When you are deciding on your environment for IBM® Integration Bus, consider your requirements and how you might want to implement a cloud solution.
IBM Integration Bus Version 9.0 introduces the option of installing IBM Integration Bus in the cloud.
Depending on your requirements, you might benefit from reduced operating costs and deployment flexibility for IBM Integration Bus when compared to a static installation.
Using a cloud vendor usually has a higher operating cost than using a static network-based solution, but less upfront capital is required and parts of the infrastructure are automated. Review the following graph as an example of how this can reduce costs overall:
While the cost equivalent in computing power is slightly higher than using your own server, you pay for as much resource as you use, thereby reducing the average cost over a period of time. There are many different financial models for cloud vendors that offer different services.
You can use your own cloud solution, if you have the appropriate skills within your organization to ensure maximum cost-efficiency of your resource use.
You can choose how much control you retain over your cloud installation by deciding whether you want your solution to be on premises or off premises, and whether that cloud is public or private.
See the following diagram for a visual representation of the relationship between these concepts:
You can use IBM Integration Bus in any of these configurations. For example, you might have a traditional installation of IBM Integration Bus privately on premises, but deploy your integration nodes in the cloud.
By using cloud technologies, you can choose to abstract parts of your network setup so that the physical components are instead virtual. You can then manipulate the non-physical components to meet the needs of your solution without the associated cost overheads of a physical change, such as changing physical servers or operating system.
This abstraction is collectively known as XaaS or Everything as a Service, and you can create any part of XaaS at different levels of system architecture.
For a cloud installation of IBM Integration Bus, you can benefit from:
Review these topics to learn about each level of XaaS and the advantages of using each layer with IBM Integration Bus.
You can still install IBM Integration Bus by using the provided installation images to a private file system. You might want to do this if you have a small-scale solution that is unlikely to change in size. To review what is required for a standard installation, see Installing IBM Integration Bus.