New markets drive smart computing ready

2012 was a new year for IBM Systems and Technology. In the first half of the year, the industry welcomed PureSystems, a new product line category. In December, it also launched a new technology computing product line based on the acquisition of Platform Computing. This is the year in which the IBM hardware division has squared the PC business and integrated the iSeries and Power series servers.

In addition, in the existing mainframes, minicomputers, storage and other product lines, IBM has continuously introduced heavyweight newer and newer products, and focused its smart computing strategy on three areas: cloud-ready, data-ready, and security-ready. The three directions of future product development of the Department of Systems and Technology. New markets drive smart computing ready.

What are the major changes in these series of products in the end? What are the key development priorities for the IBM Technology and Systems Group in the future? How does IBM view the Chinese market and what will be the next year's strategy for the Chinese market? China Computer News Editor-in-Chief Li Shuxi and IBM recently Jim Stallings, general manager of the global market for the Ministry of Science and Technology, conducted a one-on-one exchange on the above topics.

New drive new product Li Shukai: I'm very glad that we met again. Last year we had a one-to-one exchange opportunity. The main topic discussed at that time was IBM's combination of software and hardware strategies and measures. Looking back on this year, the IBM Systems and Technology Department did bring many surprises to the industry. For example, in the first half of this year, PureSystems, a new product category, was introduced. Recently, a technical computing product line was introduced. What exactly does such a centralized product line adjustment mean?

Jim Stallings: A year ago we shared our views on the development of the IT market and technology. I still remember that at that time, IBM believed that there were two major driving factors in the future market: First, cloud computing, users began to accept cloud computing, and developed a new business model based on cloud computing. The second is the change in the system architecture itself. For example, in the case of enterprise-class systems, completely different design methods have emerged. In the past, most users purchased their own components such as servers, storage, and networking to integrate. Now, manufacturers or developers can design in accordance with these needs in the factory, and they can do pre-installation and pre-test work before they leave the factory. The user's application brings great convenience.

IBM has made great progress in this year. First of all, we are a global leader in the field of cloud computing, with market revenues reaching US$7 billion. Second, from the perspective of system architecture innovation, IBM introduced the new system PureSystems, the expert integration system, in the first half of this year, and caused a strong reaction among users.

Shushu Li: Indeed, PureSystems is an innovative combination of hardware and software products. In October of this year, I also participated in PureData's launch event in Singapore. What are the differences between the target customers of these series of products? What are the future developments of the PureSystems products and what are their uses? What is the future course of development?

Jim Stallings: I'm very glad that you can participate in the October event. PureSystems is a brand new product family and IBM will develop new PureSystems members based on specific market needs. For example, there are a lot of customers with Blade Center BladeCenter, we will upgrade them for backup in PureSystems system, PureFlex is developed for this demand. We see that there are many operating systems in the user's actual application environment, such as Windows, Linux systems, etc. If they want to integrate all operating systems into a unified operating platform, PureFlex can also be implemented.

At the same time, we are developing a PureSystems system with a cloud-ready approach to provide users with a cloud platform that includes storage technologies and virtualization technologies, both storage nodes, Unix compute nodes, and x86 compute nodes. In addition, PureData also belongs to a new member of PureSystems, providing a single view of the enterprise, helping users to gain insight into all data. PureData also has a Flex system architecture that can be optimized for some relevant data.

Li Shuyi: PureSystems is an innovative product in addition to its system architecture. Its introduction will bring new changes to the user's procurement model. After half a year's promotion, what is the level of user acceptance and what unique value does PureSystems bring to their partners?

Jim Stallings: It can be said that the past six months have been full of surprises for six months. Faced with such advanced products, including our users, business partners, and even IBM's own sales staff must continue to familiarize and understand. It can be said that this is a revolutionary technology product, because this is the first time in history that enterprise-level customers no longer need to build their own back-end systems. IBM has designed, built and tuned the user's environment in the factory. PureSystems will be able to meet specific needs in the future. I stress again that this is revolutionary. In the past, customers had to set up their own teams, conduct different parts of the procurement according to different requirements, and then carry out assembly, testing, and tuning in order to truly operate in the production environment. Usually, this process takes at least six months. With PureSystems, users don't need to be so long. The whole process can be calculated on a daily basis, even on an hourly basis.

This means that the biggest benefit to users is that they save a lot of time because modern social business opportunities are fleeting and IT needs to be deployed quickly to capture business opportunities. In the past, users took six months to purchase, assemble, and test, and the time for delay was a pity. Six months could better focus on improving customer relationships, developing new applications, and conducting new marketing activities. So PureSystems is an innovative approach and the benefits to users are obvious.

