IBM Edge 2015 took place from May 11th to 15th in Las Vegas and focused on innovation in IT infrastructures and covered in a single event IBM System Storage, IBM zSystems, IBM Power Systems and IBM Middleware.
The tone was set in the general sessions, especially one entitled Making It Possible, Building Your Future, presented by Doug Brown, Vice President of Marketing for IBM Systems, which discussed the accelerated pace of change occurring in the digital landscape and asked the question:
How can you be certain that the technologies you are using are ready for the future?
The strategic response came from Kevin Keverian, Vice President of IBM's business strategy, and was well summarized on a single slide in 3 points.
1. The first point concerns the strategic imperatives of companies and the accelerated transition to Data (Analytics), Cloud Computing and engagement systems (Mobility, Social Media and Security).
2. The second point relates to the efforts and the expertise required to connect these new imperatives to traditional workloads. The hybrid cloud is an example as is the adoption of standards and open partnerships.
3. The third point refers to IBM's provision of services and solutions with higher strategic value to its customers, based on software and automation. Spectrum Storage in which IBM is investing $ 1 billion is one example.
The strategy and approach adopted by IBM guarantees you solutions that are future proof.
Announcements
IBM made many announcements in Hybrid Cloud, IBM Power Systems and Storage.
At the storage level, here are the announcements that caught my attention:
IBM Spectrum Control Storage Insights
This new Software Defined Storage solution provides onsite data monitoring in a Software-as-a-Service mode. Storage Insights simplifies storage management and utilizes the power of analytics to increase disk utilization, reclaim unused capacity and optimize the placement of data on different disk tiers.
IBM Accelerate Spectrum
IBM Accelerate Spectrum™ is a Software Defined Storage solution- following the offer of integrated XIV® storage - to accelerate the delivery of data across the organization and adding extreme flexibility for cloud deployments. IBM announced the availability of Spectrum Accelerate as a Softlayer service.
My Favorite Conferences
Participants were spoiled with the choice of 900 technical sessions, covering a full range of solutions, customer case studies and best practices, virtual laboratories and on site certification tests.
Also there was an exhibition area that welcomed many IBM partners and sponsors of the event including Brocade and Cisco.
As for me, I particularly enjoyed the 3 conferences by Barry White on optimizing storage performance, and that of Axel Koester on 3-Site Data Mobility vs Enhanced Stretched Cluster with a perspective on the upcoming release of IBM Virtualize Software Spectrum V7.5.0.
To Keep in Mind
1. In the context of the 3rd platform in the IDC sense of the term, the range of IBM solutions united under the Spectrum umbrella responds effectively to the current and future needs of companies.
2. The transition of infrastructures based on hardware to those based on software is the key to providing the agility necessary for the development of enterprises.
3. The recent rapprochement, at IBM, of storage systems and the software related to it, under one entity is evidence of this shift.
4. What happens in Vegas Does not stay in Vegas.
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