300 km/hr), meaning travel between Taipei City and Kaohsiung City is only roughly 90 minutes as opposed to the 4.5 hours by conventional rail. Using IBM software for insight into assets, their conditions and work processes, and for better planning and control, has helped THSRC maintain an average punctuality rate of 99.15 percent.
Tricon Geophysics, Venezuela's leading provider of seismic data processing and interpretation services for oil and gas companies is using an IBM iDataPlex system running Red Hat Linux for the seismic data collation, processing and migration needed for oil and gas exploration and production. This highly dynamic infrastructure based on IBM's iDataPlex enables Tricon to analyze 25 times more seismic data in the same time as compared to existing systems from an area of approximately 2500 square kilometers (close to 1000 square miles) and improve energy efficiency by 40 percent, while also reducing operating and cooling costs. Because the simulation of 3-D seismic data requires several compilations before it can be processed by standard petro-technical applications, the company also implemented an IBM System x3950 server running the Red Hat Linux operating system to pre-process seismic data. This capability gives Tricon a unique competitive advantage to conduct seismic analysis for oil and gas companies covering larger areas in a shorter time, cost effectively aided by energy efficiency and higher computing densities.
The United States Bowling Congress is the national governing body for the sport of bowling, serving more than 2.5 million adult and youth members. Recently, USBC consolidated its corporate data center on IBM POWER servers and blades using IBM PowerVM virtualization software. It also uses intelligent sensor technology to manage power utilization to reduce cooling and electricity costs in its data center. By using intelligent sensors, USBC can monitor data center activity and automatically adjust to optimize temperature and humidity. This results in a nearly 50 percent reduction in cooling cost and eliminates more than five tons of carbon emissions annually. This new consolidated blade server-based data center helps to run the world's largest participatory sporting event, the USBC Open Championships and allows all the entry information, scheduling and results to be updated and accessed in real time during the tournament's 140-day run.
New dynamic infrastructure products and services:
To help clients build and manage more dynamic infrastructures, IBM is further expanding its portfolio of offerings by introducing a range of new products and services for mid-size and enterprise clients.
New offerings designed to help clients build more flexible and dynamic infrastructures
-- A new consulting service -- the IT Optimization Business Value Roadmap
-- is designed to help clients with multiple information technology
(IT) projects planned to re-evaluate priorities and shift resources to
fewer projects in today's existing economic environment. The service
helps clients execute a targeted optimization plan that can save
between 20-40 percent in costs, and prioritize and map future IT
projects based on key business priorities.
-- The IBM Service Management Center for Cloud Computing, which now
includes new IBM Tivoli Identity and Access Assurance, IBM Tivoli Data
and Application Security, and IBM Tivoli Security Management for z/OS,
for Cloud environments.
-- Two new System x appliances for system and application monitoring and
service request management: IBM Tivoli Foundations Application Manager
and IBM Tivoli Foundations Service Manager are suited for small and
mid-sized clients looking to reduce costs, manage risks, and improve
their service quality.
New infrastructure offerings designed to help clients reduce costs, become more green
-- IBM also announced industry first virtualization software capabilities
-- IBM PowerVM Active Memory Sharing, allows memory to automatically
flow from one virtual server -- or "logical partition" -- to another
for increased utilization and flexibility of memory usage. Using this
software, memory can be pooled and automatically adjusted to meet
fluctuating workload demands.
-- New Power 520 and 550 servers use 4.7GHz and the world's fastest
5.0GHz POWER6 processor respectively, and allow companies to save up
to 91 percent in energy usage and reduce floor space by 92 percent.
(2)
-- The new BladeCenter JS23 and JS43 are the premier blades for 64-bit
applications on i, AIX or Linux operating systems. Using a 4.2 GHz
POWER6 processor they deliver performance and scalability improvements
at compelling prices. For example, a BladeCenter JS23 with four cores
delivers twice the performance of an HP 860c Itanium blade according
to industry benchmarks. (1)
-- Continuing IBM's commitment to a new generation of leadership in x86
technology built on the 4th generation IBM X-Architecture(TM), and
building on the recently announced System x racks, blades and
iDataPlex products, today's announcement includes two new 2-socket
tower servers, System x3400 M2 and x3500 M2. These offerings help
clients to significantly reduce cost with energy efficiency, including
all new thermal designs, new voltage regulators and higher integration
on the board to simplify power distribution and reduce distribution
loss. This includes new, greater than 92 percent efficiency power and
provides up to 60 percent reduction in power when idle. It also
provides up to 25 percent reduction when fully utilized vs. the
previous generation. As a result, energy savings can reach up to 95
percent compared to previous generations of x86 servers.
