Software Sales Specialist
Container technology continues to fundamentally alter the development of software in today’s information technology environment. Who hasn’t heard about containers in the IT world? Nearly all of us have, and the containerized architecture represents a move forward. Many of our Mainline customers have large install bases utilizing IBM WebSphere software. These are very good candidates to make the move to containers via IBM Cloud Paks.
With IBM Cloud Pak for Applications, you can modernize traditional applications and build cloud native applications designed to run anywhere, whether on a public cloud, on premise, or on a private cloud. You can expect to have access to a wide variety of tools to successfully modernize your environments and create new cloud native applications.
To help businesses make the move to IBM Cloud Pak for Applications, IBM is providing a tool called Transformation Advisor, which assists in analyzing on-premise applications for modernization. It determines the complexity of the applications, estimates the degree of difficulty to perform the move to containers, and recommends the best target environment. IBM is frequently updating and adding functionality to IBM Transformation Advisor, which currently helps modernize WebSphere, Red Hat JBoss, Oracle WebLogic, Apache Tomcat, MQ, WebSphere Message Broker, and Integration Bus.
Use Cases for IBM Cloud Pak for Applications
The three most common use cases that IBM publishes are shown in the graphic below.
Often, the great majority of a customer’s applications will keep on working without a change. This is typically due to the fact that the Cloud Pak for Applications includes the familiar IBM WebSphere family of products for the traditional WebSphere and Liberty.
2. Unlock: Modernize and Leverage Your Existing Investment
Sometimes code changes are needed to modernize, update, and take full advantage of IBM Cloud Pak for Applications. The good news is that IBM provides many tools as part of this package that will help customers analyze their applications and provide guidance to ultimately transform them so they can be run in containers.
3. Unleash: Build New Cloud-Native Applications
Most customers see an increase in developer productivity and an overall acceleration in development times. This, combined with the ability to pretty much put the application anywhere in a secure cloud native environment, makes a solid offering for development teams.
IBM Cloud Pak for Applications Offers Unmatched Scalability and Flexibility
Benefits achieved by utilizing IBM Cloud Pak for Applications include:
- accelerating digital transformation,
- enhancing the developer experience,
- accelerating the delivery of applications, and
- deploying to hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments.
We often find that customers just need to take the “first step” to move to containers and Cloud Paks. For many, IBM Cloud Pak for Applications is the perfect place to begin, based on the ability run many of their existing applications immediately combined with a general increase in developer productivity and efficiency.
With IBM Cloud Pak for Applications V4, customers can deploy IBM WebSphere Application Server ND, IBM WebSphere Application Server (base), IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core, Red Hat OpenShift Plus Enterprise Runtimes and Accelerators for Teams, Red Hat Runtimes, and IBM MobileFirst Platform Foundation.
All IBM Cloud Paks utilize Red Hat OpenShift, a leading hybrid cloud, and enterprise Kubernetes application platform, trusted by 1,700+ organizations and growing. These provide unmatched scalability and resiliency.
Like all of the IBM Cloud Paks, the solution is designed for a flexible deployment option and it is container-ready, allowing you, the customer, to test or deploy the solution on containers when ready.
This will allow for a cost-effective transition that will address the complexities associated with the evolving multi-cloud environment. IBM Cloud Paks also avoid vendor lock-in, as they are deployable to any private or public cloud platform such as IBM Cloud, AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
Licensing Options
You can purchase the Cloud Paks as net new or via an upgrade, which is typically done by licensing for the number of Virtual Processor Cores (VPCs). Customers can trade up from WAS Base, ND, Liberty Core, WAS Family, or Mobile Foundation. IBM offers both perpetual and Committed Term Licensing options. Your Mainline Account Executive can provide more information on these options to assist you in selecting the most effective solution for your business.
Lastly, through IBM’s bundled platform offering, clients who purchase VPCs of Cloud Pak for Applications have the choice to deploy any of these products:
- IBM WebSphere Application Server ND
- IBM WebSphere Application Server (base)
- IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty Core
- Red Hat OpenShift Plus Enterprise Runtimes and Accelerators for Teams
- Red Hat Runtimes
- IBM Mobile Foundation
- IBM Cloud Transformation Advisor
More Information
To learn more about IBM Cloud Pak solutions, licensing options, or any IBM software solution, please contact your Mainline Account Executive directly or click here to contact us with any questions.
Related articles and information:
IBM Knowledge Center: IBM Cloud Transformation Advisor
Latest release of ICP4 Applications
Web: Software Solutions from Mainline
Blog: Container Storage – The Use and Benefit of Persistent Storage in Your Data Center
Blog: Benefits and Use Cases for IBM Cloud Pak for Integration