This IBM® RedpaperTM publication provides a brief overview of cloud technology, and describes how, from a user perspective, IBM SmartCloudTM Entry can help you access the benefits of the cloud. In particular, the product provides a comprehensive cloud software stack with capabilities that you otherwise might need to purchase separately as multiple products from multiple vendors. Businesses with an existing virtualized platform (IBM Power SystemsTM with PowerVM® or IBM System x with VMware vSphere) can be transformed to a private cloud. IBM SmartCloud Entry makes this transformation possible. IBM SmartCloud Entry integrates with the IBM PureFlexTM System, so that clients with PureFlex System can also experience easier cloud-ready deployments. IBM SmartCloud Entry adds a self-service, user portal, and basic metering to your existing virtualized platform. Overall, IBM SmartCloud Entry delivers improved service levels and fast time-to-value results for receiving the benefits of a private cloud infrastructure. The four use cases demonstrate how easily IBM SmartCloud Entry can be deployed and the possibilities for improved efficiencies in your organization. The cases demonstrate cloud deployment in PureFlex, VMware, Power Systems and x86 environments, and a telecom company. Also described are two IBM SmartCloud Entry processes, showing the ease of provisioning and installing with this product. This paper is directed at decision-makers, such as CFOs, CIOs, CEOs, IT managers, systems administrators, enterprise architects, systems architects, and IBM Business Partners. Presales and post-sales technical staff can benefit from discussing this paper with clients and potential clients.

Distributed computing has been transformed with the introduction of virtualization technology. This has driven a re-architecture of traditional data center workload placement. In 2012, IBM® announced IBM PureSystemsTM, a new offering based on preconfigured software, servers, and storage that form an expert integrated system. Expert integrated systems now combine traditional IT resources into a single optimized solution, with prepackaged components including servers, storage devices, networking equipment, and software. With this evolution of technology, we move from discrete, siloed, and underutilized IT resources to shared resource pools. This IBM Redbooks® publication can help you install, tailor, and configure IBM SmartCloud® Entry on the IBM PureFlexTM System offering. This book is intended for anyone who wants to learn more about cloud computing with IBM SmartCloud Entry and offerings based on IBM Flex SystemTM elements.

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication describes our newest product for helping businesses enter the world of cloud technology: IBM SmartCloud® Entry, Version 3.1. This software includes the IBM Common Cloud Stack, which is powered by open source OpenStack from the OpenStack Foundation. These products work together to help you move your business to the cloud. This paper explains the ways that you can take advantage of this extensive and powerful technology. With the power of cloud computing, you can enhance your existing services, extend your market reach, and create new markets for your services. IBM SmartCloud Entry V3.1 is easy to use, even for first-time cloud service users. It can enable you to benefit from cloud technology in less time and with less effort than you might think. This Redpaper features two scenarios that demonstrate the ease of carrying out processes with IBM SmartCloud Entry software. The information is directed to two primary audiences. Chapter 1 is directed mainly to decision-makers, such as CEOs, CIOs, and CFOs, who need to know about cloud technology and the power that it offers. The remainder of the paper is directed to IT professionals, such as information architects, business intelligence administrators, and database administrators, who need to know about the functions and capabilities of SmartCloud Entry and Common Cloud Stack.

SmartCloud Control Desk is a comprehensive IT Asset and Service Management solution that helps reduce cost and minimize service disruptions. It does so through automated service request handling, efficient change management, and optimized asset lifecycle management across IT and enterprise domains. SmartCloud Control Desk helps to reduce total cost of ownership by using one unified solution to license, install, and manage multiple ITIL processes under one price point. It can also help reduce business risk by using advanced impact analysis and defining automated change procedures that ensure integrity of existing infrastructure while supporting business agility. SmartCloud Control Desk improves efficiency and quality of service by unifying asset, change, and problem management. It lowers cost and mitigates license compliance risk by performing end to end software asset management. It also delivers an adaptive, role-based simplified UI that can be more intuitive for novice users, which reduces training costs, while allowing access from anywhere at anytime through mobile device support that includes BlackBerry, iOS, and Android. In addition, SmartCloud Control Desk supports both a profit center business model for internal IT organizations, and an external Service Provider model. It allows organizations to manage customers and customer agreements and bills for managed assets, usage, and work activities while improving utilization rates and reducing unnecessary purchases by managing the IT asset lifecycle. You can deploy SmartCloud Control Desk in a variety of ways; traditional on-premise, SaaS, VM image. This approach can make it more affordable to meet your current business needs, and seamlessly move between delivery models while keeping the same functionality. This IBM® Redbooks® publication covers IBM SmartCloud® Control Desk product configuration, customization, and implementation best practices.

