IBM Bluemix - Bring the Cloud Together

The next big step in the evolution of the IBM Cloud portfolio is here.

IBM Bluemix is integrating SoftLayer products and services into its vast catalog of infrastructure, platform, and application services.

The SoftLayer products, services, tools, systems, and support will become a cornerstone of a unified Bluemix cloud experience that delivers the performance, flexibility, and consistency of SoftLayer infrastructure alongside the extensive catalog of cloud resources that include IBM Watson services, development runtimes, containers, database services, and more.

With the integration of SoftLayer into the IBM Bluemix, one can only expect the best as it will bring all the cloud together with developer-centric compute models - Bluemix makes it easier to ship powerful, high-quality software every day.


What exactly is IBM SoftLayer, now Bluemix, and what does it do? 
The Bluemix cloud platform is not just about creating new apps or migrating existing ones, on-prem or off-prem implementations, or offering IaaS and PaaS cloud services. It is designed to bring all of these aspects together to help solve your real, complex business problems in the cloud.

If your organization requires high performance computing, or you manage very large databases, Bluemix provides leading edge, dedicated architecture and ease of provisioning specifically designed to accommodate high input/output intensity for online gaming, mobile applications and digital marketing.

For larger organizations that need a correspondingly high level of infrastructure control, it provides the ability to customize hardware, network control and control infrastructure via simple and intuitive application programming interfaces (APIs).

What makes Bluemix different and how can it help your business?
The IBM Bluemix cloud platform weaves together services, infrastructure and data to rapidly bring ideas into action. It simplifies the process of building systems that use data to understand, reason, and learn.
 
It also builds data rich software as apps and services become increasingly delivered through digital channels; analytics are the heart of personalization, establishing context and building systems that intuitively respond to both behavior and the environment.

Unlike some of its competitors, Bluemix also provides a unified integration and control panel for multiple cloud architectures — allowing for easy platform integration across dedicated, virtualised and cloud servers.

The Bluemix will simply drive your company’s existing IT into transformation.

If you’re ready to learn more about how IBM Bluemix can benefit your business, you may inquire with MSI-ECS at inquiry@msi-ecs.com.ph or call (02) 688-3512.

Smart Biz LTE newest Wireless Internet for Business and MSME

PLDT SME Nation, leading business solutions provider introduces its newest wireless broadband, Smart Biz LTE for Micro, Small and Medium enterprses (MSMEs). Aim to take businesses to the next level by providing stable and high-speed internet.

Smart Biz LTE includes an industry-grade steel router with Dual LTE Antenna with Mimo Capability covering 30 to 50 meters WiFi reach and up to 45 connected users providing internet speeds up to 42mbps. "Smart BizLTE is your ultimate upgrade from usual pocket WiFi entrepreneurs use for connecting to their business while on the go." said Ms. Nephele Denosta, AVP & Head SME Nation Wireless Marketing. "The new wireless broadband offer answers entrepreneurs' need for stable, high-speeed data perfect for stationary or mobile assets in order to effectively oversee and grow their businesses," adds Denosta.

To compliment the launch, PLDT SME Nation unveiled Bryan Benitez McClelland, founder of socio-ecological enterprise, Bambike Revolution cycles as its newest brand ambassador. Bambike is company produces bicycles made of natural bamboos and abaca. These eco-friendly bicycles are used in tours around Intramuros, creating a unqiue and fun learning experience on our national history and culture.

Bambike also provides livelihood to a number of community workers in Tarlac through Gawad Kalinga, banking on McClelland's vision of fair-trade labor and sustainable business practice. "Bambike is dedicated to social and environmental stewardship through making te greenest bikes in the planet. Our vision as a company is to not only live our passsion for bicycles, local touris, and love for Mother Earth but also, create impacts to the betterment of our community,shares McClelland.
Mcclelland shares his excitement and considers PLDT SME nation their most trusted and reliable business partner and with Smart Biz LTE improves their comapny's operational efficiency by creating more collaborative working environment to provide livelihood to an underprivileged community like Victoria, Tarlac.

Smart Biz LTE plans starts at 1,899 for 5GB, 2,349 for 13GB and 4100 for 21GB Data Allocation for 24 months contract. It is said no throttling nor no stopping service. You have an option to avail of SmartCam for 250 Pesos per Month. Required documents includes BCIF, Mayors Permit, ID, Resolution of Partnership (Partnership), Certificate of Administration (Cooperative), Certificate of Budget (Government), Notarized Sec cert and SEC (Corporate).

Available starting September 2016. Business who subscribe from September 16 to October 31, 2016 shall be entitled to one (1) Free SmartCam for every line availed. To know more about PLDT SME Nation’s partnership with Bambike, more of its activities and what it has in store for the nation’s MSMEs, please visit http://smenation.com.ph/ or https://www.facebook.com/SMENation/.

