This 8-page brochure describes the need for smarter systems today, particularly for 5 key customer needs: - Achieve business performance and scale required - Discover insights and optimize processes in real time - Deliver operational efficiency and business agility - Improve management of vast amounts of data - Manage risk, security and compliance.
2. 2 Smarter Systems for a Smarter Planet
The world is getting smarterâfrom reducing gridlock by
reworking traffic systems to reducing energy footprints with
the help of advanced networks of power meters on smarter
power grids. Today, people are thinking biggerâimagining
how businesses and the systems that run them can be instru-
mented and interconnected with other systems and made
intelligent. Today, forward-thinking organizations are setting
the stage for unprecedented innovation, improved productiv-
ity, and better business performance.
Opportunities are limitless, resources
are not
Thatâs why IBM is thinking differently about the way we
design, develop and deliver systems. Instead of just focusing
on individual software and hardware products, we look at the
world from an integrated, business perspectiveâdelivering
smarter systems that address the core IT and business capabil-
ities organizations need. Smarter systems are intentionally
designed to:
â Achieve the business performance and scale required Todayâs workloads demand optimized
â Discover insights and optimize processes in real time systems
â Deliver operational efficiency and business agility If we take a deeper look at the workloads that run our world,
â Improve management of vast amounts of data it is clear that not all workloads are created equally. Your busi-
â Manage risk, security and compliance ness has various workloads. And different workloads place
unique demands on systemsârequiring different approaches
New application workloads are emerging, and you need to based on core application function, data management, usage
integrate applications and drive more decisions in real time. patterns, service levels, and integration with other applications
Now more than ever there is a need to optimize for perform- and systems. Workloads run more efficiently when matched
ance and cost. Pivotal to optimizing these systems is a deep with the right computing resources; one size does not ïŹt all.
understanding of the business needs and the workloads that
run on them. For example, supporting an SAP application requires a differ-
ent balance of transaction processing and database activity
This way of thinking is inïŹuencing the way IBM is designing than business intelligence and analytics workloads delivering
and building systems and how they will be conïŹgured going business insight to line managers and executives. Similarly,
forward. A general purpose approach to systems design will no enterprise collaboration applications require a different bal-
longer achieve the performance and business outcomes ance of IT system resources than applications used to handle
required on a smarter planet. the complex, high volume business processes of an organiza-
tion or those that manage a data center and keep it running
efficiently.
3. Smarter systems 3
Could one system handle these various workloads? Sure. Achieving the business performance and
Could a single system optimize these workloads across the scale required
multiple dimensions of cost, security, reliability and speed? Smarter systems move beyond simple speeds and feeds. In a
Probably not. smarter system, performance is deïŹned by a set of attributes
critical to both technology and business metrics. Reducing
IBM can help. IBM delivers smarter systems that are power consumption is one thing. Reducing it without reduc-
workload optimizedâsoftware and hardware that have been ing performance is quite another. The scalability of a solution
optimized to meet unique needs across a portfolio of should never be an inhibitor to growth. With the ever-
platforms. A workload-optimized system is integrated and growing amount of data requiring processing and the
optimized from the processor design through database, mid- velocity with which it comes in, the need for faster handling of
dleware and applications to handle speciïŹc workloads. Often, transactions with integrity and reliability becomes critical. To
it includes services to accelerate time to value. On a smarter achieve lower costs and higher performance requires a balanc-
planet, you have a choice of systems to best match the ing act. Smarter performance means balanced systems built to
workloads unique to your business, giving you faster time to scale ïŹexibly and efficiently, coupled more closely than ever
value and improved price performance. IBM is using the with smarter software to deliver an environment optimized for
breadth of its portfolio of hardware and software and its the business. We work to tune and integrate these systems on
unmatched expertise to deliver new levels of innovation and our end before you even open the box, leveraging technology
integrationâacross the whole spectrum of solutions you and software to reduce the complexityâmaking things easier
may need. to install and ready for work.
IBM offers a range of systems designed to meet your needs
Smarter systems are workload-optimized: today that can also efficiently scale to meet your needs in
the future:
As the world becomes increasing interconnected and
intelligent, there is a noticeable trend in organizations that
â IBMÂź System xÂź servers combine x86 industry standards
want to get smarter about their use of IT.
with IBM innovation, resulting in increased efficiency,
Organizations have an insatiable need to seamlessly deal performance and ease of use. They are available in a variety
with greater volume and velocity of data, garner actionable of form factors from large-scale data center installationsâ
business insight from their information faster, and ensure
including bladesâand are ïŹexible enough to match speciïŹc
business process agility and greater data center efficiencies
business requirements.
from their IT operations. These needs create different work-
â IBM Power Systemsâą offer scalable performance options
load challenges and demands on systems.
