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Originally Posted On: IBM Cloud Paks: What They Are & What You Should Know (lpa.com)

Digital transformation (DX) is no longer a “nice to have” — if you want to stay competitive and profitable in today’s business environment where most activities have moved online, you need to accelerate your cloud adoption strategy.

In fact, 94% of enterprises already use a cloud service and 30% of all IT budgets are allocated to cloud computing. Meanwhile, 67% of enterprise infrastructure is cloud-based and 82% of the workload resides in the cloud.

As organizations move past the basic cloud model, it becomes more challenging to keep pace with the latest requirements and innovation by developing applications in-house. However, stitching together third-party component layers that may or may not be compatible with each other is painstaking, costly, and inefficient. Not to mention, companies need to consider security compliance while preserving the value of their existing investment.

That’s why more enterprises are taking advantage of IBM Cloud Paks to build their cloud environment and manage their cloud workloads with speed and reliability. Are IBM Cloud Paks right for your business? Here’s what you need to know:

What are IBM Cloud Paks?

IBM Cloud Paks are  enterprise-grade containerized software solutions designed to offer a fast and reliable way to build, move, and manage workloads on the cloud. These lightweight and modular cloud solutions containerize IBM middleware and open-source components so users can integrate commonly available pieces of software to run independently.

The portable design allows IBM Cloud Paks to run on-premise, on public clouds, or in an integrated system. The up-to-date software provides full-stack support while ensuring the highest degree of security. Meanwhile, the containerized approach helps facilitate the modernization of  infrastructure by enabling users to integrate clouds from multiple vendors for a unified cloud strategy.

Choosing the Right IBM Cloud Paks

IBM Cloud Paks are pre-integrated  so organizations only have to purchase the capabilities they need:

1. IBM Cloud Pak for Applications

This Cloud Pak allows you to deliver a complete and consistent experience for building, deploying, and managing applications based on modern agile DevOps processes. It’s designed to accelerate the modernization and deployment of applications by using built-in developer tools and workflows.

Cloud Pak for Applications also helps you analyze existing applications and then guide you through a modernization journey. If you’re an existing IBM middleware user, you can leverage its cloud-native development, microservices, and serverless computing functions to support the most straightforward path to modernization.

2. IBM Cloud Pak for Automation

It includes the software for creating and deploying modern automation applications and services. It allows you to develop low-code tools that can be easily adopted by non-technical business users and offer near-real-time performance visibility to business managers. You can also integrate this Cloud Pak with IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to support routine task automation.

3. IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Cloud Pak for Data is a fully-integrated data and AI platform. It modernizes the process of collecting, organizing, and analyzing data while infusing AI-powered technologies into business applications. This Cloud Pak enables you to manage end-to-end data processing and machine learning pipelines using IBMs’ Watson Knowledge Catalog, Watson Studio, and Watson Assistant.

Using Cloud Pak for Data, you can unify and simplify the collection, organization, and analysis of data — turning an increasing amount of information from multiple sources into actionable insights. It can also be extended and customized to your unique data and AI landscapes through an integrated catalog of IBM, open-source, and third-party microservices add-ons.

4. IBM Cloud Pak for Integration

This hybrid integration platform offers built-in templates, prebuilt connectors, and an asset repository. Also, its pre-integrated set of capabilities such as API lifecycle management and data integration tools enable you to acquire data from SaaS applications, enterprise messaging, event streaming platforms in real-time to minimize errors and delays.

Cloud Pak for Integration supports the flexibility and scale needed by modern organizations for various integration requirements and digital transformation initiatives. Its high-speed transfer and integrated security features are designed to support the seamless migration of traditional enterprise application integration (EAI) to cloud-native environments.

5. IBM Cloud Pak for Multi-cloud Management

This Cloud Pak allows users to collect and organize events generated by applications running in different environments (e.g., on-premises data center, public cloud, and at the edge.)  It can be used for event management, application and infrastructure management, multi-cluster management, edge management, and integration with existing tools and processes.

This platform provides consistent visibility, automation, and governance capabilities across a range of hybrid and multi-cloud environments. You can manage a disparate and dispersed range of activities without sacrificing agility or the big picture view.

Is IBM Cloud Pak Right for Your Business?

Cloud Paks are an important component of IBM’s hybrid cloud strategy and are designed for organizations that want to:

1. Manage information and activities across data centers, on private and public clouds, and in pre-integrated systems.
2. Build their infrastructure on a common set of operational services such as security and identity services, logging, monitoring, auditing, and vulnerability scanning.
3. Create a versatile, fully integrated, and hyper-converged infrastructure that harnesses the combined power of containerized technology and IBM enterprise expertise.
4. Have the ability to scale dynamically for computing, storage, and network resources using a pay-as-you-go capacity model.
5. Increase developer productivity (by up to 75%) and operational agility (by up to 84%) within the organization.

Ready to select and implement the right IBM Cloud Paks for your business and support your digital transformation journey? Get in touch to see how we can help you with our consultation and implementation services.