SimpliVity Announces Remote Sites to Simplify and Offer Greater Choice for Enterprise

SimpliVity, a leader in hyperconverged infrastructure revolutionizing enterprise IT, today announced two new remote office and branch office (ROBO) solutions, OmniStack Solution with Lenovo System x for Remote Sites and OmniCube CN-1400, to provide greater choice and flexibility, centralized management and improved data protection capabilities for enterprise and mid-market customers with remote sites.

SimpliVity’s hyperconverged infrastructure provides global unified management eliminating the requirement for on-site IT expertise by consolidating all IT infrastructures for virtualized workloads at remote offices, including data protection, to simplify management and backup and restore data over existing WAN links. Several enterprise customers have already seen the value of SimpliVity’s ROBO solutions, including Sinclair Oil, Woodman’s Food Group, and Merlin Entertainments.

“Enterprises have struggled with managing IT infrastructure at remote sites since the data at ROBOs is often inadequately protected and IT staff is often non-existent. The challenge of keeping network bandwidth costs in-check has also plagued ROBO deployments, given the ever-growing volumes of data passing over the WAN,” said Jesse St. Laurent, VP Product Strategy, SimpliVity. “All our ROBO solutions are designed with enterprise-performance in mind as they deliver improved data protection and the ability to manage all remote sites from a single console – for even the largest enterprise customers. With an expanded portfolio of available x86 models optimized for ROBOs, we are able to offer enterprises increased flexibility and choice at their remote sites at a compelling price point.”

SimpliVity for Sinclair Oil

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Sinclair Oil is the 51st-largest private company in the US with holdings including gas stations in 20 states, two refineries, and Grand America Hotels and Resorts in seven locations. With multiple road side properties and an IT staff centralized in Salt Lake City, being able to manage remote sites from a centralized location was critical for Sinclair Oil’s IT infrastructure and business as a whole. After first working to build a home-grown solution with legacy IT infrastructure, Sinclair Oil decided to speed up implementation by deploying SimpliVity OmniStack with                 Lenovo System x and SimpliVity OmniCube. The company has been impressed with SimpliVity’s ease of management and the integrated backup and recovery capabilities, which allows them to focus on driving business value rather than maintenance.

“With our old IT infrastructure, we used to have to travel to remote sites in Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, and California when things went wrong,” said Nathan Larsen, Director of IT, Sinclair Oil. “With our IT team centralized in Utah, SimpliVity’s global unified management is a real difference-maker. We can now manage all our remote sites from a centralized location, and all from a single console, which is a huge improvement. This is something no one else was offering us for our distributed sites and remote offices.”

SimpliVity for Woodman’s Food Group

Woodman’s Food Group operates 16 supermarkets in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. When looking to upgrade its IT infrastructure and improve its disaster recovery posture, Woodman’s selected SimpliVity OmniCube for its next-generation data center. With SimpliVity, Woodman’s has moved into a fully virtualized IT environment and has improved its data protection, disaster recovery, and availability. Woodman’s fully deployed the SimpliVity solution within two weeks in two core data centers and 16 remote offices, realizing the advantages of built-in data protection almost immediately.

“SimpliVity’s built-in data protection capabilities are a major differentiator, especially in dealing with remote and branch offices,” said Rory Vanse low, IT director, Woodman’s Food Markets. “We are running our entire disaster recovery strategy through SimpliVity and know we can rely on them for all our data protection needs. With built-in data protection, there is no need for third-party backup solutions.”

Benefits of SimpliVity Solutions for ROBO 

• Threefold reduction in TCO – SimpliVity eliminates the need for local staff to manage the ROBO resources, reduces storage requirements by 90%, and lowers power, cooling and space demands

• Faster, more reliable data protection to reduce risk – Reliable data protection with enterprise-proven RPOs and RTOs eliminates the need for specialized backup and recovery tools for ROBOs

• Improved WAN utilization –Advanced WAN optimization reduces network traffic to backup, clone, or move workloads between sites and eliminates the need for separate WAN appliances.

• Greater staff productivity – Simplified management of all resources, including VMs, resources, and data protection policies, improves productivity for maintaining remote sites

"SimpliVity’s hyperconverged infrastructure solution was designed to be vendor agnostic to give customers increased flexibility. For organizations that prefer Cisco technology, the OmniStack Solution with Cisco UCS for Remote Sites was released in February of 2016 and enterprises are already realizing the advantages of hyperconverged infrastructure for ROBO deployments with the integrated solution."

Availability

The OmniCube CN-1400 is available now. The OmniStack Solution with Lenovo System x for Remote Sites is orderable beginning in June. For more details, contact the partner distributor in the Philippines, MSI-ECS at (02) 688-3509 / (02) 688-3501 or email them at inquiry@msi-ecs.com.ph. Visit http://www.msi-ecs.com.ph for more details.