"Combination of software and hardware" to help enterprises reduce costs and increase efficiency
In the enterprise Digital transformation Now that the process is gradually deepening, digitization Transformation has become one of the necessary means for various industries to promote business development. How to do a good job in digital transformation and achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase has replaced "whether to" do digital, and become the core focus of enterprises.
If you want to select three issues that enterprises most care about in the process of digital transformation, they must be: cost, benefit, and security. These three aspects have become the core issues concerned by enterprises in the process of selecting digital products and solutions at present and for a long time to come. How to help enterprises further reduce their digitalization and operation costs and improve their business income on the premise of ensuring security will become an important starting point for many service providers to enhance their core competitiveness.
Hybrid Cloud+AI Is the future
Hybrid cloud+AI is the core development idea of IBM in recent years. The acquisition of Red Hat and the split of Qindarui reveal the determination and attitude of IBM's "All in" hybrid cloud. Based on the Red Hat OpenShift hybrid cloud platform, help enterprises get through the internal complex IT environment, connect external ecological partners, and achieve secure and large-scale data sharing and technological innovation; The split of Qindarui allows IBM to have more energy and capital, focus on the hybrid cloud strategy, and improve the flexibility of the overall business.
After several years of layout, it is not difficult to see the correctness of IBM's original decision through market reaction and some reported data.
According to the IBM Enterprise Transformation Index: Cloud Status Report released by IBM in 2022, 77% of the surveyed enterprises have adopted the hybrid cloud approach to promote digital transformation. However, it can also be seen from the data in the Report that most enterprises do not have sufficient and comprehensive hybrid cloud management capabilities (according to the data in the Report, less than 1/4 of enterprises have the ability to fully manage their hybrid cloud environment). If the hybrid cloud cannot be effectively managed and used, it will not help enterprises achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase, but will become a "stumbling block" in the way of enterprise digital transformation.
Recently, in view of the characteristics of digital transformation of domestic enterprises, the development trend of hybrid cloud, future development planning and other issues, IDC circle reporters interviewed Miao Keyan, Vice President of IBM, General Manager of IBM China, Chen Guohao, General Manager of Technology Sales of IBM Greater China Division, and Zhu Hui, General Manager of Customer Success Management Department of IBM Greater China Division.
Miao Keyan, Vice President of IBM and General Manager of IBM China
In Miao Keyan's view, domestic enterprises are mainly faced with three challenges in the process of digital transformation - technical ability, network security and compliance.
Technical capability: Miao Keyan pointed out that users need strong technical capability support to realize business value. "Hybrid cloud needs the ability to manage the previous infrastructure." Miao Keyan emphasized. However, it is very difficult for an enterprise to focus on its own "own" business and also have strong hybrid cloud management capabilities, which is almost "impossible". In Miao Keyan's view, this is also the key to hinder the rapid success of hybrid cloud transformation.
Network security: security has always been the focus of enterprises in the process of digital transformation, and the complexity of hybrid cloud is far higher than that of other types of private cloud, public cloud, etc cloud computing In Miao Keyan's opinion, how to ensure the consistency, service level and security of business and data is also a problem that enterprises need to pay special attention to.
Compliance: "Every country has its own laws, and every family has its own rules". The regulatory compliance requirements in different countries and regions are different, and the regulation is becoming more strict and complex. Regulatory compliance has become a major obstacle to integrating workloads across private and public IT environments. How to comply with these regulatory requirements is also the focus that enterprises need to pay attention to.
"Host+ The era of cloud has come
Based on the above pain points of enterprises in the process of digital transformation at this stage, IBM believes that for some specific industries, especially highly regulated industries that have strict requirements on performance, security compliance and sustainability, many of them are IBM's host customers, and the host+cloud model will become their "best solution" in the future digital transformation process of enterprises, "For many enterprises in other industries, their modernization and digital transformation, in fact, is not only using the host, or only using the 'cloud', but also can choose the best way to use the top 100 Linux ONE, which is high-performance, secure and highly scalable host or Linux ONE system+cloud, which saves many intermediate links." Miao Keyan emphasized.
