So time to dissect the press release in our customary style (it can be found here):
ARMONK, N.Y. - 18 Nov 2016: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced several cloud data services and features on Bluemix designed to help organizations accelerate the migration of their data to the cloud and more easily generate business insights.MyPOV – Data is the true sticky factor in all IT. True on premises and true for cloud. Moving it from on premises to cloud (and later between clouds) is a key success factor for all IaaS and PaaS players.
Organizations look to the cloud as a powerful engine to collect and interpret vast amounts of data. However, many are struggling to move their already existing datasets to the cloud, as well as retain control of where they reside and how they are accessed. Without the right tools in place, the problem will only get worse as the amount of data continues to grow. According to […], the amount of high-value data worth analyzing will double by 2020, and much of this data will be in the form of complex, unstructured information.MyPOV – The unpredictability of the data grown couple with the inability to size the deployments is what is attractive for enterprise to move to IaaS.
Now available on Bluemix, IBM Decision Optimization, Bluemix Lift and dashDB for Transactions can help organizations overcome this challenge and make more informed business decisions by enabling them to more easily aggregate, ingest and analyze expanding workloads.
“Cloud is the platform that enables cognitive intelligence,” said John Murphy, Vice President, IBM Watson Data Platform. “We’re continuing to grow our catalog of cloud data services on Bluemix so that we can help developers and data scientists better manage and more quickly interpret data for business innovation.
MyPOV – Ok – the cat is out of the bag – we know what this press release is about – three new capabilities coming to Bluemix, and a good quote from Murphy.
The services include: IBM Decision Optimization on Cloud (including the CPLEX engines) is now in beta on Bluemix. It can ingest large amounts of data including predictions, master and transactional data, business goals, and business rules to prioritize and rank business decisions such as plans and schedules. Applicable across all industries, including manufacturing, utilities, finance and retail, this powerful tool offers the ability to trade-off conflicting business goals while balancing resource limitations to make more informed decisions. This offering includes the CPLEX Optimizer Engines and can run as a standalone, embedded in applications using a Rest API, or be used in Jupyter Notebooks within IBM's Data Science Experience.MyPOV – Data Scientists and developers experienced with CPLEX will rejoice. The proven C library (yes it has C#, Java and Python options, too) is a prime example how assets from the traditional on premises world can create value in the cloud. Python will get particular interest a the language of choince for many data scientists.
For example, consider a major clothing retailer in need of restocking its winter coat supply. Local warehouses might be very low in stock, and shipping and transferring supplies from international locations could incur costly fees. Using Decision Optimization, a retail planner could automatically get recommendations and choose the most cost-effective replenishment plan, considering all possible suppliers, warehouses, shipping lanes, and costs, without having to do a potentially time-consuming manual "what-if" analysis or manual comparison of options.MyPOV – Always good to see a showcase in a press release. The mostly linear programming usage of CPLEX makes it easier to move to cloud, as only the platform changes not the algorithm.. and enterprises like it when not too many things get changed at the same time… they have a business to run.
IBM Bluemix Lift is a data migration tool to quickly, securely and reliably migrate databases from existing on-premises data centers to IBM Bluemix and IBM Watson Data Platform. Bluemix Lift encrypts data being transferred, helping to securely move it at a rate of up to ten times faster than traditional offerings. The technology is also designed to minimize downtime, so that applications using the source database can run uninterrupted during migration. In addition, Lift has been designed to be highly reliable, enabling data transfers to keep flowing even during a connectivity loss.MyPOV – To run analytics in the cloud – you need to get the data there… good to see a Bluemix service that scales, is secure etc. Key services to get adoption of Bluemix.
IBM dashDB for Transactions is a fully managed SQL database service on IBM Bluemix, optimized for transactional and web workloads to help developers fuel cloud-based applications. It offers high availability on selected plans, as well as pay-per-use units. It is part of IBM’s dashDB portfolio, offering a workload-optimized database environment designed to meet both the data warehousing and transactional needs of applications.
To get started with these services, visit the Bluemix Developers Catalog for IBM Bluemix Lift,Decision Optimization, and dashDB for Transactions.
MyPOV – A lot of the relevant load for enterprises remains in SQL databases… and transferring from on premises production to in the cloud analysis is slow and expensive. So vendors need to convince enterprises that they can run production SQL loads in the cloud, and therefore dashDB for Transaction is important for IBM.
