Bull announces bullion cloud platform: the fast, cost-effective solution to build simple and secure private clouds

Risk-free, turnkey solution - with the focus on meeting SLAs - that puts simplicity at the heart of private cloud infrastructures
Based on bullion server, the world's fastest x86 enterprise server
An integral part of "Le cloud by Bull", announced recently

Paris, October �19,�2011�-

Today, at VMworld 2011, Bull is launching its bullion cloud platform, designed to help enterprises build and implement private clouds. bullion cloud platform is a comprehensive solution combining the strength of servers that are designed and built in Europe, with the best of a broad range of partner offerings and Bull's own security technologies. bullion cloud platform meets the most demanding requirements in terms of security, scalability and performance.

Leveraging Bull's services offerings, bullion cloud platform enables large organizations, such as banks, hospitals or manufacturers, to successfully use private clouds for even their most sensitive and mission-critical data. It forms an integral part of "Le cloud by Bull": a strategic approach developed by Bull to help enterprises transition smoothly to private cloud infrastructures.

Helping enterprises keep their cloud infrastructures simple

bullion cloud platform takes full advantage of the bullion family of servers, with their record-breaking performance and robustness. It is designed to host hundreds of applications in a highly efficient way, as well as the most resource-hungry environments s such as massive databases, on a single Virtual Machine.
Delivered in a single rack, bullion cloud platform provides organizations with a ready-to-run solution. It helps to keep IT infrastructures simple, avoiding the nightmare of managing hundreds of servers and network devices.

Taking full advantage of the industry-leading VMware vCloud solution, bullion cloud platform gives end users secure, on-demand access to shared infrastructure resources, while simplifying data center management. With VMware vCloud, data center resources - including processing power, storage, networks and security - are gathered into 'virtual data centers': highly secure and expandable resource containers can then be shared between users and accessed through self-service portals.

Banking-class security

Business strategies leaked, trade secrets copied, client files raided, image and credibility damaged... the list of risks is a long one and the amount of potential damage colossal. From protection against data loss to defense-level encryption of data and transactions, bullion cloud platform embeds the highest levels of security to ensure controlled access, secure connections and monitors safeguarding of data, all using proven, certified technologies developed by Bull.

"bullion cloud platform capitalizes on Bull's extensive expertise in secure, 'plug and play' architectures to deliver the highest levels of performance, security and simplicity. It helps IT Departments offer the option of a cost-effective private cloud, tailored to the specific needs of the business, in rapid timescales. Bull itself has already implemented this approach for its own production needs: its bullion cloud platform has reduced total cost of ownership by 32% and cut its IT footprint by 80%," commented Michel Guillemet, Executive Vice-President, Innovative Products at Bull.

Three configurations to meet most customers' needs

bullion cloud platform combines bullion, the world's most scalable virtualization server*, with best-in-class technologies including VMware vCloud, EMC storage and Brocade networking. bullion cloud platform can be deployed in three different configurations:

Discovery: to meet test and development requirements, providing fast provisioning, using a pay-as-you-go model
Department: a cost-effective solution to mutualise IT services with a multi-tenant private cloud
Enterprise: to meet any level of SLA using banking-class security; the ideal platform to bring business-critical applications and databases to the cloud.

bullion cloud platform configurations are available from November 2011.

*According to SPEC benchmark, July 2011

Appendix: Discovery, Department and Enterprise cloud platform configurations in detail

	Discovery Agility	Department Cost-effectiveness	Enterprise Security
Use	Tests & Discovery	Infrastructure applications such as : messaging, internet service	Enterprise critical data such as SAP, Weblogic, data bases...
Benefits	Fast access to new temporary resources	High density consolidation Simplified infrastructure Improved TCO	Secured heavy production Quality of service, banking-class security Ultra fast
Reliability	Memory Protection Simple Backup	Memory Protection High Availability Simplified Management	Memory Protection, Enterprise Backup, global PRA
Scalability	Cloud Services Web-provisioning 300 Virtual Machines	Hyper consolidation : 168 applications on a single 4-socket server 500 Virtual Machines	Hyper Scalability : 8 to 16-sockets 700 Virtual Machines
HW resources	3x novascale bullion servers with 72x cores (Intel� Xeon� E7-4830), native VMware vSphere 5 embedded, 576GB of total RAM (192GB per server), 36x1Gb/s of total Ethernet ports connected to 1Gb/s Brocade switches for LAN and SAN connectivity, for fast, reliable and cost-efficient network connectivity, EMC VNX-e with 20x300GB SAS disks drives, Unisphere with thin provisioning, file de-duplication and local replication, seamless VMware integration, VNX CFS/NFS support, local protection suite.	3x novascale bullion servers with 120x cores (Intel� Xeon� E7-4850), native VMware vSphere 5 embedded, 1536GB of total RAM (512GB per server) 18x10Gb/s of total converged network ports connected to Brocade VDX switches. Leveraging Brocade VCS fabric technology, enabling cloud-optimized, networking. EMC VNX with total capacity of 20TB Unisphere, with virtual provisioning, VNX FAST Suite to automatically optimize for the highest performance and lowest storage cost.	3x novascale bullion servers with 240x cores (Intel� Xeon� E7-4870), native VMware vSphere 5 embedded, 3072GB of total RAM (1TB per server), 36x10Gb/s of total converged network ports connected to Brocade VDX switches. Leveraging Brocade VCS fabric technology, enabling cloud-optimized networking, EMC VMax the industry's most powerful networked storage, providing hundreds of petabytes, millions of IOPs, all controlled and integrated into a single Management Console.
Resources allocation model	70% Pay-as-you-go 15% Allocation model 15% Guaranteed resources	75% Allocation model 10% Pay-as-you-go 15% Guaranteed resources	80% Guaranteed resources 15% Allocation model 5% Pay-as-you-go
Security	Secure VMware hypervisor deployment, Embedded HW security feature support including redundant Hot-swap fans, I/O adapters, memory protection, VMware vShield Edge.	In addition to Discovery Commvault Simpana for Enterprise disk-based backup, Bull Performance Report to gain a Global View of business service performance, Encrypt data where it's created, disk-based WORM functionality, anti-virus integration and alerting.	In addition to Department visibull Dataleak Management to protect against data loss, and especially industrial espionage, Evidian IAM: to ensure security policies. The way people interact with information systems is at the heart of the bullion cloud platform, Bull TrustWay encryption solution.
Integrated software	VMware vSphere 5, VMware vCloud Director 1.5, vShield Edge, Management VMware vCenter with plug-ins of: Bull System Manager EMC Unisphere Brocade	In addition to Discovery Management Commvault Simpana for Enterprise disk-based backup, Bull Performance Report: Activity Monitoring for IT Operations, VNX plug_in for VMware for provisioning, management, cloning and de-duplication.	In addition to Department Evidian IAM: to ensure security policies are obtained, EMC FASTsuite and Security et Compliance Suite, Bull Performance Report Activity Monitoring for IT Operations to gain a Global View of business service performance.

About Bull

�

Bull is a leader in secure mission-critical digital systems. The Group is dedicated to developing and implementing solutions where computing power and security serve to optimize its customers' information systems, to support their business.

Bull operates in high added-value markets including computer simulation, Cloud computing and 'computing power plants', outsourcing and security.

Currently Bull employs around 9,000 people across more than 50 countries, with over 700 staff totally focused on R&D. In 2011, Bull recorded revenues of €1.3 billion.

For more information visit: http://www.bull.com
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http://twitter.com/bull_com