DEVOPSdigest

Skytap announced support for the IBM i operating system, generally available in Q2 2019, followed by support for IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX Enterprise Edition, which will become available in the second half of 2019.

These new capabilities broaden Skytap's value for migrating and running IBM i and AIX applications in the cloud with high availability.

Skytap is focused on making it easy to build, run, and evolve traditional applications by rapidly migrating them to the cloud, enabling modern development practices, and integrating new cloud architectures. To accelerate enterprise migration and adoption of IBM i applications in the public cloud, Skytap has joined with Rocket Software, HelpSystems, and SyncSort. Together, Skytap and its partners deliver a strong ecosystem of technology, service, and implementation capabilities to drive successful adoption initiatives via Skytap's public cloud offering.

"Enterprises are currently operating application portfolios that could benefit from cloud migration but are ill-suited for hyperscale clouds. These portfolios often include large IBM Power Systems installations and present a complex challenge that major providers can't solve," said Karri Alexion-Tiernan, SVP of Product Marketing & Digital, Skytap. "Our priority is to help customers and partners address these challenges by charting a better path forward. These added capabilities continue to distinguish Skytap as the preferred public cloud for IBM i applications."

Skytap Cloud is purpose-built to accelerate the cloud migration of applications that run on a variety of operating systems, including AIX, IBM i, and Linux on Power Systems. Skytap's IBM i support will be delivered with a diverse group of partners, providing end-to-end support for enterprises who are defining their modernization journey for IBM i and AIX-based applications in the cloud.

Rocket Software is actively testing products in Skytap's IBM i preview program, including its Rocket Aldon application lifecycle management (ALM) and DevOps solution suite. The combination of Skytap Cloud self-service environments and Rocket Aldon will deliver a comprehensive, on-demand solution for faster innovation and automation of IBM i application deployments.

"Until we started working with Skytap, we did not have a public cloud option for our IBM Power Systems customers. We're excited to join with Skytap to pioneer a path to cloud for IBM i and AIX, which will unlock significant value for customer applications that previously had no access to public cloud services," said Daniel Magid VP, Solution Sales, Rocket Software.

Since announcing support for AIX on Power Systems in 2017, it has become clear there is demand for a cloud-based high availability and disaster recovery solution for AIX. With the inclusion of IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX Enterprise Edition, Skytap will add support for these use cases from on-premises to Skytap Cloud and region-to-region within Skytap Cloud.

"The ability to run PowerHA for AIX in Skytap Cloud shows a continued commitment to IBM Power Systems and addresses the needs of these critical AIX applications," said Steven Finnes, IBM PowerHA Product Offering Manager. "Enterprises that have invested in AIX over the years are now looking for a path to the public cloud and Skytap Cloud provides a path forward."

"Skytap enables us to reliably scale our hands-on technical training for an event this size. We can create identical environment replicas hundreds of times with a click of a button, enabling us to offer real-time learning across our broad portfolio of technologies. It's a win for both IBM and our customers," said Erik D. Anderson, IBM Principal Architect, Digital Technical Engagement.

Building on its ability to integrate with other cloud-native services through APIs, Skytap has released an open source provider for Hashicorp Terraform. Customers can now use Terraform to manage Skytap Cloud for traditional application workloads, including IBM Power Systems, alongside hyperscale clouds for cloud-native applications.

Skytap's support for IBM i will be generally available in Q2, 2019. Support for IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX Enterprise will follow in H2, 2019.