A rich IaaS platform - and an infrastructure for Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Z
The traditional layer classification of cloud services is into Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). And while there are many more variants proposed today, this still provides a useful way of looking at cloud architecture, with each layer providing its own value as well as services that are used by the layer above.
IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center provides the IaaS on IBM Z and LinuxONE, as well as providing the infrastructure platform for Red Hat OpenShift which provides the PaaS. And with the new version 1.1.4 now announced and available later in August, IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center extends its capabilities in both of these areas.
What’s new in Cloud Infrastructure Center 1.1.4
Enhancements to IaaS capability on IBM Z include:
- Resizing of z/VM- and KVM-based VMs using the user interface
- Support of the shared-disk model
- Monitoring which can then be consumed by chargeback tools
- Enhancement of the healthy report status feature
- Fabric zoning support for Red Hat KVM-based VMs
- Provisioning of z/VM-based VMs using persistent storage-based boot volumes, building on LVM volume groups and leveraging FCP storage
- Network teaming support for KVM-based VMs
- Provisioning of z/VM-based VMs from a network with multiple subnets using the user interface
- Creation of z/VM-based VMs with PROFILE and ACCOUNT statements for fine granularity customization via the user interface
and enhancements to the support provided to Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Z includ
- Extended onboarding capabilities and onboarding of z/VM-based VMs running Red Hat CoreOS
- RHEL 8.4 and Red Hat CoreOS 4.8 as guest operating systems and RHEL 8.4 as hosting environment
- Improved performance and robustness of boot support for RHEL and Red Hat CoreOS on z/VM-based VMs
Example – IBM CIO Office integrates IBM Z into the hybrid cloud
A great example of IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center is its use by the IBM CIO Office for provisioning and managing virtual machines on IBM Z.
Faced with the challenges of complexity, skills and reducing TCO in its IT estate, the CIO office determined that it needed a hybrid cloud approach based on open industry standards, with a single cloud provisioning portal.
The CIO office knew that their IBM Z systems provided a high-performance, ultra-stable platform that had supported huge numbers of transactions for years – but they also needed to be able to manage the IBM Z systems in the same way as other infrastructure such as x86-based servers.
Enter IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center, which includes built-in OpenStack-compatible APIs to provision and orchestrate cloud workloads. The use of open industry standards enabled the fast integration of the IBM Z systems with the hybrid cloud environment, enabling automation of services and providing a platform for higher-level cloud services.
You can read more in the blog “IBM CIO Office integrates IBM Z into the hybrid cloud”.
Where to find more information about IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center
Now in its fifth release, IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center provides both a solid IaaS platform on IBM Z, and the infrastructure to support the Red Hat OpenShift PaaS on IBM Z.
In addition, through its built-in OpenStack-compatible APIs, IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center makes it easy to integrate IBM Z into the hybrid cloud for provisioning and management.
For more information, visit the IBM Cloud Infrastructure Center webpage.