JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today accelerated its strategy to make big data and cloud computing a reality for businesses of all sizes with new Power Systems and Storage Systems that provide deep insights into big data, simplify data storage in the cloud, and can reduce costs through consolidation.

The announcement was made today in Johannesburg, South Africa, where IBM convened over 100 CEOs, CIOs, government officials, and academics at a leadership forum to chart a course for future business opportunities across the continent. 

Starting at $5,947 (USD), IBM has created an affordable family of entry level and midrange Power Systems based on new POWER7+ processors. The new systems are optimized for IBM's industry-leading analytics software, and use underlying technologies from the groundbreaking Watson system including POWER processors and big data analytics.

In addition to IBM's longstanding relationship with Avnet and Arrow, today's news comes on the heels of IBM's recent agreement with Ingram Micro and TechData to resell IBM's entire portfolio of Power Systems, PureSystems, and Storage Systems, radically changing the market of IBM's POWER7+ technology by offering it to small and midsized businesses (SMB) and large enterprises.

Many SMBs have struggled to adopt big data and private cloud solutions due to lack of in-house skills and expertise to design and maintain commodity hardware-based systems. IBM is addressing these issues with new Power Systems that don't require specialized skills and offer the latest advances in virtualization and automation to speed private and hybrid cloud creation.

"Big data and cloud systems that were once only affordable to large enterprises are now available to the masses," said Rod Adkins , Senior Vice President, IBM Systems & Technology Group. "With these new systems, IBM is forging an aggressive expansion of its Power and Storage Systems business into SMB and growth markets." 

Firebaugh, California-based Westside Produce, a 700 person company, contracts with melon growers to harvest, market, and ship fresh melons throughout North America. The company turned to IBM's Power System to make it easier to forecast how many boxes of melons will come from multiple fields, sorted by size, variety and grade. "Perishability of produce is a key challenge in our industry, and having the right technology in place to deliver fresh produce on time is critical for the success of our growers and our company," said Justin Porter , Director of Technology, Westside Produce. "All of our mission critical systems run on IBM Power with little to no intervention required. I do spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with issues on less mission critical x86 problems."

New Power Systems Tuned for Big Data and Cloud
Previously available only on select enterprise IBM Power Systems, IBM is extending its POWER7+ technology to entry level and midrange systems to help clients quickly build and deploy infrastructure for private and hybrid clouds.

POWER processors can be a better platform for big data and cloud than commodity x86 hardware because embedded memory and virtualization - key ingredients for analytics and cloud workloads – are built into the processor. These systems come optimized for IBM's industry-leading analytics software including Cognos and SPSS for business and predictive analytics.

IBM is rolling out eight new Power Systems for SMBs and growth market companies. New entry level systems include the Power Express 710, 720, 730 and 740 family of products. Starting at $5,947 (USD), the 710 is competitively priced compared to commodity hardware from Oracle and HP.

IBM also introduced two new PowerLinux Systems - the 7R1 and 7R2 – now optimized for IBM InfoSphere BigInsights and InfoSphere Streams big data analytics software. Clients can take advantage of an optional IBM Solution for WebSphere Mobile and Web Applications on PowerLinux to speed up application development for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

Two new Power Systems for midsized and large enterprises, the 750 and 760, are ideal consolidation platforms that centralize big data analytics and cloud workloads.

Cloud Storage Made Easy
As big data continues to grow, more organizations are turning to cloud and virtualization technologies to improve efficiencies, lower costs, and gain faster access to much-needed storage capacity. IBM is introducing new Storage Systems and SmartCloud storage solutions to meet these needs:

• IBM SmartCloud Storage Access: Today, IBM is introducing for the first time new software that lets organizations set up secure private storage clouds and users store information on the company's internal cloud. The new package features a Web-based self-service portal that lets any user create an account, set up the amount of storage they need, and then start uploading files via the cloud – all with just a few clicks and without the assistance of an IT administrator.
• The IBM XIV Storage System has been updated with a new system design for big data that supports up to 12 10GB Ethernet Ports (or 22 1GB Ethernet ports), and up to 6TB of solid state cache, both of which combine to improve the performance of database-like workloads by up to five times over previous models. In addition, the inclusion of advanced power supplies can lower a fully-loaded XIV system's power consumption by as much as 16 percent over previous models, which can help customers save on energy and cooling costs.
• The new Real-Time Compression Appliance™ Model STN7800, v4.1 supports large complex environments with reduced infrastructure costs. The appliance is based on System x server technology and offers 5x compression in real-time, unlimited per appliance software licensing (over 50TBs), and supports 10GbE optical, 1GbE copper, or mixed 10GbE and 1GbE connectivity options.

IBM Global Financing
While technology options for businesses are growing rapidly, companies are searching for strategic solutions to help them shift spending away from maintaining infrastructure to investing for growth. IBM Global Financing can help credit-qualified clients acquire IBM Power Systems and Storage Systems with affordable payment programs that allow clients to keep their cash while accelerating return on investment and lowering total cost of ownership.  Financing plans include: 0%, 12-month financing on Power and Storage Systems.

For more information on IBM Global Financing, please visit www.ibm.com/financing/.
For more information on IBM's Smarter Computing initiative, visit: www.ibm.com/smarter-computing.
For a complete press kit on IBM Power Systems, visit http://bit.ly/powerpresskit.

SOURCE IBM