Comparing IBM PureApplication System to competing solutionsHow built-in expertise, integration by design and a simplified experience make the difference in application deployment and lifecycle management

2 Comparing IBM PureApplication System to competing solutions

AbstractOrganizations need ways to move beyond today’s inefficient approaches to managing new applications so they can deploy important business capabilities faster while reducing costs and complexity.

Three key attributes enable IBM® PureApplication™ System to deliver a new and innovative approach to applications and computing:

• Built-in expertise• Integration by design• Simplified experience

This paper reviews each of those attributes and shows how they differentiate IBM PureApplication System from the competition.

Introduction The IBM family of expert integrated systems—called IBM PureSystems™—represents the culmination of a multiyear effort involving thousands of IBM personnel. IBM’s offerings in this family include:

• IBMPureFlex™System,a complete infrastructure system including integrated chassis, compute nodes, storage and networking, with the ability to sense and anticipate resource needs to optimize infrastructure

• IBMPureData™SystemforTransactions, a ready-to-run database platform based on IBM Flex System infrastructure, capable of handling more than 100 databases on a single system¹ while providing always-on performance²

• IBMPureDataSystemforAnalytics, a data appliance powered by IBM Netezza® technology, designed to run complex algorithms rapidly

• IBMPureDataSystemforOperationalAnalytics, a ready-to-use platform that delivers outstanding performance for in-database analysis of large data sets that include operational data

• IBMPureDataSystemforHadoop, which architecturally integrates IBM InfoSphere® BigInsights™ Apache Hadoop-based software, server and storage into a single, easy-to-manage system

• IBMPureApplicationSystem, a complete platform system built on IBM Flex System infrastructure and providing built-in patterns of expertise for optimally deploying and managing applications in virtual enviroments

IBM PureApplication System patterns of expertise, developed from thousands of data center optimizations and the collective knowledge of IBM partners and customers, are proven to drive fast application deployment: a three-tier web application can be deployed in under 15 minutes.³ Once a pattern is deployed, the system automatically optimizes to run that pattern’s workloads. For example, deploying a website application using an online transaction processing pattern will result in a specific I/O configuration as well as availability, security and other settings.

By leveraging built-in expertise, IBM PureApplication System reduces complexity to lower IT management costs and speed service delivery. The system integrates multiple hardware and software components that dynamically adjust to demand spikes and reallocates system resources automatically. With the system in place, the IT lifecycle becomes faster and more efficient, providing a simplified IT experience.

IBM PureSystems 3

Other systems on the market simply do not provide all of these capabilities, advantages and efficiencies. Compare the following specifics regarding built-in expertise, integration by design and simplified experience.

1. Built-in expertise—enabling companies to deploy systems in hours4 and deploy three-tier web applications in under 15 minutes5

IBM PureApplication SystemIBM PureApplication System environments are delivered to clients with pre-entitled, out-of-the-box IBM patterns for deploying web applications, databases and data marts. To meet a broad range of requirements, companies also turn to the PureSystems Centre and download additional patterns. More than 200 patterns from independent software vendors (ISVs) are available through the online catalog, including business process management, customer relationship management, business intelligence and more (see Figure 1).

Customers can also use the tooling built into IBM PureApplication System to capture their own patterns of expertise, build their own pattern with the downloadable Pattern Development Kit or online SmartCloud Trial offer, or have IBM Cloud Services build custom patterns for them to easily deploy.

With integrated patterns of expertise, only a few simple steps are required to deploy and use IBM PureApplication System:

• Download the vendor-provided virtual application from the PureSystems Centre

• Drag and drop graphic elements in the Virtual Application Builder GUI to set policies and outcomes for the application deployment

• Let IBM PureApplication System do the rest

How does the competition stack up?

Figure 1. PureSystems Centre gives you online access to more than 200 ISV patterns for IBM PureApplication System.

