IBM Deploys Cloud-Computing Business Intelligence System

By Rick Whiting, CRN
November 16, 2009 11:33 AM ET

IBM has launched what it calls the largest private cloud computing system for business analytics, called Blue Insight, for its 200,000 employees and will offer customers the ability to build similar cloud-based systems based on the Blue Insight architecture.

Blue Insight will gather more than a petabyte of structured and unstructured data from more than 100 different databases and data warehouses throughout IBM and make it available to employees in the company's sales force and development operations, IBM said Monday.

Blue Insight runs on an IBM System z10 mainframe computer with 48 processors and uses the company's Cognos business intelligence software.

The new cloud computing system will enable IBM employees to access information and analysis from anywhere in the world for making sales decisions and to predict and act on business opportunities.

A sales executive, for example, can query real-time data to identify sales opportunities and understand how many sales in their region are ready to close. On the development side, a manufacturing process engineer can analyze real-time data from a plant floor to improve yield and reduce shipment delivery times, IBM said.

"This new model of cloud computing will provide our employees with a single place to access real business insights, improve standards compliance and create a repository of best practices throughout our company," IBM CIO Pat Toole said in a statement.

The IBM Smart Analytics Cloud packages elements of Blue Insight for large businesses. The package includes the z10 mainframe running the Linux operating system, Cognos 8 business intelligence software, and a range of installation, implementation, planning and strategy services.

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