Faster system deployment: Systems were deployed 33% faster.

Faster service delivery: Customer services were activated in

minutes or hours rather than weeks.

Enhanced system performance: System availability was close to

100%.

Lower cost of operations: Cost of operations was lowered by 37%.

Benefits: Companies in the study realized over $640,000 in benefits

related to improved infrastructure deployment, performance, and

operational economics.

Business Value Highlights

W H I T E P AP E R

I B M P u r e F l e x S y s t e m R e a d y f o r C l o u d

Sponsored by: IBM

Randy Perry Mary Johnston Turner

July 2013

E X E C U T I V E S U M M A R Y

Cloud computing represents an opportunity for enterprise and service provider

datacenters to become more agile and flexible by using self-service infrastructure

provisioning; automated, dynamic resource pooling and scaling; and consumption-

based metering to improve accelerate cloud infrastructure configuration, provisioning,

and life-cycle management. IDC

estimates that combined enterprise

and service provider spending on IT

infrastructure hardware and software

for cloud datacenters will total more

than $42 billion worldwide by 2017.

Integrated systems, such as the IBM

PureFlex System, pre-integrate and

optimize software stacks with

compute, storage, network, and

management software resources to

enable optimal performance of

mission-critical applications and

workloads. Many IT organizations are

using integrated systems as core platforms to enable private clouds and public cloud

service delivery environments.

IDC interviews with several IBM customers and partners show that organizations

using IBM PureFlex System, as well as Flex System infrastructure building blocks, as

the infrastructure platform for cloud realized over $640,000 in benefits related to

improved infrastructure deployment, performance, and operational economics.

Specifically:

Faster system deployment: Pre-integrated systems optimized for either

general-purpose or specialized workloads were able to improve system ordering,

purchasing, and deployment by 33%.

Faster service delivery: Service providers that had already deployed integrated

systems into their service delivery environments were able to activate new

customer services in minutes or hours rather than having to wait six weeks or

more to purchase, integrate, and deploy new service-enabling infrastructure.

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Enhanced system performance: Customers in the study realized close to

100% system availability as a result of reduced unplanned downtime, fewer

human errors, and faster resource provisioning and migration.

Lower cost of operations: Improved IT staff productivity, lower facilities costs,

and reduced IT hardware spending the lowered cost of operations by 37%.

S I T U AT I O N O V E R V I E W

B e n e f i t s o f I n t e g r a t e d S y s t e m s f o r C l o u d

I n f r a s t r u c t u r e

Increasing numbers of enterprise IT and service provider datacenter managers are

implementing dynamic self-service cloud architectures to improve IT infrastructure

performance, increase resource utilization, and enhance IT operations staff productivity.

IDC's research indicates that over 60% of datacenter server life-cycle costs are

associated with the cost of IT administrative staff. Integrated systems help reduce the

complexity of initial system ordering and sizing as well as simplify day-to-day operations,

particularly with regard to system firmware and software upgrades and patching because

updates can be applied as a single, pre-tested and pre-certified unit.

Built-in self-service provisioning automation and infrastructure configuration and

deployment patterns can further streamline day-to-day datacenter operations and

allow IT generalists to take on greater levels of operational responsibility. For many

enterprise IT organizations, integrated systems provide a rapid on-ramp to private

clouds, while service providers see integrated systems as a way to quickly launch

public cloud service delivery environments. A recent IDC survey found that 40% of

organizations that are using or considering integrated systems expect to implement

cloud self-service provisioning capabilities as part of the solution.

I B M P u r e S y s t e m s

IBM PureSystems family is a portfolio of expert integrated systems built from the

ground up to deliver an optimized hardware and software platform. Integrated systems

combine compute, storage, networking, and management into factory pre-configured and

pre-integrated solutions. PureFlex provides an infrastructure system, and PureApplication

and PureData are optimized for specific application and customer workload environments

and provide platform systems. IBM PureSystems thus provide a broad range of

infrastructure and platform systems with built-in expertise.

IBM PureFlex System — a member of the IBM PureSystems family — is a

pre-configured, fully integrated infrastructure system with unified management of

compute, storage, networking, and virtualization resources to support a range of

general-purpose datacenter requirements.

