Configured to meet your needs.

A server configuration consists of a virtual machine along with optional persistent storage and a network access method. IBM lets you choose the combination of resources that makes sense for you.

Virtual machine instances

A choice of nine virtual machine (VM) instance sizes means you can pick the 32- or 64-bit configuration options that best fit your needs. VM instances can be provisioned as standalone servers or in combination with each other to build more sophisticated configurations that support, for example, a layered Web server architecture. Features such as multiple IP addresses (up to four) private virtual LANs and anti-collocation of machines support implementations of this sort.  Requesting anti-collocation for two virtual servers helps ensure that the cloud will run them on separate physical nodes to guard against both virtual servers failing, should a physical node fail.

The user has the option to provision virtual machines with a minimal amount of instance storage (60 GB), if full instance storage isn't necessary. Provisioning with minimal storage can reduce provisioning times for large virtual machine types.

Virtual machine instance storage is erased when the instance is deleted. To store data for longer periods, blocks of persistent storage are available. A copy of the virtual machine itself may be stored in a private image.

Virtual machines 32-bit configurations	Copper	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Virtual CPUs with 1.25 GHz	1	1	2	4
Virtual memory (Gigabytes)	2	2	4	4
Instance storage (Gigabytes)	60	175	350	350

Virtual machines 64-bit configurations	Copper	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Platinum
Virtual CPUs with 1.25 GHz	2	2	4	8	16
Virtual memory (Gigabytes)	4	4	8	16	16
Instance storage (Gigabytes)	60	850	1024	1024	2048

Instances may be provisioned with the full amount shown or with just a 60GB root segment.

Object storage

With our object storage option, you can order an object storage account that provides access to an Internet file system, which allows you to store and retrieve data and other content files as objects in storage that is not attached to or associated with virtual machine instances. The Internet file system provides a true global namespace that allows you to upload a file of any size once from virtually anywhere in the world and access it from virtually anywhere. It is optimized for storing unstructured data such as documents, spreadsheets, presentations, audio and visual files. Files and folders are accessed and managed through simple web application programming interfaces (APIs) or a network attached storage (NAS) interface. They are individually accessible with user ID and password or, for selected files or folders, by anonymous users.

When ordering an object storage account, you select the cloud data center storage facility locations for your data. You can select either a one-copy or a two-copy policy for the account that provides either a 99.9% or a 99.99% availability service level agreement (SLA), respectively. You pay only for the storage actually consumed by your files, with no up-front costs or commitments.

Persistent storage blocks

You can order blocks of persistent storage to use with a virtual machine instance for longer-term storage of data. Blocks are available in the following eight sizes: 60 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB, 8 TB and 10 TB.

The private images you create are saved on persistent storage separate from these storage blocks.

Network access options

IBM SmartCloud Enterprise provides network bandwidth for inbound and outbound data transfers between the data center and the Internet. When configuring a virtual machine instance, you can choose to make it accessible directly from the Internet or to place it on a private virtual LAN (VLAN) in the cloud. To make it accessible directly from the Internet, you can either let the automated provisioning system assign a publicly accessible IP address randomly, or you can assign the instance to an IP address you have reserved. Each virtual machine instance can have up to four IP addresses either on the Internet, on your VLAN or a mix. Servers with both a public Internet and private IP addresses can act as proxies to your back-end servers isolated on a VPN in the cloud.

Reserved IP addresses

You may reserve static IP addresses to use with your instances. Simply use the self-service portal to submit an order for an IP address, and the system will allocate one for you. It is reserved for your exclusive use until you choose to delete the reservation. IP addresses are charged on a per-hour basis.

VPN services

IBM can set up a VPN environment in each cloud data center to provide virtual network isolation of your virtual machine instances. Each VPN environment consists of up to five private virtual LANs (VLANs), plus a VPN gateway with up to five tunnels for connecting to the data centers of your choice.

Instances that are provisioned with IP addresses on your private VLANs can only be accessed through the VPN gateway. They are not accessible from the Internet. To use a VPN gateway in a cloud data center, you will need to provide an IPsec gateway on your side of the network. You may order one VPN environment per cloud data center.

Windows 2012 (pre-release)

SmartCloud Enterprise is offering a pre-release capability for customers to provision Windows 2012 images. Windows Server 2012 is available now from Microsoft and provides many enhancements from previous Windows Server versions. Windows Server 2012 targets cloud workloads, so customers will be able to test these capabilities for their workloads on SmartCloud Enterprise. During this pre-release, Windows Server 2012 will be available to all customers and limited to non-production use.