Bluemix, IBM's Cloud platform, has grown rapidly to become one of the largest open, public cloud deployments in the world. Based in open standards, it features over 150 advanced technologies and services, including 35 cloud data services and a roster of others spanning categories of cognitive computing, blockchain, Internet of Things, DevOps and security.
MyPOV – Good summary of the Bluemix progress. Customer count / active deployments would be good to see here, too.
Overall MyPOV
The race for cloud load is in full swing and PaaS is a key offering for vendors to get enterprises on their respective cloud infrastructures. Coupled with the need of building their own applications to take advantage of the new best practices in the 21st century, PaaS is likely to make a difference which cloud / IaaS to choose. But at the end of the day it is all about the data, that comes from production systems. Making it easier to transfer the data, analyze the data and monitor it once in the cloud is key – and IBM has made three key steps with the offerings of this press release – IBM Decision Optimization, IBM Bluemix Lift and IBM dashDB for Transactions.On the concern side, IBM has now show traction with enterprises to use these new services. Being able to leverage existing, proven and trusted algorithms with CPLEX (all the way to pre ILOG days) is an asset – as it takes concerns and costs out of the move to cloud. And to be fair – every new offering needs its first customers.
For now, good move by IBM to make Bluemix and IBM Cloud more attractive to enterprises.
More on IBM:
- Event Report - IBM World of Watson - IBM's bets its future on Watson - read here
- Progress Report - IBM Alliances Insights - Deep Plans, now it is execution time - read here - read here
- News Analysis - Workday, IBM Form Strategic Partnership on the IBM Cloud - The IaaS vendor race for SaaS load is on - read here
- News Analysis - IBM Boosts Support to OpenStack's RefStack... first serious attempt to make OpenStack interoperability real - read here
- Event Report - IBM Interconnect - IBM innovates and partners into the hybrid cloud era - read here
- News Analysis - IBM and VMware announce partnership to accelerate enterprise hybrid cloud adoption >> Looking promising - read here
- Event Preview - IBM Interconnect 2016 - read here
- Site Visit - IBM Design Studio Austin - read here
- MarketMoves - IBM strikes 3x in Fall - Cleversafe, The Weather Company and Gravitant - read here
- News Analysis - IBM launches Industry's First Consulting Practice Dedicated to Cognitive Business - a good move it's early times - read more
- News Analysis - IBM plans to acquire Cleversafe to propel Object Storage into the Hybrid Cloud >> a good move. Read here
Market Move - IBM acquires StrongLoop - nodejs comes to BlueMix - read here - News Analysis - IBM and ARM Collaborate to Accelerate Delivery of Internet of Things - The IBM NextGenApps Stack emerges - read here
- Progress Report - IBM Cloud makes good progress - but needs to attract more load - read here
- Market Move - IBM gets into private cloud (services) with Blue Box acqusition - read here
- Event Report - IBM InterConnect - IBM makes bets for the hybrid cloud - read here
- First Take - IBM InterConnect Day #1 Keynote - BlueMix, SoftLayer and Watson - read here
- News Analysis - IBM had a very good year in the cloud - 2015 will be key - read here
- Event Report - IBM Insight 2014 - Is it all coming together for IBM in 2015? Or not?
- First Take - Top 3 Takeaways from IBM Insight Day 1 Keynote - read here
- IBM and SAP partner for cloud - good move - read here
- Event Report - IBM Enterprise - A lot of value for existing customers, but can IBM attract net new customers? Read here
- Progress Report - The Mainframe is alive and kicking - but there is more in IBM STG - read here
- News Analysis - IBM and Intel partner to make the cloud more secure - read here
- Progress Report - IBM BigData an Analytics have a lot of potential - time to show it - read here
- Event Report - What a difference a year makes - and off to a good start - read here
- First Take - 3 Key Takeaways from IBM's Impact Conference - Day 1 Keynote - read here
- Another week and another Billion - this week it's a BlueMix Paas - read here
- First take - IBM makes Connection - introduces the TalentSuite at IBM Connect - read here
- IBM kicks of cloud data center race in 2014 - read here
- First Take - IBM Software Group's Analyst Insights - read here
- Are we witnessing one of the largest cloud moves - so far? Read here
- Why IBM acquired Softlayer - read here