IBM Pulse 2014, the Premier Cloud Conference, held at MGM Grand Las Vegas from February 23^rd-26^th, delivered an incredible experience. More than 11,000 attendees from across the globe, including over 400 IBM Systems and Storage clients and partners, came to discover how to use cloud as a growth engine for business. With a robust curriculum spanning 6 streams, 23 tracks, over 350 speakers and 60+ Systems and Storage oriented breakout sessions and panels, the conference served as an excellent showcase for exciting new Systems-related Cloud solution announcements.

Let’s recap some of the highlights

The conference kicked off with a full-day Business Partner and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) Summit and Open Cloud Summit where over 100 of our Systems and Storage partners and MSPs engaged in discussions with experts on Open Systems and IBM Software Defined Environments (SDE). The Summit was an opportunity for participants to build skills, hear from executives, meet experts, network with other Business Partners, and fine-tune their strategies for growth.

Our Infrastructure Matters Zone in the Pulse Solution Expo featured the newest Systems and SDE technology initiatives and solutions that IBM offers. Participants interacted with IBM technical teams, participated in over a dozen live demonstrations and shared their experiences with peers. Additionally, the dev@Pulse module provided various Cloud certification tests while also featuring some of the industry’s leading thinkers in mobile development, game design, artificial intelligence, front-end development and other developer-centric topics.

To boost its existing Cloud portfolio, IBM introduced Codename: BlueMix. Based on the open source Cloud Foundry project, this new cloud-based application development environment boosts IBM’s IaaS portfolio. IBM also introduced a new leading edge Platform Computing Cloud Service on IBM SoftLayer for hybrid cloud deployments. Through this new capability, our clients can create intelligent grids spanning both on-premise and off-premise. This provides significant economic advantage to data intensive and composable service workloads. 

We also announced that Watson, our next-generation cognitive computing platform, is running on Power Systems and will be available on IBM SoftLayer later this year. Tom Rosamilia, Senior Vice President of IBM Systems & Technology Group, confirmed that Power Systems and IBM PureApplication System will be available with IBM SoftLayer. By leveraging Power Systems' optimization for data & analytics performance, SoftLayer can help clients capture, understand and leverage increasing volumes of data.
 

This also adds value to IBM’s existing capabilities to OpenPower Foundation that IBM created in August 2013 along with other industry players. Additionally, IBM will acquire Cloudant, a NoSQL database-as-service (DBaaS) company with high scalability and connectivity across systems, databases, and applications. This will add to the IBM SoftLayer platform and offer an easy path to adding a NoSQL database to IBM customers, particularly those developing big data platforms.

Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Chief Information Officer shared his experience about IBM Hybrid Cloud capabilities and technologies. Red Bull Racing relies on IBM for its scalable, flexible, and compliant IT infrastructure that enabled them to win driver and constructor championships from 2010 through 2013. Red Bull Racing was one of many successful stories from IBM clients at Pulse.

A big thanks to everyone involved for making the event so noteworthy and successful. You can watch replays of all three days of general sessions, Wikibon interviews, streaming keynotes and videos from dev@Pulse within the Video Library. Be sure to stay connected with us on our social media venues on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn for regular updates.
 

Jacqueline D. Woods
Global Vice President - IBM Systems & Technology Group Marketing
@JacWoods2020