4 Comparing IBM PureApplication System to competing solutions

Oracle Oracle offers what it calls virtual assemblies—for example, an Oracle WebLogic application server, a database and a firewall—designed to help organizations create and configure multitier application topologies.

However, the administrator must still put the assemblies together and integrate them, and each one of those elements must be installed and configured in a specific way. To accomplish this, the administrator must go to the Oracle site and do the following:

• Locate the WebLogic server software• Find the exact middleware version required• Obtain the Oracle Linux operating system at the specific

version-level needed• Use Oracle’s Virtual Assembly Builder tool to install first the

operating system and then WebLogic• Configure WebLogic based on best practices, which are

described in a lengthy, multipage document

Hewlett-PackardCloud Maps, the prepackaged and customizable application and infrastructure designs for cloud environments from Hewlett-Packard (HP), are substantially different from the IBM PureApplication System and require more administrative oversight.

For example, here are the steps for an administrator employing a Cloud Map to deploy an application:

• Go to the HP website and determine the exact version of the required application

• Find the exact version of the operating system needed• Obtain the scripts that HP provides to help configure the

environment• Read through a multipage HP document and complete the

steps listed—including manually installing the operating system and application

• Run the HP scripts after installation to configure the system

Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) Vblock The VCE Vblock system is pretested and integrated, but differs from IBM PureApplication System in several key ways. First, it is an infrastructure-only system and does not include the complete hardware and software platform provided by IBM PureApplication System. Vblock delivers only “server profiles,” so organizations must build their own images, and business-partner services are then required to configure and install the systems. Additionally, the solution has very few certified applications vendors, no industry-specific applications and no support for thousands of enterprise UNIX applications.

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2. Integration by design—pre-integrated yet open and flexible, supporting choice and helping to protect existing technology investments

IBM PureApplication SystemIBM PureApplication System is a complete server, storage, networking and software package designed to provide superior IT economics. It has a small IT footprint, providing excellent space savings. Capabilities integrated into the system include cloud virtualization, system management, workload deployment and automated provisioning—as well as application patterns. Built-in analytics optimize query performance and storage efficiency.

Additionally, the system optimizes data placement across hard drives and cutting-edge technologies like solid-state drives (SSDs) based on real-time application data usage. Together, integrated virtualization and management can deliver high performance due to automated pooling of resources. At the same time, the IBM PureApplication System helps to deliver flexibility and investment protection:

• An open system, it supports both IBM and non-IBM software. • Integrated storage management includes unified file and

block, with an intuitive GUI for improved productivity and reduced human error.

• The system enables virtualization and management of any external disk, helping to increase efficiency and investment protection.

Consider the competition.

OracleThe Oracle solution is not open. IBM PureFlex System and the IBM PureApplication System can integrate into and build on many existing infrastructures, while Oracle promotes an all-Oracle stack with lock-in that can include an expensive long-term contract. Oracle does not support non-Oracle software.

Database and application logic are not integrated in Oracle Exasystems as they are with IBM. The Exadata system may host the database, but a separate system, Oracle Exalogic, is needed to run the application logic. With IBM PureSystems, you can run both the database and application from the same system. Essentially, Oracle’s one-size-fits-all systems are not optimized and can be more expensive, often with higher total cost of ownership (TCO) in the long run.

Hewlett-PackardWhereas the underlying IBM Flex System™ infrastructure for IBM PureApplication System can handle a mixed UNIX and x86 networking and storage environment, and can integrate into existing data centers, HP has a history of transitioning off previously supported technologies such as various generations of Intel Itanium and enterprise virtual array (EVA) storage. Management is not integrated, so simple processes may require multiple tools to accomplish.

VCE Vblock Vblock parts are ordered from distributors and then VCE builds the system, which adds time and cost—lead times can be months long. Cloud functionality is not included in the base solution, and storage virtualization is an extra chargeable feature.