In addition, PureSystems also brings many benefits to business partners. These business partners can use it as a cloud-ready solution that can target all departments in a large company or SMEs. And the PureSystems storage capabilities, network capabilities, and virtualization capabilities are all open and ready for use. Our competitive business partners can also provide bundled services. However, when users purchase, they still need to purchase one by one. Although individual vendors also require customers to assemble and test. IBM is able to complete all the test optimization in the factory, the customer to do is one thing - start-up, which is different from IBM and other vendors.

Shushu Li: If you compare PureSystems to a PC, then the previous system was "downtime and bare-metal." PureSystems was configured according to customer needs, and "pre-installed" the operating system, which greatly increased the speed of deployment, but also reduced Our requirements for information workers. As an integrated platform, it can also provide new development space for partners like the App Store, and many applications can be placed on this platform.

Jim Stallings: Yes, we provide a platform that can build our own applications, including not only our own operating systems, but also: Windows, Linux, IBM storage systems, non-IBM storage systems, IBM network systems, non- IBM network systems; including IBM virtualization technology, can also use VMware, KVM, Hyper-V and other virtualization technologies. It is also worth emphasizing here that IBM does not have companies. They just lock in their own technology. The products are closed, and we are completely open. After all, the actual environment of users is heterogeneous, with different vendors. Devices, different operating systems.

New products are frequently developed by Li Shuzheng: We have noticed that IBM Systems and Technology Department has concentrated on this year, not only introducing new product lines, but also introducing a lot of new products, including the new EC12 mainframe, Mini7's Power7+ new products, and storage. DS8870 and so on. What is the direction and context of the next product development of the Ministry of Science and Technology?

Jim Stallings: The release of these products proves that the power of IBM's innovation is powerful, and our investment is huge. IBM promises to invest 6 billion U.S. dollars in R&D each year. It is precisely because of the huge R&D investment that makes IBM in many respects rank first in the world. For example, the number of patents we apply each year has ranked first in the world for 15 consecutive years. Many of our products, such as servers and storage, are in a leading position. It can be seen that our huge investment can truly translate into innovative products that have given us market first place. This model is very effective at IBM.

In 2012, all of our product portfolios were updated, not only this year, but also in the future to make new developments or enhancements. We will focus on the following aspects: First, there will be more PureSystems systems, which means that new members will be added to this product line; second, IBM will continue to invest in cloud computing and big data. It is not only software, but also new products combining software and hardware. Third, the future development of the Department of Systems and Technology will be centered on the capabilities of security, big data and cloud. These are three major areas.

Li Shuzheng: We have noticed that IBM has begun to emphasize cloud-ready, data-ready, and security-ready strategies for smart computing. Why is security-ready position in smart computing highlighted? IBM's products and technologies ensure that smart computing can be made safe and ready ?

Jim Stallings: Users are so interested in cloud computing because they need to focus on data, analysis capabilities, and applicability. They specifically emphasize the economics and efficiency of IT, and IT facilities are easier to use. But all of these have a fundamental condition that is very worthy of attention. That is, if users put important data through the cloud to other places, can they ensure the security of information. Therefore, the status of security in intelligence operations is very important.

IBM's emphasis on security is end-to-end security, encompassing both the infrastructure and end-to-end security solutions for managing the overall data information cycle. This kind of security is not only limited to the mobile phone or the software part of the computer, but also not limited to the firewall or anti-virus software, security must emphasize end-to-end, including software security solutions, involving the Internet access, network and applications , and parts of the database; emphasizing multi-site security, not security at one site; not only security protocols but also security policies; and data store security, which may be local Storage can also be offsite storage. IBM attaches great importance to security, and even set up a special security solution department, and cooperates with the R&D department to develop an end-to-end security solution for users.

It should be particularly emphasized that the IBM mainframe is not only the fastest, most scalable enterprise-class system in the world, but also the most secure enterprise-class system and the only one that meets the EAL Level 5 certification. The recently introduced EC12 host provides the cloud platform with high security. From semiconductors, microprocessors, system design, virtualization and operating systems, to compilers and Java virtual machines, and middleware, highly integrated optimizations are used. Design is an extremely safe enterprise-level solution. IBM also introduced secure and efficient data storage products. The DS8870 places special emphasis on high data compression to ensure the security of data on the cloud. Not too long ago, IBM also introduced the Power7+ server, which has built-in security functions in the Power server, making Power already safe for itself when it runs cloud-related calculations.

