IBM Bolsters Cloud Portfolio

Singapore - 09 Oct 2013: Building on its $2 billion acquisition of SoftLayer, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a series of new offerings that fuse together high value cloud and analytics capabilities to further help clients drive business transformation and growth.

IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor's position within a given market. The Capabilities score measures vendor product, go-to-market and business execution in the short-term. The Strategy score measures alignment of vendor strategies with customer requirements in a 3-5-year timeframe. Vendor market share is represented by the size of the circles. (Credit: IDC)

As part of this expansion, IBM is announcing new social business and mobile offerings for its 100+ software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution portfolio, integrated cloud capabilities with SoftLayer assets and new expert integrated systems for hybrid cloud computing environments.

With todays news, IBM is also announcing a series of global clients that are turning to IBMs cloud capabilities as a transformative growth engine in their industry. These include Surfline Communications, a telecommunications provider in Ghana; and TienPhong Commercial Joint Stock Bank, one of the leading financial institutions in Vietnam.

In the new era of computing, the opportunity for cloud is growing exponentially. In fact, 60 percent of all enterprises are predicted to adopt some form of cloud computing this year, according to Gartner Research. In addition, GigaOm Research forecast $158 billion in global cloud computing investment by 2014.

SoftLayer Infrastructure as the Foundation of IBM Cloud Portfolio

Since its recent acquisition, SoftLayer has already added 1,600 new clients to its existing roster of 21,000 clients in 140 countries. SoftLayer infrastructure will be the foundation of IBMs cloud portfolio.

IBM is beginning to shift its cloud portfolio to SoftLayer infrastructure -- first among many of these shifts includes the IBM Social Learning platform, a first of its kind social enablement platform that is part of its Smarter Workforce portfolio and is already in use under the name OpenPediatrics at Boston Childrens Hospital with 420 hospitals in 78 countries on six continents.

Today, IBM is announcing that is it commercializing the IBM Social Learning platform on SoftLayer technology to apply it across a variety of industries, such as retail, energy and utilities, government, healthcare and automotive. Now this unique combination of SoftLayer assets and IBMs cloud capabilities, built on open standards, is able to offer organizations the ability to share knowledge and expertise through real-time videos via a hybrid cloud computing environment. For example, doctors at Boston Children's Hospital can share training videos with clinicians halfway across the globe to demonstrate the latest life-saving techniques in child care. Planned to be available in December 2013, this new platform will be delivered as a service to clients.

Additionally, IBMs recent acquisition of Xtify, a leading provider of cloud-based mobile messaging tools that help organizations improve mobile sales, drive in-store traffic and engage customers with personalized offers, will also run on SoftLayer technology in the future.

"We believe cloud is going to be a transformational engine that is driving growth for our customers, said Dennis Quan, Vice President, IBM Cloud Infrastructure Services. IBM. With today's latest offerings, IBM is continuing to move its cloud strategy forward by helping put the tools for business innovation directly in the hands of leaders tasked with reshaping their organization's vision.

SaaS Innovations for Social Engagement, Mobile Crowd-Sourcing and Retail Merchandising

Building on more than 100 SaaS applications delivered to clients today, IBMs new SaaS offerings being rolled out today are customized to meet the specific needs of lines of business leaders such as Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs), Chief Human Resource Officers (CHRO) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) spanning all industries.

Adding to its Smarter Workforce portfolio, IBM today is also launching the new IBM Mobile Feedback App, a cloud-based mobile application that allows human resources professionals and line of business executives such as sales, marketing or research to quickly plug into the opinions and ideas of employees. Executives can use this feedback to make informed decisions on productivity, retention rates, and employee engagement.

Available now, a new IBM Survey Analytics application uses text and visual analytics to automatically extract and display over one million pieces of anonymous unstructured data derived from employee surveys, including more than 4.2 million employee comments collected annually through surveys conducted by Kenexa. It then provides findings via a sentiment "heat map" of trends broken down by employee segments, which allows executives to tap into the pulse of their organization to improve performance and morale.

In addition to the new software and services, IBM also recently announced the availability of IBM SmartCloud for Social Business on SoftLayer's industry leading infrastructure in a new Amsterdam data center. Today more than 9,000 cloud clients, including Sika AG and SafeGuard World International, and 75 percent of the Fortune 100 are transforming their business operations with IBM enterprise social software.

New additions to IBMs retail merchandising cloud include a new capability to help multi-channel and pure play retailers increase sales and profitability, while

LINK:	http://www-03.ibm.com/press/uk/en/pressrelease/42159.wss...
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