IBM Offers Tools to Connect and Secure Public and Private Clouds

IBM introduced a hybrid cloud solution to help enterprise customers gain greater visibility, control and automation into their assets and computing environments, including public and private clouds. The new SmartCloud tools, which leverage technology from IBM's recent acquisition of Cast Iron, provide:


Control and Management Resources: The new capabilities will define policies, quotas, limits, monitoring and performance rules for the public cloud in the same way as on-premise resources. This allows users to access public cloud resources through a single-service catalog -- enabling IT staff to govern the access and the usage of this information in a simplified, efficient and secure way.


Security: IBM enables better control of users' access by synching the user directories of on-premise and cloud applications. The automated synchronization means users will be able to gain entry to the information they are authorized to access.


Application Integration: Using a simplified "configuration, not coding" approach to application integration, the software combines the power of native connectivity with industry leading applications to provide best-practices for rapid and repeatable project success.


Dynamic Provisioning: IBM's monitoring, provisioning and integration capabilities allow its hybrid cloud to support "cloud bursting," which is the dynamic relocation of workloads from private environments to public clouds during peak times. IBM's technical and business policies control this sophisticated data integration.
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