As organizations around the world increasingly look for ways to reduce IT complexity and overcome the growing worldwide skills shortage, IBM today announced growing momentum of IBM PureSystems among global clients and business partners. In addition to education and technical guidance, IBM is also announcing new financing options as well as increased support from more than 700 of its Business Partners.

According to industry experts, approximately three-quarters of global employers cite a lack of experience, skills or knowledge as the primary reason for the difficulty filling IT positions. As a result, organizations are searching for new computing models that don’t require the additional commitment of significant resources or employee training to set up and maintain.

IBM PureSystems meets this demand by providing patterns of expertise – a new technology model that builds on the experience of thousands of IBM clients and radically streamlines the set-up and management of hardware and software resources.

Global Clients Embrace IBM PureSystems

Since launching in April, clients around the world are using IBM PureSystems to reduce IT cost and complexity. For example:

· BPTP, a leading Indian real estate company, selected IBM PureSystems to streamline its IT infrastructure to improve the overall home buying experience for its customers. Established in 2003, BPTP has experienced rapid growth over the last decade. Sustaining and building upon this growth required BPTP to find a better computing and storage solution. To meet these challenges, it selected IBM PureSystems for all of its processing and storage requirements.

· PCCW, a leading information technology outsourcing company based in Hong Kong, has selected IBM PureSystems as the foundation for its new Enterprise Solutions Superstore – an online environment for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). As a result, they are now able to offer customers applications on the cloud using a Software-as-a-Service model.

· ValeCard, a multi-industry conglomerate based in Brazil, has achieved 40 percent growth annually over the past three-years. Facing rapid expansion of its business, ValeCard turned to IBM PureSystems to manage thousands of transaction records from contracts with large companies and government entities. Additionally, ValeCard is using IBM PureSystems to help it meet an increasing set of new regulations and standards for data availability.

“One of the driving factors behind ValeCard’s growth is our ability to provide clients with customized solutions,” said Jose Geraldo Ortigosa, ValeCard Operations Manager. “IBM PureSystems provides us with the latest Cloud technology and other key capabilities we need to maintain and accelerate this growth.”

IBM’s Ecosystem of 700 Partners Drives PureSystems Adoption

For IBM Business Partners, PureSystems creates a new opportunity to help clients solve the complexity of enterprise IT, reduce costs and encourage innovation. From resellers to distributors and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), more than 700 Business Partners are supporting IBM PureSystems. PureSystems currently run tens of thousands of existing ISV applications across four operating environments including Windows, Linux, AIX, and IBM System i. Additionally, Business Partners have created more than 160 new solutions and applications that are optimized to run on PureSystems. These patterns of expertise, which span 20 industries, can be accessed through the IBM PureSystems Centre. They include leading solutions from some of the world’s largest ISVs, including ERP systems and applications for the banking, marketing, healthcare and energy industries.

Numerous partners are also installing PureSystems in their own datacenters. For example Computer Gross, a managed service provider in Italy, and OneTree Solutions, an ISV from Luxembourg are both using the cloud capabilities of IBM PureSystems as a way to more easily meet the needs of their customers.

"Because IBM offers all this technology in one solution, PureSystems provides benefits that are more than the sum of the parts," said Denis Avrilionis, Managing Director, OneTree Solutions. "Using the new expert integrated system and the patterns of expertise, OneTree Solutions was able to slash deployment of our PriceLenz software from three weeks to eight minutes. In our understanding, PureSystems is the most advanced integrated cloud solution in the market."

To help address the new opportunity that PureSystems presents, IBM is also providing training, marketing, certifications and technical validation support to business partners. For instance, dozens of IBM Innovation Centers in cities such as Bangalore, Dublin, Johannesburg and Shanghai are helping Business Partners develop and test their applications using IBM PureSystems. Business Partners can also bring their clients to IBM Innovation Centers to see PureSystems technology at work.

In addition, more 1,300 business partners -- ISVs, managed service providers, resellers, system integrators and distributors – have been showing their support and interest in PureSystems by attending Business Partner Day and training events in 27 cities around the world. PureSystems cloud capabilities are also drawing interest, with 500 developers using the PureSystems Cloud Trial to create applications through IBM's SmartCloud that are ready to run on IBM's new expert integrated systems.

IBM Offers New Financing Options for PureSystems

While technology options for businesses are growing rapidly, companies are also searching for strategic solutions to help them shift spending away from maintaining infrastructure and toward innovative investments.

For example, to help credit-qualified clients easily acquire IBM PureSystems, IBM Global Financing is making available a range of financing options. As a result, clients will be able to avoid paying cash up-front, while lowering their total cost of ownership. This is the first time that clients can lease the entire value of the system, including hardware and software.

Credit-qualified clients that elect financing can see immediate benefits with PureSystems while deferring their first payment for 90 days. Additionally, IBM Global Asset Recovery Services can buy back servers, including those made by HP and Oracle, for clients migrating to IBM PureSystems.

Several clients are already taking advantage of this new financing as they deploy their new IBM PureSystems. For instance, BPTP chose to finance the PureSystems solution with IBM Global Financing, which assures them a faster return on investment and lower ownership risk.

PureSystems, the result of $2 billion in research, development and acquisitions over four years, has been designed to help change the economics of IT and help organizations meet skills shortages by reducing IT costs and complexity so they can put more resources towards innovation and growth. With PureSystems, IBM has taken the unprecedented step of completely integrating all of the technology components – virtualized servers, storage, networking and cloud management software – needed to enable a customer to turn on a private cloud system within minutes. In addition, the highly scalable PureSystems cloud is delivered with built-in security.

There are two models of the PureSystems family available – PureFlex System and PureApplication System. PureFlex System enables organizations to more efficiently create and manage an infrastructure, while PureApplication System allows organizations to quickly deploy and reduce the cost and complexity of managing applications. Both have already shipped to leading clients in 5 continents.

For more information on IBM PureSystems visit: www.ibm.com/press/pure