6 Comparing IBM PureApplication System to competing solutions

Vblock is locked into just three vendors—UCS, EMC and VMware—and the technologies they support, limiting an organization’s choice to the VMware hypervisor, x86 compute nodes, 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) storage connectivity. IBM PureSystems are open to a broad ecosystem of standards-based technologies.

3. Simplified experience—from platform acquisition to IT processes, making staff more productive and workloads more responsive

IBM PureApplication System IBM PureApplication System offers a simplified experience throughout its entire lifecycle. From initial procurement and installation through ongoing monitoring and maintenance, IBM streamlines processes with an integrated system and a single part number and support contact.

The system allows impressive efficiency gains and operational cost reductions—changing both the experience and the economics of IT. Best practices for management and maintenance are embedded into the system, and management is simplified with a single, unified console (see Figure 2), freeing IT staff to spend less time on rote tasks and more time on strategic value-adding activities.

The competitionOracle systems support only the Oracle stack—in order to run anything that is not Oracle, organizations have to add more complexity to their IT environment. While IBM PureFlex System and IBM PureApplication System are open systems and can be used to manage a wide range of ISV applications, Oracle system tools manage only Oracle products. If a company in the healthcare field wanted to run its Oracle database along with a non-Oracle specialized healthcare application, for example, it would have to run and manage the two products on separate boxes.

Figure 2. A single PureApplication System console offers monitoring and system management.

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The HP collection of tooling focuses on infrastructure, whereas IBM PureApplication System integrates hardware, middleware and software elements and enables these components to be managed from an integrated console. HP systems management is not integrated.

VCE management relies on several products: UCS Manager, EMC UIM and VMware vSphere, which are not integrated with Vblock.

None of the three vendors mentioned above offers the completeness and capability that is included in IBM PureApplication System to help simplify IT. Oracle, HP and VCE offerings can also cost more than IBM PureApplication System, which may require customers to buy and integrate separate solution elements themselves.

Changing the way organizations approach ITIBM PureApplication System represents an innovative new approach to IT that greatly reduces the time required to develop, configure, test and integrate applications. Simple and affordable, it offers IT operational expertise built into the system for the average IT professional to leverage right out of the box. Organizations can optimally deploy applications for rapid time-to-value without worrying about manually configuring the infrastructure.

Organizations can also perform capacity upgrades, system maintenance and software updates with minimal downtime, driving a valuable decrease in outages. Ultimately, competing systems do not match the built-in expertise, integration by design and simplified experience provided by IBM PureSystems, as companies like the Innovation Group can attest: “Using a prepackaged virtualization product such as PureSystems means that we can maintain a greater level of repeatability and system stability, in addition to drastically reducing deployment times.”

For more informationTo learn more about IBM PureApplication System, see your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit: ibm.com/ibm/puresystems

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2013

IBM Corporation Systems and Technology Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589

Produced in the United States of America October 2013

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, BigInsights, Flex System, InfoSphere, PureApplication, PureData, PureFlex, and PureSystems are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at “Copyright and trademark information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml

Netezza is a trademark or registered trademark of IBM International Group B.V., an IBM Company.

Intel and Itanium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.

This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time. Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates.

THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided.

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only.

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¹ Based on one IBM PureData System for Transactions T1500 large configuration (384 cores, 6.1 TB RAM and 74.4 TB capacity).

² Database node recovery in seconds, no planned downtime for firmware and O/S upgrades, based on IBM internal tests and system design for normal operation under expected typical workload. Individual results may vary.

3,5 Based upon testing of the IBM PureApplication System W1500-192 deploying a single Virtual Application Pattern consisting of 2 WAS VMs, a DB2 VM, and updating the Elastic Load Balancer (ELB). The WAS VMs were allocated 4 vCPUs, 4 GB of memory and 12 GB of disk while the DB2 VM was allocated 8 vCPUs, 6 GB of memory and two virtual disks of 12 GB and 4 GB.

4 Based upon testing of the IBM PureApplication System W1500-96 with time measured from powering on the system to when it is ready to support application deployments.