IBM Lays Out Cloud Best Practices, Intros New Platform

Techies across the globe recently gathered at IBM Interconnect 2017. After the famous cloud event, the vendor posted this year’s trends on their blog. Let’s take a look at what they are seeing in the hybrid cloud management space.

Many are seeing that the value of the cloud is not just in cutting costs, but it also has worth when it comes to innovation. Unlocking more value when it comes to the cloud is a key trend for 2017, according to IBM. And the tech giant says one way to “bring together value from across the business.”

That kind of approach utilizes investments while also “extending the reach of business right into the hand of their customers.”

Enterprises are also able to change internal data with external insights derived from social media platforms, Internet of Things, and even weather forecasts, which allows for a better experience for the user.

Plus, a move to the cloud often means the re-creation of business processes and plans.

A cloud strategy is vital and could have the largest impact on success. IBM suggests asking the following questions:

• Is the strategy centered solely on scalable infrastructure?
• Is it adaptable to your business model and investment levels?
• Does it deliver higher-value business applications and industry functions?
• Will it enable game-changing business models equipped with blockchain, cognitive services and new data insights to optimize customer experiences?

“Companies want to select the best of their capabilities and combine it with the latest of what’s available externally from vendors, partners and communities,” IBM reported. “That’s a critical benefit of using the cloud.”

If your organization has a public cloud, it offers a value from third parties and easy adoption of new services, IBM reported. Whereas private clouds provide inside-out value that allows them to get and analyze customer data.

Combining the two means businesses have an advantage and are driven to decisions more rapidly. IBM says this is why “multicloud environments are rapidly becoming the new norm for the enterprise.”

The tech giant also recently released IBM Cloud Automation Manager, a purpose-built, cloud-agnositc, multicloud management platform. The vendor created the solution along with customers in order to offer what was really needed in the enterprise.

“With Cloud Automation Manager, you can rapidly automate provisioning of cloud applications and resources on any cloud, while leveraging cognitive insights to manage your multicloud environment with ease,” according to the vendor.

The new platform contains pre-built automation packs spanning infrastructure to full stack apps. It aims to aid businesses in optimizing workload replacement without loss of control. It meshes flexibility, control, speed and intelligence so IT pros can automate workflows across multiple clouds.

Click here for more.