Novell today announced IBM is delivering a portfolio of software
appliances across IBM brands, all powered by SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server. Leveraging the SUSE Appliance
Program from Novell, this broad-based initiative enables IBM to
deliver "plug and play" appliances that substantially lower the cost and
complexity of deploying applications for small and medium-sized
businesses (SMBs) and help independent software vendors (ISVs)
significantly expand their routes to market.
With just a few mouse clicks, IBM customers and partners can now
quickly and easily deploy customized and fully-tested software
appliances to physical, virtual or cloud environments, and IBM is
offering virtual stacks on the IBM Smart Business Development and Test
Cloud.
"We see tremendous value in software appliances as it gives our
customers and partners unprecedented flexibility combined with greater
speed-to-market and lower overall costs," said Jean Staten Healy,
director, Linux strategy, IBM.
Software
appliances are pre-configured combinations of an application,
middleware and operating system integrated into a single image and
tailored to run on industry-standard hardware. Using software appliances
ISVs can simplify the packaging of their solutions for multiple
environments, allowing them to test, deploy and scale their offerings to
their customers’ specific needs. This offers unprecedented
opportunities to deliver simplified, highly-portable, tailored solutions
free of the maintenance headaches that have often plagued enterprise
IT. In effect, appliances make it possible to "mass customize"
application delivery and furnish a fully-integrated solution faster and
more efficiently than before.
"The software industry is adopting software appliances as an easier
way to package and distribute software," said Joe Wagner, senior vice
president and general manager of Global Alliances at Novell. "In fact,
IDC forecasts the software appliance market to grow to $1.18 billion by
2012. Having an industry leader such as IBM adopt software appliances
is another indicator of the strength of this market. Add to this IBM
partners like Black Diamond Software, who provide complete IBM
middleware development stacks to enterprises as software appliances, and
our other recent software appliance initiatives with several ISVs
including GroundWork Open Source, Ingres and Zmanda, and it is clear
this market is growing."
IBM delivers Linux-based software appliances
The combination of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and IBM software
represents a significant step forward in providing affordable, reliable,
easy-to-use software appliances. IBM has created appliances based on
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server in the following areas:
— IBM Lotus Foundations – A complete technology and collaboration solution for small and medium-sized businesses. Using software appliances provides faster access and adoption of solutions, from accounting packages to a local network infrastructure.
— IBM Lotus Protector for Mail Security – Protects IBM Lotus Domino and mixed email infrastructure from spam, viruses and other threats originating on the Internet. Using software appliances means protection can be installed and running in a matter of hours.
— IBM WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition- Offers all of the robust features of the WebSphere Application Server Family for virtual environments. By configuring and packaging as an appliance with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, customers can activate an optimized instance of WebSphere quickly and efficiently.
— IBM Cognos Now! – Delivers operational dashboards for real-time monitoring of key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics across disparate data sources.
— IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer – Enables a new class of high-speed business intelligence and analytic queries.
