This IBM® Redbooks® Solution Guide explains the business and technical value of emerging patterns of expertise in cloud computing, with specific applicability to IBM PureApplication™ System, IBM Workload Deployer, IBM SmartCloud® Orchestrator, and IBM SmartCloud Application Services. It explains how patterns help companies use the different cloud environments that IBM offers.

"Businesses that depend on web applications are constantly looking for ways to increase the efficiency of developing new applications and reduce the complexity of administering the environment. But many of the tasks required for application development, configuration and deployment are time consuming and expensive. IT is under pressure to control these costs while ensuring that applications will run smoothly and web-based interactions will be fast, responsive and secure. The complementary capabilities of IBM® WebSphere® Application Server and IBM PureApplication™ System can help address these challenges. This paper describes how organizations can save time and money through consolidation and acceleration of applications onto a flexible IBM PureApplication System environment with built-in expertise."

The skills needed to quickly design, test, configure and integrate solutions into today’s complex IT environments can be costly and scarce. IT managers may find themselves unable to develop and deploy applications and supporting systems as quickly and efficiently as they would like, even in virtual and cloud environments. As a result, businesses may lack the agility needed to be successful in a fast-paced, competitive environment. To address these challenges, IBM® PureSystems™ offerings provide patterns of expertise designed to deliver: Faster time-to-value; reduced costs and resources; lower risk and reduced errors; Essentially, a pattern is a recurring solution to a standard problem. This paper is intended to give business decision makers and IT executives an understanding of IBM PureSystems patterns—what they are, how they work and why they can provide exceptional value to an organization.

There are many great things to come out of open source initiatives, not the least of which is innovation. But relying on an open source application server for your most critical customer-facing apps may not be the smartest strategy. Consider the security, integrity, scalability, and ultimately lower TCO of the proven IBM WebSphere Application Server for your enterprise.

As a small or medium-sized business, knowing which infrastructure investments you need to make to improve your business is easy. The struggle is being able to apply your finite resources for long-term benefits when the day-to-day demands of your business keep your IT assets more than busy. A private cloud is one of those solutions that deliver immediate and impactful benefits with minimal pain. Read this brief e-guide to see how a private cloud on IBM® System x® servers, powered by the latest Intel® Xeon® processors, can accelerate the journey to smarter computing for your enterprise.

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Forrester Research has just completed a Total Economic Impact study for a large financial services institution to quantify the actual return on investment for a service virtualization. Read Forrester's analysis to learn how service virtualization is eliminating testing bottlenecks and significantly reducing the cost of testing.

Developers must deliver high-quality applications while limiting their testing expenses. In this challenging environment, a combination of automated integration testing and test virtualization can enable test teams to improve software quality and keep up with the rate of change.

Collaborative design management helps you address complexity both at the team level and at the individual developer level. It enables integration of Architecture, Design and Development disciplines with the rest of the life cycle and supports the ALM imperatives. It provides advanced Architecture, Design and Construction capabilities to help organizations be more productive delivering applications leveraging the latest in emerging run-times, technologies and standards.

Four technology trends - cloud computing, mobile technology, social collaboration and analytics - are shaping the business and converging on the data center. But few data strategies are designed with the requisite flexibility, scalability or resiliency to meet the new demands. Read the white paper to learn how a good data center strategy can help you prepare for the rigors and unpredictability of emerging technologies. Find out how IBM's predictive analytics are helping companies build more accurate, forward-looking data center strategies and how those strategies are leading to more agile, efficient and resilient infrastructures.