-- The new technology found in both servers features new systems
management tools such as Integrated Management Module, Unified
Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), Systems Director and Tools
Center, helping customers establish a virtual infrastructure with less
hardware. In fact, clients can reach greater than 11:1 consolidation
from 2005 generation x86 servers when transitioning to IBM HS22
blades, and an estimated 9:1 consolidation when transitioning to x3650
M2 servers.
-- Also debuting is the Cluster 1350, a fully integrated solution
designed to increase high-performance computing needs in a broad-range
of application areas, while reducing overall power and cooling costs
by up to 50 percent.
-- To support clients in their energy initiatives, IBM has designed a
prescriptive Energy Management Adoption Model to provide clients with
concrete steps to improve the energy efficiency of their
infrastructure. The model covers the entire infrastructure including
IT, Facilities/Property and other business assets. It defines 4
stages of adoption including discovery, manage, optimize and report
with well defined projects that leverage available capabilities to
provide quick ROI while delivering larger energy savings over time.
As part of this Model, IBM also announced enhancements to its energy
management portfolio including enhanced integration between IBM Tivoli
Monitoring for Energy Management and Tivoli Business Service Manager,
enable unified energy management of IT and non-IT infrastructure
assets, consolidating energy information across a facility into a
customizable energy dashboard and a free 60 day trial of IBM Tivoli
Monitoring for Energy Management.
New offerings to help manage, analyze, store, secure staggering amounts of information
-- New risk management and business intelligence software for System z --
ACI Proactive Risk Manager (PRM) for System z -- designed to handle
high-volume fraud assessments as part of the authorization process to
detect whether a transaction is approved or denied, without impacting
legitimate credit card, check or debit card transactions.
-- IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence for Linux on System z includes
enhancements to get fast and easy access to the most up-to-date
business information from any location on handheld devices such as
BlackBerrys.
-- A new version of the IBM System Storage DS5000 that will include
self-encrypting disk technology for mid-market clients. Data is
automatically protected against unauthorized access, eliminating the
costs associated with data exposure, while helping clients address
regulatory requirements. Other enhancements include faster, 8-Gbps
adapters to improve efficiency and increase performance, along with
greater capacity of up to 448 disk drives in a single system to
provide lower total cost of ownership.
-- A new version of Tivoli Storage Productivity Center delivers new
performance analytics technology and customization features that
enable IT administrators to manage large-scale storage environments
while increasing overall system performance, reducing management
complexities, and improving system availability. The new analytics
technology helps identify hot spots for problem determination and
quick tuning to improve performance and storage utilization in order
to help clients increase service levels and improve efficiency.
Tivoli Storage Productivity Center also delivers expanded
heterogeneous platform support, advanced reporting, and security
features for multi-vendor storage environments.
New networking offerings
-- IBM today announced new hardware, software and services to help
improve networking connectivity for greater infrastructure efficiency.
Building on its extensive experience in networking, IBM is introducing
a new service offering, IBM Networking, Strategy, Optimization and
Implementation Services for consolidation and virtualization.
-- Also as part of today's networking news, IBM is increasing the range
of the choices it offers for network connectivity, beginning with an
expansion of its OEM agreement with Brocade to introduce a family of
IBM-branded Ethernet switches and routers. This OEM network equipment
from Brocade position IBM to provide customers with a more complete
set of offerings for emerging dynamic data centers. Brocade has been
a strategic IBM supplier for Storage Area Network products and this
new offering adds a set of 1G and 10G Ethernet switches and routers to
that portfolio. These complement IBM's current networking offerings,
such as those from long-time strategic networking supplier Cisco that
IBM continues to work with on a global basis to expand its strong
relationship. IBM has also strengthened its collaboration with
Juniper Networks, Inc. In February, the two companies demonstrated
hybrid public-private cloud capabilities. IBM and Juniper continue to
explore opportunities to further expand the relationship.
As part of today's announcement IBM also introduced financing options to help enterprises specifically acquire IBM's new line of dynamic infrastructure products and services.
For additional information visit www.ibm.com/dynamicinfrastructure.
Contact: Ron Favali
IBM
favali@us.ibm.com
727-489-7202
(1) Based on the best results for four-core POWER and Integrity blade servers on SPECint_rate2006. HP Integrity BL860c result can be found at www.spec.org. Result is current as of April 21, 2009. The IBM BladeCenter JS23 result will be submitted to SPEC on April 28, 2009.
(2). Competitive benchmark results reflect results published as of April 21, 2009. The SPECint_rate2006 results can be found at www.spec.org. The Power 550 Express will be submitted for publication on April 28, 2009. All systems were compared based on maximum processor configuration because that is the data point for which power requirements are defined. Other configurations of these systems could have better performance per WATT metrics.
First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: favali@us.ibm.com
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SOURCE: IBM
CONTACT: Ron Favali, IBM, +1-727-489-7202,
Web Site: http://www.ibm.com/