Organizations are looking for ways to get more out of their already strained IT infrastructure as they face new technological and economic pressures. They are also trying to satisfy a broad set of users (internal and external to the enterprise) who demand improvements in their quality of service (QoS), regardless of increases in the number of users and applications. Cloud computing offers attractive opportunities to reduce costs, accelerate development, and increase the flexibility of the IT infrastructure, applications, and services. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is the typical starting point for most organizations when moving to a cloud computing environment. IaaS can be used for the delivery of resources such as compute, storage, and network services through a self-service portal. With IaaS, IT services are delivered as a subscription service, eliminating up-front costs and driving down ongoing support costs. IBM® has defined the Cloud Computing Reference Architecture (CCRA) based on years of experience of working with customers who have implemented cloud-computing solutions. The IBM CCRA is a blueprint or guide for architecting cloud-computing implementations. This IBM RedguideTM publication highlights the Cloud Enabled Data Center adoption pattern and describes how you can use it to define an IaaS solution. This guide is intended for chief technology officers, data center architects, IT architects, and application architects who want to understand the cloud-computing infrastructure necessary to support their applications and services by using an IaaS solution. It explains the technical and business benefits of a Cloud Enabled Data Center solution. It introduces a Cloud Enabled Data Center maturity model where each maturity level corresponds to an increase in the degree of automation and the cloud-computing capabilities that are available. In addition, this guide describes the architectural framework provided by the IBM CCRA and explains details about the Cloud Enabled Data Center adoption pattern.

Cloud computing opens a broad range of business opportunities across the computing industry and enables companies in other industries to provide services to their employees, customers, and partners. Cloud computing provides a compelling approach to addressing this opportunity. The IBM® SmartCloudTM for Service Providers portfolio can dramatically lower the business and technical barriers of entry to cloud computing. Companies rely on their business applications and systems as an integral part of their business. They can expand the business value of their applications and systems by using cloud computing to enable delivery of these functions as services. Companies have various options when adopting cloud computing. They can: Use existing service providers to operate services on their behalf. Implement hybrid solutions that extend existing applications through integration with cloud services. Add cloud service hosting capability to their existing facilities. For ecosystem partners, cloud computing provides compelling capabilities that ease deployment and long term management and maintenance. Equally important, cloud computing facilitates a more flexible business and technical environment. This environment can expand, contract, and adapt as services are added, removed, and evolve. The cloud replaces physical activity associated with change and change management by creating a fluid environment that adapts through automation. This IBM RedguideTM publication describes the business and technology choices companies make when entering the cloud service provider space. It introduces various cloud service provider business models and shows how to apply them to your business. This guide introduces the IBM CCRA cloud service provider adoption pattern, providing guidance about the definition, architecture, and deployment of cloud computing environments. Two cloud service provider deployment scenarios are highlighted throughout the guide, and they reflect the two most common starting points for service providers entering the cloud computing marketplace. The guide culminates with details about these deployment scenarios, and showing how they can be deployed today.

IBM® Workload Deployer provides a solution to creating, deploying, and managing workloads in an on-premise or private cloud. It is rich in features that allow you to quickly build and deploy virtual systems from base images, to extend those images, and to customize them for future use as repeatable deployable units. IBM Workload Deployer also provides an application-centric capability enabling rapid deployment of business applications. By using either of these deployment models, an organization can quickly instantiate a complete application platform for development, test, or production. The IBM Workload Deployer uses the concept of patterns to describe the logical configuration of both the physical and virtual assets that comprise a particular solution. The use of patterns allows an organization to construct a deployable solution one time, and then dispense the final product on demand. patterns are composed of an operating system and IBM software solutions, such as IBM WebSphere® Application Server and IBM WebSphere Virtual Enterprise. patterns are constructed to support a single application workload. The IBM Workload Deployer is shipped with a set of pre-loaded virtual images and virtual patterns. These images and patterns can be used to create comprehensive and flexible middleware solutions. They can also be cloned and customized to suit your specific needs. This IBM Redbooks® publication looks at two different aspects of customizing virtual systems for deployment into the cloud. First, it explores the capabilities of IBM Image Construction and Composition Tool to build and provide highly customized virtual images for use in virtual system patterns on the IBM Workload Deployer. Next, it looks at the virtual application capabilities of the IBM Workload Deployer, including those capabilities that allow you to deploy enterprise applications and database services to the cloud. It also introduces the IBM Workload Deployer Plugin Development Kit, which allows you to further extend the capabilities of the virtual application patterns.