This IBM® Redbooks® publication introduces the IBM Software Defined Environment (SDE) solution, which helps to optimize the entire computing infrastructure--compute, storage, and network resources--so that it can adapt to the type of work required. In today's environment, resources are assigned manually to workloads, but that happens automatically in a SDE. In an SDE, workloads are dynamically assigned to IT resources based on application characteristics, best-available resources, and service level policies so that they deliver continuous, dynamic optimization and reconfiguration to address infrastructure issues. Underlying all of this are policy-based compliance checks and updates in a centrally managed environment. Readers get a broad introduction to the new architecture. Think integration, automation, and optimization. Those are enablers of cloud delivery and analytics. SDE can accelerate business success by matching workloads and resources so that you have a responsive, adaptive environment. With the IBM Software Defined Environment, infrastructure is fully programmable to rapidly deploy workloads on optimal resources and to instantly respond to changing business demands. This information is intended for IBM sales representatives, IBM software architects, IBM Systems Technology Group brand specialists, distributors, resellers, and anyone who is developing or implementing SDE.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication shows how to integrate IBM Software Defined Network for Virtual Environments (IBM SDN VE) seamlessly within a new or existing data center. This book is aimed at pre- and post-sales support, targeting network administrators and other technical professionals that want to get an overview of this new and exciting technology, and see how it fits into the overall vision of a truly Software Defined Environment. It shows you all of the steps that are required to design, install, maintain, and troubleshoot the IBM SDN VE product. It also highlights specific, real-world examples that showcase the power and flexibility that IBM SDN VE has over traditional solutions with a legacy network infrastructure that is applied to virtual systems. This book assumes that you have a general familiarity with networking and virtualization. It does not assume an in-depth understanding of KVM or VMware. It is written for administrators who want to get a quick start with IBM SDN VE in their respective virtualized infrastructure, and to get some virtual machines up and running by using the rich features of the product in a short amount of time (days, not week, or months).

Today, new business models in the marketplace coexist with traditional ones and their well-established IT architectures. They generate new business needs and new IT requirements that can only be satisfied by new service models and new technological approaches. These changes are reshaping traditional IT concepts. Cloud in its three main variants (Public, Hybrid, and Private) represents the major and most viable answer to those IT requirements, and software-defined infrastructure (SDI) is its major technological enabler. IBM® technology, with its rich and complete set of storage hardware and software products, supports SDI both in an open standard framework and in other vendors' environments. IBM services are able to deliver solutions to the customers with their extensive knowledge of the topic and the experiences gained in partnership with clients. This IBM RedpaperTM publication focuses on software-defined storage (SDS) and IBM Storage Systems product offerings for software-defined environments (SDEs). It also provides use case examples across various industries that cover different client needs, proposed solutions, and results. This paper can help you to understand current organizational capabilities and challenges, and to identify specific business objectives to be achieved by implementing an SDS solution in your enterprise.

Provides the fundamentals, technologies, and best practices in designing, constructing and managing mission critical, energy efficient data centers Organizations in need of high-speed connectivity and nonstop systems operations depend upon data centers for a range of deployment solutions. A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. It generally includes multiple power sources, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (e.g., air conditioning, fire suppression) and security devices. With contributions from an international list of experts, The Data Center Handbook instructs readers to: Prepare strategic plan that includes location plan, site selection, roadmap and capacity planning Design and build "green" data centers, with mission critical and energy-efficient infrastructure Apply best practices to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions Apply IT technologies such as cloud and virtualization Manage data centers in order to sustain operations with minimum costs Prepare and practice disaster reovery and business continuity plan The book imparts essential knowledge needed to implement data center design and construction, apply IT technologies, and continually improve data center operations.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication documents how IBM Platform Computing, with its IBM Platform Symphony® MapReduce framework, IBM Spectrum Scale (based Upon IBM GPFSTM), IBM Platform LSF®, the Advanced Service Controller for Platform Symphony are work together as an infrastructure to manage not just Hadoop-related offerings, but many popular industry offeringsm such as Apach Spark, Storm, MongoDB, Cassandra, and so on. It describes the different ways to run Hadoop in a big data environment, and demonstrates how IBM Platform Computing solutions, such as Platform Symphony and Platform LSF with its MapReduce Accelerator, can help performance and agility to run Hadoop on distributed workload managers offered by IBM. This information is for technical professionals (consultants, technical support staff, IT architects, and IT specialists) who are responsible for delivering cost-effective cloud services and big data solutions on IBM Power SystemsTM to help uncover insights among client's data so they can optimize product development and business results.

