Managed-Cloud Services Nirvana

Since their 2013 acquisition of SoftLayer, IBM has evolved into a cloud powerhouse, offering a plethora of services from bare metal to fully managed and hosted environments.  So, it shouldn’t be a great surprise that IBM Cloud was tapped to be one of the initial launch partners for VMware Cloud Verified. Recently, we spoke to Zane Adam, VP IBM Cloud, about what IBM brings to the program.

Adam sees three major types of VMware-rich cloud engagements at IBM Cloud: First, those who want an unmanaged cloud where the user is responsible for the SLAs top-to-bottom; Second, users who want a higher SLA and therefore opt for platform managed services like patch management and backup; and third, users who demand end-to-end workload management from provisioning to managing the day to day lifecycle.

“There are also users looking for help with their digital transformation”, says Adam. “Once their VMware workloads are in the IBM Cloud it is straightforward to integrate IBM cloud-native services like Watson, IBM Cloud Container Service, Spark, and more to modernize and transform their code without the need to rewrite everything”, he adds.

For many organizations, IBM’s breadth of offerings – including services, solutions, and locations – make them the clear choice as a cloud partner. IBM Cloud has a large footprint of nearly 60 data centers worldwide, and users can choose to deploy in geographies with a particular compliance goal in mind, for example choosing a European location to help ensure their GDPR profile is in line with local demands.

What does the combination of VMware and the IBM Cloud bring to enterprise customers? “Enterprises use a gamut of technologies, and most already have relationships with both IBM and VMware”, says Adam. “Combined, we give them a choice of working with software they have already invested in for skills, tooling, scripting and more, and vendors that they have faith in. Our mutual customers go through a journey of transformation that will only accelerate as more VMware workloads are on the IBM Cloud”, he adds.

It is perhaps IBM’s vast portfolio of business solutions, services, and skilled professionals with years of VMware experience that will attract enterprises looking for a cloud home for the VMware workloads. Adam points to business continuity and disaster recovery as a major cloud driver today.

“IBM Cloud separates itself from other cloud providers by automating and building services practices for industry leading business continuity and disaster recovery solutions like VMware, Zerto, Veeam, and Spectrum Protect for complete peace of mind”, he adds.

Adam shared a large list of cloud-native services that the IBM Cloud offers, that includes computing, networking, storage, mobility, Watson AI, IoT, data analytics, security, DevOps and integration services to name a few. “It’s a full-stack platform for cloud native applications”, says Adam.

Becoming a Cloud Verified partner was a no-brainer for IBM. “This is important to our customers who have a big installed VMware base. When they’re looking for a cloud, and they have VMware workloads, we want to have a solution for them that brings their data and workloads into the IBM Cloud, and allows them to access new options as well”, he adds.

Read more about the VMware-IBM relationship.