IBM Cloud Private Aims to Bridge Public Cloud and Legacy IT Infrastructure

To connect Public Cloud with traditional IT environments, IBM on Wednesday unveiled the "IBM Cloud Private" software platform that will help companies unlock technology investment in core data and applications and extend cloud-native tools across Public and Private Clouds.

The new platform facilitates integration and portability of workloads on any Cloud environment, including the Public IBM Cloud.

"With IBM Cloud Private, customer can taking advantage of the control and security of their on-premises system with the freedom to connect or move resources to public Clouds in the future," said Vikas Arora, Country Manager, Cloud Business, IBM India and South Asia, in a statement.

"IBM Cloud Private brings rapid application development and modernisation to existing IT infrastructure and positions it to be combined with the services and experience of a Public Cloud platform," he added.

IBM also announced new container-optimised versions of core enterprise software which are widely used to run and help secure the world's most business-critical applications and data.

This makes it easier to share data and evolve applications as needed across IBM Cloud private and Public Clouds and other Cloud environments with a consistent experience.

Containers make software to run reliably when moved from one computing environment to another.

The innovations used in IBM Cloud Private help companies streamline management across cloud environments to help launch, monitor and manage services and help ensure consistent security protocols.

The 'Security Vulnerability Advisor' scans containers across the cloud to surface potentially serious issues and weaknesses.

The innovations are compatible with systems from leading manufacturers, including Cisco, Dell EMC, Intel, Lenovo, and NetApp.

IBM also offers cloud deployment, management, brokerage and storage services to help clients manage multiple clouds and can help clients with migration of applications to IBM Cloud Private.

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), global IT investment in Private Cloud is expected to accelerate and reach $24 billion (roughly Rs. 1,55,143 crores) annually by 2021 - a nearly 70 percent increase from 2016 levels.

The majority of the investments in Private Cloud will be for on-premises systems, IDC said in its recent report.

Additionally, IBM Cloud Private will help customers across all industries modernise their internal systems and take advantage of their investments in this system.

In India, IBM Cloud Private is important for companies in industries such as healthcare and finance where they need to control core data and workloads for security, compliance and availability requirements, the company said.