IBM Cloud

What is IBM Cloud?

 IBM Cloud is a suite of cloud computing services from IBM that offers
software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and
infrastructure as a service (IaaS) models.
 The platform provides modern cloud platform capabilities, including
artificial intelligence (AI) for analytics or automation, advanced security,
compliance, data protection and scalability.
 IBM Cloud is suitable for various enterprise cloud environments. It works
for hybrid clouds, where customers combine on-premises cloud
infrastructure with virtual cloud services, and multi-cloud approaches,
which combine cloud services from different providers.
Why is IBM Cloud used?
With IBM Cloud's IaaS functionality, organizations can deploy and access
virtualized IT resources, such as compute power, storage and networking, over
the internet. For compute, organizations can choose between bare-metal
physical hardware or virtual servers.
IBM Cloud's PaaS functionality is based on open source cloud platform Cloud
Foundry. It lets developers use IBM services to create, manage, run and deploy
various types of applications for the public cloud, as well as for local or on-
premises cloud environments. IBM Cloud supports several programming
languages, including Java, Node.js, PHP and Python.
IBM Cloud offers security, risk management and compliance features that make
it suitable for regulated industries, such as healthcare, finance and government.
In healthcare, for example, care providers of any size can quickly store and
manage large patient data volumes, while adhering to standards such as the
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. For financial institutions, the
platform adheres to IBM Cloud Framework for Financial Services to meet the
industry's high regulatory standards.
IBM Cloud products and services
IBM Cloud supports a variety of tools and services, including IBM Cloud managed
services, preconfigured software and consulting. It also supports access to IBM
Watson, IBM Cloud Functions for serverless computing, IBM Databases, IBM
Integration Bus and IBM WebSphere Application Server. In addition, IBM Cloud
works with various products from third-party cloud providers.
IBM Cloud features
IBM Cloud services are grouped into 15 categories:
1. AI and machine learning. The platform offers a collection of Watson-
based offerings that are AI resources and tools for building generative AI
models, such as IBM Watson Assistant or IBM Watson Discovery.
2. Analytics. IBM Cloud offers IBM Analytics Engine to build analytics
applications on Apache Spark and Hadoop, as well as analytics tools for
streaming data.
3. Automation. Resources are available to automate business workflows
and processes. These include Cloud Paks, which exist for business
automation, data, integration, multi-cloud management, network
automation, cloud security, Watson AIOps, and IBM Z and Cloud
Modernization Stack.
4. Blockchain. IBM Blockchain Platform is a SaaS offering to develop apps,
enforce governance and monitor a blockchain network.
5. Compute. IBM offers various compute resources, including bare-metal
servers, virtual servers and IBM Cloud Functions for serverless computing,
on which enterprises can host their workloads.
6. Containers. IBM offers IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, as well as access to
its private container registry, Red Hat OpenShift and Istio, a service mesh
for microservices.
7. Cybersecurity. IBM Cloud includes services for activity tracking, identity
and access management, and authentication.
8. Databases. IBM provides a variety of Structured Query Language and
NoSQL databases, as well as data querying, warehousing and migration
tools.
9. Developer tools. This includes a command-line interface, as well as tools
for continuous delivery, continuous release and application pipelines.
10.Integration. IBM Cloud services integrate cloud and on-premises systems
and various applications, such as IBM API Connect, IBM App Connect and
IBM Cloud Satellite.
11.Internet of things. IBM Watson IoT Platform works with IBM Cloud to
provide services that connect and manage IoT devices and analyze the
data they produce.
12.Logging and monitoring. IBM provides tools to log, manage and monitor
cloud deployments, including IBM Cloud Monitoring and IBM Cloud Pak for
Watson AIOps.
13.Networking. The platform provides cloud networking services, such as a
load balancer, a content delivery network, virtual private network (VPN)
tunnels and firewalls.
14.Quantum. IBM Cloud lets developers run workloads on quantum systems
through the Qiskit software development kit.
15.Storage. IBM's cloud storage offerings include block, file and object
storage for cloud data.

IBM Cloud deployment models

IBM offers four deployment models for its cloud platform:
1. Public. A public cloud provides access to virtual servers in a multi-tenant
environment. An enterprise can choose to deploy its applications in one or
multiple geographical regions.
2. Dedicated. This is a single-tenant private cloud that IBM hosts in one of
its data centers. An enterprise can connect to the environment using a
direct network connection or VPN, and IBM manages the platform.
3. Hybrid. This version is deployed as a combination of on-premises private
cloud and public cloud infrastructure. IBM's hybrid cloud deployment
supports public cloud offerings from third-party vendors, such as Google
and Microsoft.
4. Multi-cloud. This deployment model creates cloud infrastructures that
mix and match cloud offerings from multiple vendors. This is the most
flexible approach, enabling user organizations to avoid vendor lock-in.