IBM Adds POWER Virtualization to SOA Strategy

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has taken technology originally developed to help customers shift IT processing resources during periods of peak activity -- such as dealing with unpredictable surges in internet traffic or processing increased levels of stock transactions -- and merged these virtualization capabilities with its service oriented architecture (SOA) offerings. An SOA is a business strategy that more closely aligns the use of information technology with the goals of the company.

Specifically, virtualization capabilities on the IBM System p servers combined with IBM middleware for SOA will allow customers to maximize existing hardware and software resources to centralize administrative tasks, streamline business processes and improve overall system performance, resulting in a more efficient organization.

These new offerings, known as the ’System p Configurations for SOA Entry Points,’ use virtualization technology in an SOA, to ensure more balanced, flexible use of resources throughout a company. IBM has identified five SOA entry points -- people, processes, information, connectivity and reuse -- based on its success helping customers achieve business results through SOA. IBM has created five corresponding entry point configurations of hardware, virtualization and software to further simplify and accelerate the creation of an SOA while making the most of a company’s existing resources.

IBM’s Advanced POWER Virtualization technology for an SOA allows a single server to be divided into multiple partitions which can each run different operating systems such as UNIX and Linux and multiple applications. It also allows processing resources to be instantaneously shifted from one partition to another when they are needed in times of peak demand to provide business flexibility. In addition, the optional High-Availability Cluster Multiprocessing (HACMP™) program can provide fail-over protection in an SOA to provide continuous availability.

“The new System p Configurations for SOA Entry Points combines the best of IBM server and virtualization technology with IBM software to make it easier to deploy new systems in an SOA,” said Ross Mauri, general manager, System p, IBM Systems and Technology Group. “This powerful combination will help customers adapt to business changes with a flexible infrastructure, reduce IT costs, increase quality of service and simplify the utilization of system resources.”

These new configurations combine selected IBM System p servers with IBM WebSphere, Tivoli and Information Management software. These tested configurations also include a detailed reference architecture for use by customers, business partners or IBM client IT architects. Based on in-depth experience and proven best practices, IBM Global Services or a qualified IBM Business Partner can help customers use these new configurations to help lower the cost and accelerate their entry to SOA.

“IBM’s SOA entry points are based on work completed with thousands of customers using SOA to solve business problems,” said Tom Rosamilia, general manager, IBM WebSphere Software. “The new System p Configurations for SOA Entry Points combines the best in IBM server and software technology to help customers start with or expand existing service oriented architectures.”

The initial five configuration family members are:


System p Configuration for SOA Entry Point - Process
System p Configuration for SOA Entry Point - People
System p Configuration for SOA Entry Point - Information
System p Configuration for SOA Entry Point - Connectivity
System p Configuration for SOA Entry Point - Reuse

Each configuration will include: reference architectures, installation, system setup, configuration guides, certification of the Software stack on System p, common integration patterns at a stack level, best practices for problem prevention at a stack level, role specific stack documentation, answers to common operational questions at a stack level and appropriate customer-use cases. The configurations will initially be available later this spring starting with System p Configurations for SOA Entry Points - Process.