IBM (News - Alert) recently introduced new systems designed to help clients and managed service providers (MSPs) take advantage of private and hybrid clouds to maximize big data insights and provide innovative ways to share resources.

The new solutions include PureSystems, Power Systems, Smarter Storage Systems, System x, and Technical Computing offerings, building on IBM’s recent acquisition of SoftLayer.

Hybrid cloud computing is gaining momentum. Though actual deployments are low, aspirations are high. Gartner (News - Alert) estimates that nearly half of large enterprises will have hybrid cloud deployments by the end of 2017.

The new software and services provide an easy on-ramp to line-of-business leaders to help them move key department workloads into the cloud for immediate returns, IBM said.

“IBM is uniquely positioned to compete aggressively for public, private and hybrid cloud computing opportunities," said Tom Rosamilia, senior vice president, IBM Systems & Technology Group and Integrated Supply Chain, in a statement. "The new IBM Systems and solutions provide superior efficiency and agility to help clients quickly deploy the right cloud infrastructure that best meet their needs.”  

The PureSystems family can help clients of all sizes experience the benefits of expert integrated systems. They include two updated PureFlex configurations: PureFlex System - Express and PureFlex System - Enterprise.

PureFlex System - Express offers an affordable entry price point suitable for SMBs and departmental deployments in larger enterprises. The PureFlex System - Enterprise with highly available multichassis configurations is designed for scalable cloud deployments with built-in redundancy for resilient operation.

Additionally, IBM also announced new PureFlex and Flex System compute nodes, networking options and The PureFlex Solution for IBM i, a complete, integrated system with an attractive alternative that allows existing SMB IBM i clients to reduce IT costs and complexity by consolidating i and Windows applications on an IBM PureFlex solution.

IBM PureSystems also address big data and analytics. PureData System for Analytics has a new cost-effective entry model, powered by IBM Netezza (News - Alert) technology that enables business to gain insights on ever growing volumes of data, simpler and faster, the company said. PureData System for Hadoop enables big data exploration in areas like social and text analytics. 

IBM Power Systems offerings include Power Systems Solution Edition for Service Providers and Power Virtualization Center product, IBM PowerVC.

Power Systems Solution Edition for Service Providers support hybrid cloud environment and allow for fast go-to-market with a pre-built, pre-installed cloud solution that is based on OpenStack support for SmartCloud Entry and PowerVC.

The Power Virtualization Center product, IBM PowerVC, offers virtualization and management capabilities that can improve system resource efficiency and agility for virtual workload implementations.

The new Power Integrated Facility for Linux, on the other hand, supports open cloud environments. It can enable them to exploit the reliability, scale and performance of enterprise class Power Systems to improve quality of service and reduce the cost of managing their Linux ecosystem.  

The new IBM Storage Systems are designed to better manage business data in the cloud. The new Storwize V5000 is to help SMBs tackle this ever-growing data challenge.  

Designed for smaller business workloads and applications such as email, file/print and Web serving, and suitable for hybrid cloud environments, the new IBM System x3250 M5 can deliver superior performance, availability, and energy efficiency, with plenty of room to grow.

IBM also announced general availability of its new NeXtScale System, a flexible computing platform with three times as many cores as previous one-unit rack servers, ideal for the fastest-growing workloads such a social media, analytics, technical computing, and public, private and hybrid cloud delivery.

The IBM Technical Computing portfolio is available with new features including Application Ready Solutions, NeXtScale System, and IBM Platform Computing (News - Alert) software optimized for compute and data intensive workloads. These solutions can be deployed either to create a private cloud or be used in public clouds. 

IBM Global Financing helps clients grow their IT investments with affordable financing that promotes greater flexibility, lowers TCO and increases predictability of payments.