Despite the increased focus on big data over the past few years, most organizations are still talking about what big data is rather than focusing on what problems big data can address. Through conducting surveys, studying analyst findings, talking with more than 300 customers and prospects and implementing hundreds of big data solutions, IBM has identified the top five high-value use cases that can be your first step into big data:

Big data exploration
Enhanced 360-degree view of the customer
Security/intelligence extension
Operations analysis
Data warehouse augmentation

Data workloads are rapidly evolving and changing. Today's enterprises have many different types of applications, with different usage patterns, all constantly accessing data. As a result, data services need to be more robust and scalable. IBM PureApplication System and IBM PureData ™ System for Transactions are designed to meet these needs. This paper shows how the latest technology and expertise built into these systems gives businesses an innovative approach to rapidly create and manage highly scalable data services, without the complexity of traditional approaches.

As the primary focus of IT moves from increasing IT productivity through virtualization and cloud computing to enhancing business productivity, the biggest challenge that businesses face in executing corporate strategy is focusing the right people and resources on strategic initiatives. A key element in enhancing business productivity is driving down costs, which can help free up the funds needed to make strategic investments. Businesses also need a means to more effectively orchestrate how IT interacts with business processes and critical application environments. The solution lies in using managed services. Read this paper to find out more on how companies gained significant and quantifiable benefits from using managed services.

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.

The IBM Storwize family delivers sophisticated capabilities that are proven, efficient and dependable, in a wide range of storage systems designed to meet the differing needs of organizations, all built on a common platform. Shared technologies and common management features make the Storwize family the right system to meet today's needs and grow as your business grows.

IBM Rational solutions can help governments and social service agencies transform their business models, technology and workforce to better adapt to the way people interact with government, cost-effectively provide information across multiple channels and capitalize on new technology to deliver better services to citizens.

IBM has used the Storwize architecture to produce multiple storage systems across different usage segments to meet different customer needs. The ability to scale with a common underlying architecture has proven to deliver multiple benefits to IBM customers. Features developed for high-end enterprise systems now meet customer needs in other, more price conscious segments. The leverage from a common base for systems helps reduce development and support costs which are reflected in product costs for customers. The Storwize architecture also builds on Intel-based hardware, which provides continued advances with each new generation yet retains the same fundamental architecture. Read this paper to learn about the variety of system types in the Storwize family, including enterprise storage virtualization, storage systems, and storage integrated with servers helps to address diverse customer requirements with consistent function and ease of use.

Increasingly demanding IT requirements are necessitating change to the data center network. The amount of data that is being collected is increasing and changing, organizations are finding new ways to analyze, evaluate, and use the information that they collect. Hardware trends are making it cost effective to capture new information sources and to automate data management. In the hardware arena especially, falling prices and increasing capacity for memory devices are reshaping the storage industry. Solid-state drives, large amounts of RAM, and new I/O technologies influence raw system performance. Read this paper to learn how system virtualization can improve the utilization of hardware, software, net-working and storage resources.

Increasingly demanding IT requirements are necessitating change to the data center network (DCN). Like servers and storage, the network needs to evolve to deliver the flexibility and scalability required by a more virtualized IT environment. In this interview, Michele Girola, IBM network integration services product manager, explains how to enhance your DCN to support evolving technologies today and in the future.

A new research study, based on real world production data from 79,360 customer sites, "Comparing Virtualization Alternatives - What's best for your business?" is now available. The paper reviews quantitative business differentiators between x86, Unix, and System z virtualization technologies.

The IBM PureFlex System-a completely integrated hardware and software solution-optimized with Red Hat Enterprise Linux can improve business responsiveness, making it easier to take advantage of the power of open standards while driving efficiency with integrated management.

"Business-Class Servers for a PC Budget," Edison Group covers in this whitepaper one socket servers. Including updates to Windows Small Business Server to help sell a bundle of Windows SBS and IBM servers. Use it to help promote the benefits of our entry-class servers.

As today's big data challenges increase, the demands on data systems have never been greater. Pure Data System is the newest member of the PureSystems family and is optimized exclusively for delivery data services to today's demanding applications with simplicity, speed and lower cost. Registering for this online event will provide you detailed information about each model and allow you to further your knowledge and understanding about the value of the PureData System.