IBM Flex System — the components that are used to build several of the

PureSystems — can be bought separately as the destination capability for those

seeking a blade infrastructure. Encompassing compute, storage, and networking,

IBM Flex System provides substantial management and deployment advances

due to leading management capabilities with Flex System Manager.

©2013 IDC #242386 3

Integrated systems are specifically designed to provide more efficient and flexible

IT resources and management environments than can be enabled by traditional

datacenter architectures. This paper discusses how several IBM PureFlex and

Flex System customers and partners are using expert integrated platforms to reduce

the cost and improve the performance of cloud-enabled datacenters and services.

U S E R C AS E S T U D I E S

C a p g e m i n i E n a b l e s S A P C l o u d H o s t i n g S e r v i c e

w i t h I B M P u r e F l e x S y s t e m

Capgemini was the first SAP Certified Global Cloud Partner. The company

implemented its first multi-tenant hosted SAP cloud service using the IBM PureFlex

System Enterprise Edition to support a highly integrated, scalable, and automated

infrastructure as a cloud service delivery environment.

As a service provider, Capgemini is very focused on the speed of service delivery and

the cost of IT infrastructure equipment and staff. In comparing traditional,

non-integrated alternatives with the integrated IBM PureFlex System, configured for

multi-tenant SAP support, Capgemini identified cost savings of as much as 30%.

At the same time, the company identified a 10–15% improvement in performance and

availability due to the customized Flex System system engineering and integrations.

Part of that performance improvement is attributable to the fact that the company

used the IBM PureFlex System purchase as an opportunity to upgrade to a new

generation of processors that provided better performance at a lower price. Cost

savings also resulted from the higher density of the IBM PureFlex System and related

reductions in datacenter floor space and power and cooling requirements.

Equally important, Capgemini found that the IBM PureFlex System could be deployed

and provisioned more quickly than traditional server and storage solutions that

required more extensive onsite integration and testing. The company was able to fully

activate the system, complete data and workload migrations, and go live

with customers in 8 weeks, rather than the 12 weeks it would have expected to need

using traditional solutions (a 33% time savings). Beyond the physical hardware

integrations, Capgemini benefited from creating SAP patterns and virtual appliance

templates to standardize and speed application deployments using built-in automated

provisioning tools.

In terms of day-to-day operations and customer support, Capgemini estimates that

faster application provisioning, improved compliance with configuration standards,

and reduced need for scheduled downtime and patching have collectively reduced

the IT staff time needed to support the SAP hosting environment by 15–30%.

Capgemini's SAP cloud hosting service has also benefited from the ability of the

IBM PureFlex System to monitor resource utilization and feed data to consumption-

based chargeback systems. This in turn allows Capgemini to reach new sets of

customers that want to pay for only the resources they actually use or that have

highly variable requirements over the course of a year. Over time, Capgemini may

4 #242386 ©2013 IDC

incorporate IBM FlexSystem Manager self-service provisioning capabilities into

services offered to end users to provide a new self-service option. For now, however,

access to the self-service automation functionality is limited to Capgemini's staff.

R e d c e n t r i c T r a n s f o r m s C l o u d B u s i n e s s

E c o n o m i c s w i t h I B M F l e x S y s t e m

Redcentric is a United Kingdom–based managed, hosted, and Internet service

provider. Recently demerged from Redstone, Redcentric delivers ISP and cloud

services to a wide range of U.K. organizations using multiple U.K. and international

datacenters. Redcentric implemented IBM Flex System as the core platform to enable

its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solution. Flex System helped reduce

Redcentric's datacenter footprint by moving the company away from heavy

dependence on dedicated physical servers. Savings came in many forms, including

energy cost reductions of up to 40% and reduced software licensing costs of as much

as 70% because fewer cores were required.

By freeing up datacenter facilities space and creating an environment where

workloads can be deployed more quickly and resources can be more easily shared,

Redcentric now has the ability to more quickly expand its business and bring on new

customers without having to build out new datacenters to support its cloud services.

The IBM Flex System investment was seen as highly transformative for Redcentric. It

allows the company to meet customer requests for hosting a wide variety of operating

systems and applications on a shared common cloud platform, in addition to being able

to offer an IaaS option to self-service customers. Using the IBM Flex System, Redcentric

is able to rapidly spin up new resources as customers demand them. Rather than having

to wait six weeks or more for availability of workloads on physical servers, Redcentric's

cloud service customers can self-provision virtual resources on the IBM Flex System in

minutes. The built-in IBM Flex System Manager capabilities have helped reduce

administration costs by up to 50% and cut system setup costs by as much as 66%.