As one of the world's top host suppliers, IBM's strength need not be repeated. Time and many successful cases have given the "answer". Miao Keyan said that the value achieved by adopting comprehensive hybrid multi cloud platform technology and operation mode is 2.5 times of the value achieved by adopting a single platform and a single cloud manufacturer. When the host system is combined with the hybrid cloud, the value that can be realized will be five times that of the single public cloud method. (This data is based on the IBM IT Economics business value model. This model involves four aspects of business efficiency: business acceleration, developer productivity, infrastructure efficiency, and compliance and security.)
The hardware is hard enough
At the hardware level, IBM has the latest generation of LinuxONE servers just released a few days ago. According to IBM's public data, the integration of Linux workloads on five IBM LinuxONE Emperor 4 systems can reduce energy consumption by 75% and save space by 50% every year compared with running the same workload on x86 servers under similar conditions, Reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 850 metric tons.
Chen Guohao, General Manager of Technical Sales of IBM Greater China Technology Business Department
According to Chen Guohao, due to different internal architecture designs, IBM host and LinuxONE are the only systems in the industry that can run to 100% CPU without downtime. They can play a vital role in helping enterprises achieve the goal of cost reduction, efficiency increase and sustainable development.
In addition, IBM also has a data storage platform for various media to ensure that users can achieve high-performance storage and data storage security. "IBM hardware is mainly to solve the cost, green and performance problems, while fully embracing the hybrid cloud." Chen Guohao pointed out.
Combination of soft and hard, "1+1 ＞2 ”
At present, relying only on powerful hardware can no longer meet the needs of most enterprises for digital transformation.
Data Center As an important support for the digital transformation of various industries, in recent years, it also faces the problem of digital transformation, how to achieve green and sustainable development; How to better integrate various IT equipment architectures, maximize the utilization of these cabinets, and further reduce PUE... All kinds of problems have become the pain points that data center service providers need to solve urgently.
Although IBM has a new generation of LinuxONE server for green and sustainable development in IT equipment, it is not enough to meet the current data center's requirements for green and low-carbon only depending on the greening of hardware. This requires "combination of software and hardware" and coordinated development to further reduce the energy consumption of the data center and improve the efficiency of the data center.
Zhu Hui, General Manager of Customer Success Management Department of IBM Greater China Technology Business Unit
In response to the above problems, Zhu Hui shared with reporters some successful cases of IBM using its own software and hardware advantages to help enterprises successfully reduce costs and increase efficiency. One of them, an IDC leading enterprise that has been deeply involved in the IDC industry for many years, realized its own digital transformation using IBM products.
It is reported that this IDC enterprise has adopted IBM's IBM Db2 Data Management Console (DMC) and the technology of high availability and high disaster tolerance. "With this capability, they have achieved 7 × 24 hours continuous monitoring of database operation and maintenance, which has greatly helped them to run 7 × 24 hours continuously and stably." Zhu Hui pointed out.
It is this "attitude" of both software and hardware that enables IBM to make the road of hybrid cloud+AI more stable and wider.
Details determine success or failure
In addition to its strong strength, IBM also has a keen "sense of smell" in market insight. According to IBM's analysis, domestic and international customers have different attitudes towards digital products. "International customers pay more attention to the direction of technology development, as well as the flexibility of technology itself and the business value it brings." Miao Keyan pointed out that "in contrast, domestic self-developed technology developers are very active, and their creativity and requirements for information innovation will be relatively high."
For different customers, IBM believes that the future development prospect of domestic self-developed technology is very good, but it also needs to further promote the connection and integration of domestic technology with the world from the perspective of sustainable development and cost. "The consistency of the entire wide ecosystem and the consistency of future technological development also need to be considered in a unified way. I think this is a very important part of the sustainable development of enterprises. " Miao Keyan stressed, "Our Chinese enterprises can contribute their advantages to the world, and also should absorb the experience brought to us by the world. At the same time, we should also reduce the difficulty of communicating with other economies, other customers and other market users, which is very important. "
As Miao Keyan said in an interview at the beginning of the year, "IBM should do three things well in China: serve existing customers, seize new opportunities, and create a win-win new ecology". It is believed that this is also the "principle" of IBM's development in China for a long time to come.