including blades and easy-to-grow modular servers, with
IBM optimizes its software and hardware to meet the new efficient virtualization for server consolidation and lower
workload requirements of a smarter planet. cost, workload optimization for rapid cloud infrastructure
deployment, and a broad range of business solutions based
on AIXÂź, IBM i and LinuxÂź
To see how IBM clients are using smarter systems, visit:
ibm.com/smartersystems/success
4. 4 Smarter Systems for a Smarter Planet
â IBM System zÂź servers provide the worldâs fastest and most â Business Intelligence and AnalyticsâTo analyze massive
scalable enterprise system, designed to reduce the cost, amounts of data in a timeframe that matters, you need a
complexity and inefficiency of todayâs multiarchitecture data foundation of powerful systems. But raw performance isnât
centers while delivering the availability, security and man- enough. A successful analytics solution must include data
ageability needed to make tomorrowâs clouds ready for busi- warehouse, business intelligence, data mining, text analysis
ness today. and cubing capabilities. But to make the system work effi-
ciently and implement quickly, these capabilities must be
By leveraging optimized software and hardware, IBM is able tightly integrated and optimizedâbuilt on the hardware
to offer smarter systems for Transaction Processing and foundation.
Database Application Workloads.
To help with this, IBM offers a range of Smart Analytics
The IBM pureScaleâą Application System, which is optimized Systems designed to transform information into real business
for transactional workloads such as e-commerce, and enter- insight in a timeframe that matters to your organization.
prise applications such as SAP, delivers unmatched database IBM Smart Analytics Systems are designed to offer everything
scalability and availability to meet the most demanding trans- you need for business analyticsâin an integrated, packaged
action processing needs for performance, ïŹexibility and solution. The IBM Smart Analytics System family spans mul-
integrity. The IBM pureScale Application System is built on a tiple hardware platforms and architectures, providing maxi-
powerful IBM server, storage, and data management platform mum ïŹexibility for deployment. They are fully integrated and
that includes both IBM DB2Âź database software and optimized so you can implement a solution in days or weeks
WebSphereÂź Application Server software. instead of the months it might take to build and integrate a
solution from individual pieces. This implementation
approach is key to rapid delivery of value.
Discover insight and optimize decisions
and processesâin real time
Organizations are telling us that in order to meet their goals
for proïŹtability, revenue, cost reduction, and risk management
they know they canât continue to operate the way they have in
the past. Traditional approaches to analyzing and optimizing
their business have only taken them so far. They need to move
beyond âsense and respondâ to be able to predict and act by
applying business analytics to better understand performance
and make better decisions. In addition, they need to âwork
smarterâ to discover, interact and optimize their existing busi-
ness processes to further increase efficiency and reduce costs.
5. Smarter systems 5
â Business Process ManagementâFor many organizations,
managing a wide array of business processes is costly and Integrated systems by design
time consuming. IBM offers the IBM BPM suite and serv-
To address the needs of todayâs smarter planet,
ices, designed to enhance the efficiency of business process
IBM speciïŹcally designs integrated systems that redeïŹne
management (BPM) and reduce costs by improving visibility
performance and optimize resources to deliver the highest
into processes, discovering new areas for optimization and possible value.
automating tasks.
Integrated systems are designed from the outset to be
workload optimized, intentionally designed for speciïŹc
Your organization might need ïŹexible and dynamic processes
workloads. This means you are able to choose a system
that are integrated across multiple disparate systems, process
that best matches your unique needs. With the right combi-
owners, business users and IT to support collaboration and nation of components, from the silicon up through the
direct engagement with process improvement. You might need software, you get greater agility, lower costs, and faster
content-centric processes such as case management with time to value.
demanding compliance requirements. Regardless of whether
Smarter systems also give you the ability to easily work
you need the ïŹexibility or the centricity, the IBM BPM Suite
with other systems, all in a single, integrated solution
and IBM hardware can help you realize your business priori-
designed to address your particular business needs.
ties and evolve with you as your BPM journey continues.
Delivering operational efficiency and
By effectively using virtualization, you can:
business agility
Your systems are your service delivery vehicles. They have to
â Consolidate resources to improve efficiency and utilization
respond to the needs of your businessâemployees, customers,
of IT resources
partnersâin real time. Your systems must be efficient and
â Manage workloads to improve IT staff productivity with an
ïŹexibleânot only to run applications, but also to run your
integrated systems management dashboard
business. And you need to get the most out of the investment
â Automate processes for consistent and repeatable processes
you make in your systems.
based on best practices, business priorities and service level
agreements
Virtualization with Integrated Service Management improves
â Optimize delivery for self-provisioned cloud services by
your business agility by helping you use your resources
users, based on business imperatives, unconstrained by phys-
effectively, manage your infrastructure efficiently, and gain the
ical barriers or location.
