IBM Cloud

Description

IBM Cloud is a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services offered by IBM, designed for businesses and enterprises. It provides a wide range of services, including Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings, with a strong focus on hybrid cloud environments, AI integration, and enterprise-grade security and compliance.

IBM Cloud’s infrastructure spans more than 60 data centers across 19 countries and six multizone regions as of 2025. This global footprint allows for scalable and resilient deployments, supporting diverse workloads from traditional enterprise applications to modern AI-driven solutions.

Key Features and Offerings:

• Hybrid Cloud Capabilities: IBM Cloud emphasizes hybrid cloud solutions, enabling organizations to deploy and manage applications consistently across on-premises, edge computing, and public cloud environments. This is facilitated by services like IBM Cloud Satellite, which extends IBM Cloud services, APIs, access policies, security controls, and compliance to any location, including other cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
• AI-Ready Infrastructure: IBM Cloud is built to support the highly dynamic and performance-intensive nature of AI workloads. It offers secure, AI-ready infrastructure with built-in security and compliance, designed for performance and resilience at scale. This includes specialized hardware like IBM z17 and IBM LinuxONE 5, powered by processors like the IBM Telum II, which are infused with AI capabilities for tasks such as mitigating loan risk, analyzing medical images, and preventing retail crime. The Spyre Accelerator for IBM z17 and LinuxONE 5 systems, and Power11 servers, further enhance low-latency inferencing for generative and agentic AI use cases.
• Object Storage: IBM Cloud Object Storage is a highly scalable and resilient service offering built-in encryption, multi-region support, and seamless integration with the IBM Cloud ecosystem. It serves as an optimized datastore for AI workloads, data lakehouses, media content, cloud-native applications, backup, and archives, providing up to 2x price performance and reducing costs by up to 50%. It boasts 14 9’s data durability and regional or cross-regional resiliency.
• Security and Compliance: Security is a core tenet of IBM Cloud, with features like secure AI at each stage of the AI pipeline (data, model, and usage security). IBM Cloud for Financial Services, for example, is designed as the world’s first financial services-ready public cloud, with anchor clients like Bank of America and BNP Paribas.
• Bare Metal and Virtual Servers: IBM Cloud has a long history with bare-metal compute offerings, predating other large cloud providers. It continues to be a leader in bare-metal, offering over 11 million possible custom configurations with the latest Power, Intel, and AMD CPUs and Nvidia GPUs. Promotions are frequently available for significant savings on bare metal servers and virtual servers.
• Managed Services and Open Source: IBM Cloud provides managed services to reduce the operational burden on DevOps and SRE teams. It leverages open-source technologies, such as Cloud Foundry for its PaaS offering (Bluemix, now integrated into IBM Cloud) and Kubernetes for its container services (IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, IKS). IBM also offers managed Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud.
• AI Services: IBM Cloud integrates with IBM watsonx.ai, IBM watsonx Assistant, and IBM Code Engine to enable easy deployment and embedding of AI across businesses, managing data sources and accelerating responsible AI workflows on a single platform. Serverless Fleets with GPUs are available on IBM Cloud Code Engine, offering elastic scale, GPU power for AI/ML, unified management, and pay-as-you-go pricing.