IBM Unveils Hybrid Cloud Offerings To Boost Businesses

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM) recently launched new software and hardware to make it easier for organizations to switch to hybrid-computing technology, which makes use of both public cloud as well as an on-premise computing setup.

Per the company’s press release, Tom Rosamilia, senior vice president for IBM Systems noted that the current business environment is dynamic with a constant threat of disruptions, A hybrid cloud model will enable clients to adapt to changes seamlessly while leveraging their on-premise setups.

What is a Hybrid Cloud?

Hybrid cloud provides a cloud computing environment that is essentially a combination of on-premises, public as well as private cloud services that work in tandem with one another.

Hybrid cloud is beneficial to businesses as it offers enhanced data deployment options by enabling seamless transition of workloads between private and public clouds.

IBM’s Offerings

Power Systems for Cloud: These include the Power E880C and Power E870C servers that work with OpenStack, a software for automation and cloud management.

z Systems Operational Insights: This systems comprises a software as a service (SaaS) offering from IBM that enables the user to analyze cloud operations in order to achieve better performance from applications.

IBM Spectrum Copy Data Management and Protect: IBM claims that the software is capable of managing multitudinous data sets at the same time.

Hybrid Cloud Prospects

Per a recent survey conducted by IBM involving more than 1000 participants worldwide, 92% believe that cloud computing enables their businesses to create and support innovative business models. Additionally, 45% of the workloads are expected to be on the on-premise model even though the cloud model is gaining popularity.

The company also announced stronger as well as new relationships with partners namely Hortonworks, Canonical, NGINX, Mirantis and Red Hat. Additionally, IBM announced that it plans to offer new open source products based on Red Hat’s Linux operating system for enterprises. This bodes well for the company in the long run.

Intensifying Competition

We note that hybrid cloud is an emerging field that has huge potential. However, given the presence of big players in the space such as Amazon.com, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) and Microsoft Corporation’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Azure, things will be tough.

Recently, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) announced the inclusion of more than 20 new cloud-based products and applications into the company’s Cloud@Customer line of subscription services during the Oracle Open World 2016.

In Aug 2016, Gartner placed IBM in the lower-left hand corner of the Magic Quadrant for Infrastructure-as-a-Service, way behind AWS and others.

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Zacks Rank & Key Picks

At present, IBM carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

A better-ranked stock in the broader technology space is Avid Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVID) , sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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