IBM’s PureSystems line last week hit the 10,000th shipment. The success of IBM’s converged servers is fueled by its ability to reduce complexity, maintenance and general management. PureSystems has grown alongside one critical idea introduced by IBM in 2011, the Managed Service Providers (MSPs).
MSPs provide remote monitoring and management services to organizations helping the deploy cloud based services securely and economically. Converged systems are eating up the standalone servers market share, MSPs play a big part in the growth of the systems as we move into the future of on-premise computing.
Currently PureSystems are experiencing solid demand, counting 2,200 IBM business partners who provides remote support. PureSystems SKUs include server, storage, networking hardware, OS, management software and hypervisor. The base systems for these integrated servers can handle different compute loads: PureApplication – platform for one or more applications, PureData (Hadoop pre-installed) – supports data analysis and warehousing, PureFlex and Flex Systems – infrastructure for managed and cloud service providers. PureFlex and Flex Systems are based on the x86 architecture, the 2 products are part of IBM’s x86 sale to Lenovo.
PureFlex runs both Windows and Linux servers. Following the sale of its x86 division, IBM still retain the PureSystems branding and will be sourcing x86 systems from Lenovo. PureSystems combines both the x86 and Power architectures, with Power versions running only AIX servers.
The management software included with PureSystems machines constitute value addition to IBM’s integrated systems line, this is one of the components over which IBM retains ownership after its deal with Lenovo. The 2 companies have formed a strategic partnership which will see technology licensed in either direction. IBM continues to support PureSystems while Lenovo will take over marketing of PureFlex systems.
On its official blogpost IBM includes an extensive list of organizations who’ve deployed PowerSystems with success:
Global Clients Embrace PureSystems ABC Capital, one of the largest financial companies in Mexico, faced a difficult server consolidation project. After considering other vendors including HP, Dell and Oracle, ABC Capital chose to consolidate its entire IT infrastructure onto IBM PureFlex. “In order to become more competitive in the market, ABC Capital was looking to build an infrastructure that could support the mobile technology and social network requirements of our customers,” said Sergio Mendoza Alvarez, Director of Technology for ABC Capital. “The integration of our platforms using IBM PureFlex will allow us to meet these goals and reduce the migration time for our multi-core systems, from two years to seven months.” The flexibility and ease of deployment that PureSystems delivers has been one of the key reasons for the rapid adoption by organizations like ABC Capital in a wide variety of global regions. For example:
- FleetRisk Advisors, a business unit of Omnitracs Inc., provides advanced analytics solutions for fleet management and logistics. With a solution that includes IBM PureData System for Analytics, FleetRisk Advisors built a cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that enabled it to help reduce fleet-related accidents by 20 percent and support a 200 percent growth in the number of clients it serves.
- India’s Evalueserve.com Pvt Ltd, a leading Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) provider, which co-designs highly targeted knowledge solutions and operates global knowledge centers located in Chile, China, India, and Romania, has chosen IBM PureFlex to enable an IT infrastructure that supports a private cloud environment and virtual desktop infrastructure for nearly 2,000 users. IBM worked with its business partners Avnet EM Asia and Tech9labs on this project.
- India’s Karunya University has selected IBM PureFlex to improve online student services by more effectively processing applications, such as handling online enrolment, exam scheduling, virtual campus management, and more.
- eWell Technologies (HangZhou) Co., Ltd., an independent software vendor (ISV), needed to develop a hospital-based information integration platform for its master patient index solution. With the PureApplication System, eWell can now offer its customers a standardized platform to better monitor both inpatient hospitalization and outpatient services. eWell is partnering with IBM on Hospital2.0, a revolutionary plan to expand the Chinese healthcare industry ecosystem.
- TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings Limited, ranking among the world’s top 3 leading Television producers by revenue, has chosen an IBM PureSystems solution over Oracle EXADATA, Huawei Cloud center, EMC and Dell. The company will use PureSystems to better manage its big data challenges and gain stronger insights into their business, helping TCL streamline business processes, increase profitability and support growth and innovation.
- Fortnox, a provider of Internet-based applications in Sweden was able to reduce IT costs by as much as 50 percent, enhance service availability and flexibility, accommodate business growth and minimize staffing requirements utilizing an infrastructure built on IBM PureSystems.
- Japan’s Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd utilized IBM Flex System to develop a desktop cloud platform for the tablet PCs used by more than 700 members of the company.
