IBM to provide enterprises with precise placement control of their cloud workloads

Armonk, N.Y. - 09 May 2017: IBM ( NYSE: IBM ) today announced plans to release a new virtual server offering, called Dedicated Hosts, that provides enterprises with more precise placement control over their cloud workloads. A Dedicated Host is a physical server with workload capacity entirely dedicated to a single client’s use. The introduction of this offering will enhance IBM’s existing suite of virtual server offerings and is ideal for enterprises transitioning to a public cloud environment who require exact control and visibility into where their data and workloads reside to meet compliance or security needs.

Enterprises largely want to be able to access the cost savings and speed benefits of the cloud, but 53 percent of organizations surveyed by IDG Enterprise cite concerns over where data is stored as a key challenge to implementing a cloud computing strategy^[1] . Single tenant cloud offerings such as Dedicated Hosts are designed to enable enterprises in highly regulated industries to capture the benefits of the public cloud while helping to meet complex challenges.

The introduction of Dedicated Hosts will take IBM’s current single-tenant virtual server offerings a step further by providing clients with complete control over how each of their virtual servers are provisioned on a Dedicated Host. Additionally, clients will be able to select where their Dedicated Host is located within an IBM Cloud data center. This level of control can help clients in heavily regulated industries overcome barriers to cloud adoption. For example, clients in the health care industry may require precise information on where data is stored so that they can meet their compliance standards. With Dedicated Hosts, clients will be able to provide auditors with more precise information on how and where their workloads are running.

With Dedicated Hosts, clients will benefit from three distinct features:

• Workload placement control: Clients will have maximal control over virtual server placement on physical servers and will be able to provision additional virtual servers to the same Dedicated Host over time. Clients will have the ability to specify the location of their Dedicated Host down to the pod level within an IBM Cloud data center -- pods are independent power failure domains within each data center.
• Post-Deployment Management: Some cloud workloads are dynamic in nature, which is why users should be able to migrate their workloads between hosts as required. IBM will provide post-deployment management, enabling virtual server movement between hosts after they are provisioned.
• Global Availability: Beginning in June 2017, Dedicated Hosts will be available in select IBM Cloud data centers in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. IBM’s global network includes more than 55 cloud data centers in 19 countries across six continents.

“Enterprises turn to IBM because they want cloud infrastructure that is flexible and easy to scale, while providing higher levels of control and visibility to help as they meet their regulatory and compliance requirements,” said John Considine, general manager, cloud infrastructure services, IBM. “Dedicated Hosts are another example of IBM’s commitment to providing enterprise-strength capabilities on our cloud platform so that clients can do more with their data.”

IBM plans to make Dedicated Hosts available in June 2017. Dedicated Hosts will be available to order monthly or hourly in IBM Bluemix. The initial offering will be available in the following configuration:

Dedicated Host Configuration: 56 x 242 x 1.4 Core (vCPU): 56 RAM (GB): 242 Local Storage (TB SSD): 1.4

[1] IDG Enterprise: 2016 IDG Enterprise Cloud Computing Survey, November 2016