Long-term strategy of emerging markets Li Shuzheng: Among the global strategies of IBM, emerging markets occupy a very important position. Focusing on the Department of Systems and Technology, how do you see emerging markets? How are the strategies of emerging markets different from those of other markets? China is a fast-growing market. What are the differences between the systems and the Ministry of Science and Technology in China?

Jim Stallings: In emerging markets and so-called mature or developed markets, IBM first maintains very important consistency. When launching a new product and new technology, we have no time difference between the emerging market and the mature market.

In addition, there are two differences: First, the speed of acceptance of technology by the two markets, and second, targeted special investment for both markets. We found that in the introduction of new technologies, such as virtualization technology and PureSystems, the acceptance and adoption of emerging market users is much faster than that of mature markets. This is a surprise finding. I often travel around the world to communicate with local users and partners. I have found that emerging markets, including markets like China and Asia, have adopted cloud computing speeds, including the use of cloud services in business-critical applications, at a much faster rate than mature markets. From the speed with which the PureSystems system is adopted globally, the fastest is in China, which is very surprising.

From an investment perspective, we will invest more technology in emerging markets and intend to develop new technologies. For example, in the past three years, we have tripled our investment in China's technical talents, especially in the area of ​​system architects. In terms of resource allocation, emerging markets have more hardware resources than mature markets.

Li Shuzheng: China's informatization market mainly has the following characteristics: First, China's overall informatization foundation is relatively poor, which means that the future potential of the market will be greater; Second, China's informatization talent is relatively scarce, customers Demand for enterprise-level products that are ready to use will continue to increase. Third, China is advancing the "integration of the two worlds," the demand for informatization is very strong, informationization projects are launched rapidly, and hardware investment is still huge; Fourth, China IT The number of companies in the industry is huge, including a large number of independent software developers and system integrators who have the ability to develop applications suitable for Chinese users. According to the characteristics of China's informatization market, has IBM's Department of Systems and Technology been well-prepared? Is there a very complete strategy for the Chinese market? There is a whole set of methods for providing services to Chinese customers and a set of solutions for Chinese partners. strategy?

Jim Stallings: You said very comprehensively. IBM has always been adhering to its long-term development strategy. IBM has invested heavily in China and has established a very large local team in China. We particularly emphasize that we must turn all our business into a localized business. For the local market, IBM expects to use technology to support localized applications, including, of course, China's regional applications, as well as applications developed by Chinese local business providers. From the perspective of Chinese system integrators and independent software developers, IBM hopes to be able to run these local applications on the most advanced technology and hardware platforms. It can be seen that we will stimulate the rapid development of local businesses by optimizing local applications and integrating them into our most advanced systems.

Our technical support for users has formed such a working model: When each IBM sales representative is in direct contact with the user, there is an engineer who supports it. We particularly emphasize the role of system engineers or system architects because they can combine with the user's system architects to provide them with new technologies. We also emphasize that the solution adapts to the user's application environment and allows the customer to gain an informatization level through system engineering.

The new promotion of journalist's localization strategy, as Jim Stallings said, IBM not only invested in China, but also adopted long-term development strategies, from selling products early, building factories, setting up teams, to current talent programs, Channel cooperation. It is worth mentioning that as China's position in the IBM Systems and Technology Department becomes more and more important, new applications developed by China will become a sample of global promotion, and the new strategy adopted by China will also allow the world to follow suit, which means that In recent years, the strategy has begun to have new improvements.

For example, IBM established the China System and Technology Development Center (CSTL) in China several years ago to design, code, test, and develop information for the flagship products of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and to be responsible for all stages with IBM's worldwide laboratories. Development activity system. Last year, IBM launched the IBM Infrastructure Cloud Rapid Deployment Solution Suite, the Starter Kit for Cloud (SKC), which was developed by CSTL based on the needs of some Chinese customers for the management of cloud computing platforms and was developed by IBM's global research and development organization. Standard products released worldwide.

For another example, IBM implements the "Trendrow Plan" for Power servers, that is, packages the software of PowerLinux servers, Linux operating systems, and VAD (Value Added Reseller) partners together to form a "CAMP Box" solution to help users significantly reduce the Power platform. The cost of use and the threshold of application, this is an attempt to start the first step from China. Jim Stallings revealed that IBM Systems and Technology will double this input in 2013 in order to allow local integrators and independent software developers to optimize their applications to IBM's hardware platform, enabling localization services. New leap.