Connectria’s Managed IBM Cloud with AWS and Azure Accelerates Digital Transformation with a True Hybrid Cloud

The IBM Power Systems platform was first introduced in the late ‘80s with the IBM AS/400. Today, it includes the IBM i and IBM AIX operating systems and has long been a favorite platform for midsized and larger enterprises looking to run mission-critical applications.

One of the greatest advantages of the IBM Power Systems platform is its forward compatibility. In many cases, an application designed several years ago will continue to run on current hardware with a current OS version.

But in the era of digital transformation, has this core strength turned into a weakness?

Are Your Systems Tying You Down?

In many cases, forward compatibility has limited the need for IT organizations to upgrade their applications and systems. As a result, these organizations often have legacy applications running on IBM systems on-premises.

That’s not to say they aren’t leveraging the cloud already. In fact, many of the organizations we work with also have workloads in an AWS or Azure cloud. They love the scalability and flexibility of the public cloud, not to mention the opportunity to free up capital by converting CapEx into OpEx.

The challenge for these organizations lies in connecting their IBM systems to their AWS or Azure workloads. Since these workloads often need to share sensitive data in real-time, they need these connections to be fast, and they need them to be secure.

Compounding this challenge is the depth of skills in their organization. The universities and technical colleges that once taught IBM administration courses have dropped IBM Power Systems from their curriculum. This has made it harder for organizations to recruit and retain experienced IBM professionals – at a time when many IBM systems administrators are rapidly reaching retirement age.

“Silos” of talent also make it difficult to create connections between clouds. These organizations need someone who understands both the IBM platform as well as the public clouds to which they will connect. It’s exceedingly rare to find that talent in one person. Even at Connectria, we have engineering teams comprised of people with different talents who come together to configure solutions for clients. Many organizations simply don’t have that depth of talent on staff.

A Cure for Your Digital Transformation Blues

By combining AWS and Azure with an IBM Cloud, we help you improve your cost structure and agility while lowering the risks of IT modernization. We’ll help you choose the cloud environment (private hosted, AWS or Azure) that’s right for each of your workloads. We can smooth your transition to the cloud, minimizing downtime. We can even help you integrate workloads so that your entire infrastructure operates as one seamless cloud environment. Because this is a managed cloud, we can also help you address any skill gaps in areas like IBM administration and AWS/Azure knowledge as well as related areas like security and compliance.

Powerful Benefits

A Managed IBM Cloud with AWS and Azure from Connectria offers powerful benefits for organizations looking to transform their IT Strategy quickly:

• Instant access to IBM i, AWS, and Azure skills
• Assistance with additional needs such as disaster recovery, security, and compliance
• No need to rearchitect or replace IBM applications
• Leverage low cost, flexible public clouds for X86 applications
• Eliminate/reduce hardware maintenance fees and the high cost of maintaining an on-premises data center
• Convert CapEx to OpEx

Additionally, the TRiA Multi-Cloud Management Platform allows our managed cloud customers to optimize their cloud environments. Manage your environment for security, performance, and cost – all from a single console. We find giving our customers access to the same platform tools we use in-house facilitates collaboration between our two teams. You see the same information we see, giving you more visibility and control. And both our teams have the information and insights they need to hold productive discussions around the performance, security, and resource utilization of your cloud environments.

Connect with Connectria

Get in touch with one of our IBM cloud advisers. We know that migrating mission-critical workloads to the cloud is not something you take lightly. One of our cloud advisors would be happy to discuss your IT environment and goals to see if a Managed IBM Cloud with AWS and Azure might be the solution for you.