Skytap Cloud and IBM Cloud for Skytap Solutions are the first and only public cloud offerings to support AIX, Linux, and Windows operating systems, giving enterprises the ability to migrate and modernize most critical, traditional applications
SEATTLE – November 14, 2017 – Skytap, Inc., a global cloud provider, today announced general availability of support for IBM’s AIX operating system on Skytap Cloud and IBM Cloud for Skytap Solutions. After obtaining five of its largest ten customers in 2017, and experiencing nearly 300 percent YoY growth in existing customer upgrades in Q3, Skytap has delivered a core differentiator that customers such as Blueworx are already adopting. Skytap Cloud and IBM Cloud for Skytap Solutions are the only public cloud offerings that support AIX, Linux, and Windows, and will deliver support for Linux on IBM Power Systems in the first half of 2018.
Advancing traditional applications’ functionality is critical for enterprises to increase agility and optimize existing IT investments. However, legacy applications are complex, and hyperscale clouds can rarely support their dependencies on physical infrastructure, presenting significant barriers to modernization. Gartner predicts, “Through 2020, 80 percent of Mode 1 modernization projects will fall short of cost savings targets due to a failure to first simplify and address unnecessary complexity.”[1] Skytap and IBM are working together to break down modernization barriers and help enterprises evolve the infrastructure, development processes, and architecture powering core business applications.
Skytap Cloud support for AIX is the latest result of Skytap and IBM’s strategic technology and go-to-market collaboration. IBM offers Skytap Cloud to its enterprise customers through IBM Cloud for Skytap Solutions, while Skytap Cloud runs on Skytap’s own data centers and on bare metal servers in IBM Cloud data centers around the world to deliver global scale.
Skytap also today announced that Blueworx, a leading interactive voice response (IVR) platform handling millions of calls each day, is using Skytap Cloud to modernize AIX-based applications powering its immersive customer experience services.
“Interactive voice response is a core underpinning of digital commerce. We’re continuing to push its boundaries and doing so requires ongoing modernization of our infrastructure, development, and applications themselves,” said Dean Upton, Director, Blueworx. “Skytap and IBM give us both fundamental technology for running our business, and a clear way forward for evolving how we deliver innovative customer experiences.”
“Our clients want to extend their mission-critical applications with cloud-native capabilities like AI, analytics and microservices, but they don’t want to start from scratch or disrupt lines of business,” said Zane Adam, VP, IBM Cloud. “The general availability of Skytap Cloud and IBM Cloud for Skytap Solutions support for AIX is a strong next step in our collaboration to help enterprises transition to the cloud.”
“Modernization is central to enabling enterprises to adapt to market conditions and customer demand. However, current one-size-fits-all cloud models simply aren’t realistic for most businesses,” said Brad Schick, CTO, Skytap. “IBM understands the complexity of enterprise applications, and together we’re meeting customers where they are, not the other way around. Evolutionary modernization is not only achievable, but offers immediate and long-term value without risking business operations or abandoning existing investments.”
Blueworx brings IVR to the enterprise with Skytap Cloud
Hundreds of customers use Blueworx Voice Response (BVR) to deliver modern voice response and unified messaging applications. The Blueworx platform runs on AIX and, in pursuit of greater development velocity, the company needed to modernize its AIX-based applications without rewriting them, a process that could take years without any benefits in the interim.
Blueworx is now migrating its AIX workloads to Skytap Cloud, where it can clone, share, or suspend these application environments in a single click, eliminating physical resource constraints to high-velocity application development. Leveraging Skytap Cloud to run Linux and AIX workloads side-by-side, Blueworx can now deliver IBM Watson’s language and speech capabilities through a cloud-based IVR solution offering greater scale, responsiveness, and efficiency.
Availability
Skytap Cloud support for AIX is immediately available as part of a Skytap Cloud or IBM Cloud for Skytap Solutions subscription.
Learn More
- Watch a demo of Blueworx BVR platform using Skytap Cloud and IBM Watson speech and language technology to power an interactive voice response application.
- Why Skytap
- IBM Cloud for Skytap Solutions
[1] Gartner, “Follow These Five Simple Steps to Rationalize and Renovate Your IT Infrastructure,” Philip Dawson, David J. Cappuccio, 7 August 2017.
