Drowning in big data? Take smarter computing for a spin
Published Monday, 12th December 2011
Just as taking a new car for a test drive can help cement a decision to buy, IBM is banking on its new Smarter Computing Workload Simulator to help sell CIOs on its IT technology for managing exploding volumes of business data.
The “big data” being generated by organizations today — everything from information about inventory being tracked by RFID (radio-frequency identification) to electricity and water consumption rates from sensor-equipped buildings — can put a huge strain on budget-constrained IT departments. But businesses can’t afford to ignore that data, because all that information contains a wealth of intelligence they can use to save money and make the most of the resources they have.
IBM says its systems can help companies do that, and developed the simulator to provide a cooler way of persuading CIOs to give its technologies a try.
Rather than telling execs how much more efficient their IT systems could be, and how much money those systems could save them, IBM is aiming to show them. The new online simulator creates a virtual model of an organization’s current data centers, then generates an alternative version along with graphics showing potential costs and savings.
IBM’s John Collins says the simulator is designed to be a “foot in the door” for CIOs who understand that smarter computing could help their companies become more efficient … but aren’t quite sure how.
“This tool makes it more of a reality for people,” he says.
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