Even more importantly, however, the flexibility of the system, along with built-in

automation, has allowed Redcentric to expand its service portfolio and take on a

broader range of business critical applications and services. Customers that might

have been nervous about a shared service environment are more confident given the

extent of validated integration, patterns of expertise, and hardware reliability that are

provided by use of the IBM Flex System.

A g i l i s y s I m p l e m e n t s C l o u d I n f r a s t r u c t u r e a s

a S e r v i c e w i t h I B M P u r e F l e x S y s t e m

Agilisys is a large United Kingdom–based IT, consulting, and business services provider

with a diverse customer base spanning the private and public sectors. The company

develops, hosts, and supports a variety of applications for its clients, including support

for central and local governments that are using Agresso ERP systems.

Agilisys offers several of its solutions as hosted services and currently relies on the IBM

PureFlex System to support two of its most important new hosted financial service

applications. Agilisys wanted a scalable, secure, and automated IaaS platform to support

©2013 IDC #242386 5

these applications and selected IBM PureFlex System. The fact that IBM PureFlex

System could be ordered and shipped as a single integrated unit was particularly

important given the company's need to get these new capabilities to market quickly.

When evaluating options for supporting these financial service applications, Agilisys

considered using legacy equipment that was already available on the datacenter

floor. The company opted instead to invest in the IBM PureFlex System in part

because the older systems would have required time-consuming repurposing and

might not have fully satisfied several important security requirements.

Because the IBM PureFlex System was pre-validated and sized with compute,

storage, firewall, and networking technology that met the company's performance and

security specifications, Agilisys found the IBM PureFlex System to be very

economical to implement and manage on a day-to-day basis. The company was able

to avoid time-consuming and complex integration and testing activities and was able

to rely on existing staff to implement the system. Agilisys continues to operate the

IBM PureFlex System without needing to hire additional IT staff in part because the

firmware and software upgrades for all components are integrated and tested by IBM

before being applied. The IBM FlexSystem Manager and associated patterns of

expertise allow Agilisys staff to eliminate human error when deploying new VMs,

expanding the system, or adding new subscriber resources. Agilisys credits the IBM

FlexSystem Manager with improving IT staff productivity and helping ensure

consistent SLAs.

F U T U R E O U T L O O K

Based on analysis of several IBM PureFlex System and Flex System customers that

are currently implementing cloud solutions, IDC expects that future customers can

achieve the following benefits:

Faster system deployments and upgrades due to improved automation, use of

pre-defined patterns of expertise, and access to self-service provision capabilities

Faster service delivery because service providers are able to activate new

customer services more quickly

Higher levels of performance and increased availability due to reduced unplanned

downtime, fewer human errors, and faster resource provisioning and migration

Lower cost of operations due to improved IT staff productivity, lower facilities

costs, and reduced IT hardware spending

F a s t e r S y s t e m D e p l o y m e n t

Because integrated systems are configured and integrated prior to being shipped to

customers, onsite IT staff members are not required to invest time and effort in

completing onsite integration and testing. IBM PureFlex System customers reported

savings on the order of 33% in terms of the time needed for initial system

deployment. In one example, the time required shrank from 12 weeks to 8 weeks.

6 #242386 ©2013 IDC

F a s t e r S e r v i c e D e l i v e r y

IBM PureFlex System or Flex System enabled service providers that have already

deployed integrated systems into their service delivery environments to activate new

customer services in minutes or hours rather than having to wait six weeks or more to

purchase, integrate, and deploy new service-enabling infrastructure.

I n c r e a s e d A v a i l a b i l i t y

As organizations become more reliant on IT resources to run their business, the

potential financial damage caused by unplanned outages and performance

slowdowns becomes an unacceptable risk. Many companies profiled in this paper are

service providers and as such had very low downtime — less than one hour per year

— prior to implementing IBM PureFlex System or Flex System. With IBM PureFlex

System or Flex System, they were able to eliminate that hour of downtime.

L o w e r C o s t o f O p e r a t i o n s

Organizations in the study reported that IBM PureFlex System and Flex System

delivered a 30% higher price performance than the other solutions they evaluated.

