UPDATED 11:36 EDT / JUNE 06 2013

What to Expect at #IBM Edge2013 : How Will SoftLayer Buy Fit Into OpenStack Party?

Just days before IBM’s Edge event kicks off, Big Blue’s been busy building a cloud services portfolio that’s aggressively taking on the public cloud space with the recent acquisition of SoftLayer.  IBM’s had quite a strategy with mergers and acquisitions these last few years, and it’s all coming together to provide a full offering of infrastructure and data-driven tools for the cloud of tomorrow.  Making these acquisitions work, and enabling clients’ data center components to work better together, IBM is all about open frameworks to facilitate compatibility across the stack.  That’s something we’ll be on the lookout for at IBM Edge next week, particularly as open frameworks like OpenStack empower IBM, HP, NetApp and others to curb rival vendors that are still set on lock-in tactics for generating revenue.

The Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV, is all set for IBM Edge2013 from June 10-14, 2013, with this year’s theme being: Cloud | Data | Results.  We’ll be there all week with live broadcasts featuring exclusive interviews and analysis.

Watch IBM Edge2013 LIVE at SiliconANGLE.tv

#IBM Edge2013

 

The event is divided into three parts: TechnicalEdge where  IT professionals and practitioners can focus on sharpening expertise, discovering new innovations and learning industry best practices; ExecutiveEdge where IT executives and leaders focus on discovering new innovations for managing storage growth, accelerating cloud deployments, unlocking the insights from big data, and securing critical information and processes; and MSP Summit which is a two-day session focused on specific business and technology topics important to an MSP’s success.

IBM will focus on key topics such as A smarter planet, Big Data and Analytics, Cloud computing, Security and Resilience, Smarter commerce, Smarter computing, Sustainability, and Smarter cities as attendees hear them from IBM executives such as Inhi Cho Suh, Andy Monshaw, Tom Rasamilia, Adalio Sanchez, Edward Walsh, Jeff Jonas, Bernie Meyerson, and Stephen Leonard.

What’s hot?

 

IBM recently announced its intention to acquire cloud computing infrastructure provider SoftLayer in a deal amounting to approximately $2 billion.  This acquisition would bolster IBM’s cloud computing efforts by creating a new cloud services division within its Global Services unit, where SoftLayer will continue to operate independently.  The acquisition will also help the company “beef up its ability to integrate public and private clouds for its clients, enabling significant performance and security benefits for SMBs.”

SoftLayer could prove a real growth engine for IBM, according to Wikibon chief analyst and co-founder Dave Vellante.

“There’s real opportunities to make money here.  I think IBM is all about value add what IBM’s gonna do is really take that SoftLayer platform and really build out services on top of it and accelerate the pace in which it can deliver those services.  It will bring, much in the same way that Oracle does, a lot of its own software technology to that cloud and add value to that cloud and sell that value very hard,” Vellante stated.

See his full commentary on SoftLayer’s acquisition in the video below:

IBM is know as a huge OpenStack player, but with its acquisition of SoftLayer, a company that’s not nearly as supportive of the popular open framework, places IBM in a strategic position wherein it will be able to support and build off of OpenStack without encroaching or dominating it, while also delivering public cloud offerings via SoftLayer.

IBM also made a series of announcements at Innovate2013 focusing on its Adoption Paths which constitutes Plan & measure, Develop & test, Release & deploy, Monitor & Optimize.  New products were announced based on IBM’s Adoption Paths which are designed to work in a single framework and would continuously work as a whole.

To know the buzz at IBM Edge2013, you can check out SIliconANGLE’s coverage on SiliconANGLE.tv or our YouTube channel The SiliconANGLE Network.  You can also get the latest news from IBM on Twitter @IBMEdge and #IBMEdge, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and the IBM Storage Community blog.


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