IBM® SmartCloud® Virtual Storage Center provides efficient virtualization and management of heterogeneous storage systems. It facilitates migration to an agile cloud architecture that can optimize storage availability and performance, while helping to reduce costs. IBM SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center (VSC) helps convert existing storage to IBM Smarter Storage, providing more room for data growth and simplified storage administration. This IBM Redbooks® publication gives an overview of the concepts of software-defined environment (SDE) and software-defined storage (SDS), and how they work together with VSC. It explores the architecture, components, and interfaces, providing details of VSC and how to use it. It also includes practical scenarios and use cases, helpful for client VSC business environments, with a focus on the following topics: Introductory concepts VSC components and available integrations Storage management component of VSC Storage virtualization component of VSC Application aware data protection component of VSC VSC storage provisioning VSC storage optimization This book is primarily for storage administrators, users who are responsible for maintaining IT and business infrastructures, and anyone who wants to learn more about IBM SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication is a refresh of IBM Technical Computing Clouds, SG24-8144, Enhance Inbound and Outbound Marketing with a Trusted Single View of the Customer, SG24-8173, and IBM Platform Computing Integration Solutions, SG24-8081, with a focus on High Performance and Technical Computing on IBM Power SystemsTM. This book describes synergies across the IBM product portfolio by using case scenarios and showing solutions such as IBM SpectrumTM Scale (formerly GPFSTM). This book also reflects and documents the IBM Platform Computing Cloud Services as part of IBM Platform Symphony® for analytics workloads and IBM Platform LSF® (with new features, such as a Hadoop connector, a MapReduce accelerator, and dynamic cluster) for job scheduling. Both products are used to help customers schedule and analyze large amounts of data for business productivity and competitive advantages. This book is targeted at technical professionals (consultants, technical support staff, IT Architects, and IT Specialists) that are responsible for delivering cost-effective cloud services and big data solutions on IBM Power Systems to uncover insights among client data so that they can take actions to optimize business results, product development, and scientific discoveries.

The IBM® Hardware Management Console (HMC) provides to systems administrators a tool for planning, deploying, and managing IBM Power SystemsTM servers. This IBM Redbooks® publication is an extension of IBM Power Systems HMC Implementation and Usage Guide, SG24-7491 and also merges updated information from IBM Power Systems Hardware Management Console: Version 8 Release 8.1.0 Enhancements, SG24-8232. It explains the new features of IBM Power Systems Hardware Management Console Version V8.8.1.0 through V8.8.4.0. The major functions that the HMC provides are Power Systems server hardware management and virtualization (partition) management. Further information about virtualization management is in the following publications: IBM PowerVM Virtualization Managing and Monitoring, SG24-7590 IBM PowerVM Virtualization Introduction and Configuration, SG24-7940 IBM PowerVM Enhancements What is New in 2013, SG24-8198 IBM Power Systems SR-IOV: Technical Overview and Introduction, REDP-5065 The following features of HMC V8.8.1.0 through HMC V8.8.4.0 are described in this book: HMC V8.8.1.0 enhancements HMC V8.8.4.0 enhancements System and Partition Templates HMC and IBM PowerVM® Simplification Enhancement Manage Partition Enhancement Performance and Capacity Monitoring HMC V8.8.4.0 upgrade changes

This resource introduces the IBM Software Defined Environment (SDE) solution, which helps to optimize the entire computing infrastructure--compute, storage, and network resources--so that it can adapt to the type of work required. In an SDE, workloads are dynamically assigned to IT resources based on application characteristics, best-available resources, and service level policies so that they deliver continuous, dynamic optimization and reconfiguration to address infrastructure issues. Underlying all of this are policy-based compliance checks and updates in a centrally managed environment. SDE can accelerate business success by matching workloads and resources so that you have a responsive, adaptive environment. --

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication takes you on a journey that surveys cloud computing to answer several fundamental questions about storage cloud technology. What are storage clouds? How can a storage cloud help solve your current and future data storage business requirements? What can IBM do to help you implement a storage cloud solution that addresses these needs? This paper shows how IBM storage clouds use the extensive cloud computing experience, services, proven technologies, and products of IBM to support a smart storage cloud solution designed for your storage optimization efforts. Clients face many common storage challenges and some have variations that make them unique. It describes various successful client storage cloud implementations and the options that are available to meet your current needs and position you to avoid storage issues in the future. IBM CloudTM Services (IBM Cloud Managed Services® and IBM SoftLayer®) are highlighted as well as the contributions of IBM to OpenStack cloud storage. This paper is intended for anyone who wants to learn about storage clouds and how IBM addresses data storage challenges with smart storage cloud solutions. It is suitable for IBM clients, storage solution integrators, and IBM specialist sales representatives.