ïŹexibility to meet ever-changing business demands. To meet
these challenges, organizations are virtualizing at all layers of
With decades of virtualization experience, IBM offers the
their IT architecture, including servers, storage, networks,
industryâs broadest set of virtualization capabilitiesâfrom
and applications to help reduce cost, improve service and
speciïŹc infrastructure and management offerings to complete
manage risk.
virtualization solutions for single servers and multisystem
environments.
6. 6 Smarter Systems for a Smarter Planet
IBM offers design and implementation networking services to Enterprise ERP, CRM and custom applications drive your
support a highly available and virtualized environment. business initiatives and generate revenue opportunities.
IBM can help manage virtual server and storage environments Processing more transactions and collecting more customer
in single and multivendor environments. information through these applications may be great for
business, but unmanaged data growth can negatively impact
Managing vast amounts of data your ability to provide superior service and support. The
intelligently and cost effectively effects can slow application performance, strain ïŹnancial and
Smarter systems can help you store the massiveâand technical resources and jeopardize completing business-critical
growingâamounts of data while reducing IT complexity. processes on time.
Your storage systems can grow exponentially, while conserving
energy, ïŹoor space and reducing management costs. Plus, IBMâs Information Management portfolio can help clients in
IBM software can help to manage the data life cycle and two ways: First, IBM can help you reduce the amount of
thereby more effectively and efficiently manage data growth. information in a production enterprise applicationâs database;
less disk space is required for application data thereby cutting
IBM System Storage solutions are designed to reduce the cost the costs of storage. And because there is less information to
and complexity of managing vast amounts of data while sift through, applications process faster. IBM offers proven
improving the productivity of your storage administration archiving capabilities, allowing users to segregate historical
staffâand storage spaceâas the volumes of data grow. from current data and store it securely and cost effectively.
Second, for clients using DB2, its database compression capa-
IBM offers a range of disk storage systems to meet these bilities can further reduce the amount of storage required by
demands: up to 30 percent.
â Enterprise storage systems with capacities up to thousands
of terabytes and a range of reliability and performance fea- Why IBM? Proven technology leadership:
tures to support the most demanding storage challenges.
With a dedication to innovation proven through an unparal-
â Multiterabyte systems for organizations with growing
leled commitment to research and development, IBM is the
storage needs. clear leader in innovative technology.
â Multigigabyte storage enclosures designed for small and
medium businesses. IBM has always been dedicated to our clientsâ every suc-
cess. Our hardware, software and services teams work in
partnership with each other and with our clients to apply
All of these systems are supported by management software
technology to solve their greatest challenges and create
designed to simplify and automate many key deployment,
new valueâand we have been evolving it for more than
maintenance and recovery tasks. When you arenât forced to 40 years.
manually manage all the details of your infrastructure, youâre
freed up to respond to business opportunities. You can devote We know how to help clients apply technology to deliver
results. We know industries, the world of business, and how
more time to innovation. Youâre better able to mitigate risk.
work gets done. And weâre committed to applying this
expertise to help our clients reinvent themselves and their
industriesâone client at a time.
7. Smarter systems 7
Managing risk, security and compliance Examples of IBM security capabilities include:
Sensitive organizational data is increasingly being made
available to a diverse set of internal and external users â Advancing built-in hardware encryption on many servers
through new business services. This broader exposure creates and storage devices to help secure data without performance
unprecedented opportunities for better collaboration and impact.
service delivery. At the same time, it can put critical data at â Monitoring and auditing privileged user data center activi-
greater risk. ties while also protecting against outside threats at the net-
work, server and desktop levels.
IBM security solutions can help identify threats before they â Real-time database activity monitoring to detect unautho-
occur and help you drive new initiatives, such as securing a rized or suspicious activities.
virtualized or cloud environment or enabling secure access for â Centralizing management of encryption keys for tape and
millions of users to a new web portal. Security solutions from disk storage.
IBM can also help you to reclaim your network capacity, bring â Automating compliance auditing in heterogeneous
new services online faster, improve productivity and reduce environments.
costs.
IBM security solutions offer you a competitive differentiatorâ
IBM can help you build security into your business processes supporting rapid innovation and deployment of new business
and daily operations while addressing the complexity, compli- servicesâwhile being an affordable approach for creating and
ance and cost challenges through a comprehensive security sustaining security and governance.
framework. IBM has a long history of helping our clients
secure their environments through professional services, man-
aged services and hardware and software solutions that are
recognized for leadership. IBM security solutions address:
â People and identityâdeïŹne user access to resources
â Data and informationâcontrol the use of sensitive data
â Application and processâprotect applications from
malicious use
â Network, server and end pointâaddress risks of network
components
â Physical infrastructureâprovide actionable intelligence