The organizations were able to reduce their cost of operations by 37% by leveraging

IBM PureFlex System and Flex System to deliver higher levels of performance with

the inherent resource utilization, management, space, and power cost advantages of

an integrated solution (see Figure 1).

F I G U R E 1

A v e r a g e A n n u a l C o s t o f O p e r a t i o n s B e f o r e a n d A f t e r t h e

D e p l o y m en t o f I B M P u r e F l e x a n d F l e x S y s t em

Source: IDC, 2013

145,000 108,750

719,605

435,150

864,605

543,900

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

1,600,000

1,800,000

2,000,000

Before After

($)

Inf rastructure

Hardware and sof tware

Facilities and power

©2013 IDC #242386 7

C H AL L E N G E S / O P P O R T U N I T I E S

The ability to fully exploit the benefits of integrated systems for cloud infrastructure

depends on the IT organization being willing and able to embrace a standardized

services-centric view toward setting SLAs and providing resources. IT teams must be

able to work with business stakeholders to agree on standard configurations and

SLAs and then render those as templates or patterns that can be delivered on a

consistent, repeatable self-service basis. IBM PureFlex System and Flex System

provide customers with powerful management and automation tools, but not all

organizations are fully ready to exploit their potential. If IBM can help its customers

and partners realize the full value of their IBM PureFlex System and Flex System

investments, the company will be able to help many organizations transform their

datacenters and improve operational efficiency in cloud environments.

C O N C L U S I O N

Expert integrated systems are an important option for enterprises and service

providers that want to quickly and cost effectively implement cloud infrastructure

environments that make extensive use of automation, self-service provisioning, and

consumption-based chargeback or metering. The experiences of IBM's customers

and partners indicate the benefits can be significant if organizations recognize and

embrace the transformational nature of the IBM PureFlex System and Flex System

integrated, unified architectures.

A P P E N D I X

IDC utilized its standard ROI methodology for this project. This methodology is based

on using in-depth interviews to gather data from 10 companies about their use of IBM

PureSystems and then creating a financial model.

The financial model quantifies the following elements of the companies' operations

and measures the financial impact of technology on those elements:

IT infrastructure: Costs for hardware, software, facilities, power, and related

services

IT staff productivity: The value of IT staff in support of the business (Increasing

IT staff productivity means reducing the time spent by IT staff in manual support

tasks or repair and replacement and freeing up staff time to contribute to

business activities.)

End-user productivity: The value of end users of business applications

(Increasing end-user productivity is measured in two ways — increasing end-user

work output and reducing end-user time lost to unplanned downtime, help desk

issues, or other performance issues related to technology.)

Business productivity: The value of business operations impacted by

technology (Measurement includes increasing revenue and/or reducing cost of

operations as a result of becoming faster to market or reducing unplanned

downtime or other negative impacts on operations.)

8 #242386 ©2013 IDC

IDC uses a set of assumptions to calculate the benefits discussed previously:

Time values are multiplied by burdened salary (salary + 28% for benefits and

overhead) to quantify efficiency and manager productivity savings.

Downtime values are a product of the number of hours of downtime multiplied by

the number of users affected.

The impact of unplanned downtime is quantified in terms of impaired end-user

productivity and lost revenue.

Lost productivity is a product of downtime multiplied by burdened salary.

Lost revenue is a product of downtime multiplied by the average revenue

generated per hour.

Because every hour of downtime does not equate to a lost hour of productivity or

revenue generation, IDC attributes only a fraction of the result to savings. As part of

our assessment, we asked each company what fraction of downtime hours to use in

calculating productivity savings and the reduction in lost revenue. IDC then taxes the

revenue at that rate.

Further, because IT solutions require a deployment period, the full benefits of the

solution are not available during deployment. To capture this reality, IDC prorates the

benefits on a monthly basis and then subtracts the deployment time from the first-

year savings.

Note: All numbers in this document may not be exact due to rounding.

C o p y r i g h t N o t i c e

External Publication of IDC Information and Data — Any IDC information that is to be

used in advertising, press releases, or promotional materials requires prior written

approval from the appropriate IDC Vice President or Country Manager. A draft of the

proposed document should accompany any such request. IDC reserves the right to

deny approval of external usage for any reason.

Copyright 2013 IDC. Reproduction without written permission is completely forbidden.