Transform the Core, Build for the Future: Asset Management Innovation with IBM Maximo on AWS

In today’s era of decarbonization, industrial enterprises face unique challenges to transform the core of current asset operations while deploying digital strategies and assets to innovate for the future. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that in the power sector alone, notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic, global asset investments in 2020 exceeded $650 billion. The global push to shift to renewable energy sources is driving changes in the utility asset mix. International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) research suggests that the share of renewable energy in the power sector will increase from 25% in 2017 to 85% by 2050, mostly through growth in solar and wind power generation.

Energy and power companies are working to meet societal demands for cleaner, leaner asset footprints while simultaneously facing growing demands on service reliability and affordability. Against this backdrop, based on customer requests, the IBM and AWS Partner team recently developed a new AWS Quick Start to run IBM Maximo on AWS. This will reduce cost, increase the security profile, and unlock agility and innovation, making it easier to leverage advanced analytics and ML tools from AWS. IDC named IBM Maximo a leader in its MarketScape report for Enterprise Asset Management (EAM).

The IBM/AWS collaboration is the subject of an IDG CIO webinar now available on demand here: Get ahead in the cloud and drive asset management innovation with AWS & IBM Maximo for Utilities.

About the IBM Maximo Quick Start on AWS        

The IBM Maximo Quick Start on AWS uses AWS CloudFormation templates to implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) as a way to build and deploy IBM Maximo into a VPC. Customers can choose to launch a new VPC or select an existing one within their AWS account. The Quick Start will configure the VPC, set up subnets in two different Availability Zones (AZ), configure security groups, build a Maximo application EC2 server in each AZ, configure an Application Load Balancer to distribute traffic to the Maximo servers, and deploy an Oracle RDS in a Multi-AZ configuration. In addition, the Quick Start deploys a Maximo build an Amazon EC2 server, which can be used to download Maximo patches and extensions to manage and enhance the Maximo installation. With this configuration, customers get a highly available Maximo installation that includes a failover database. Customers have a choice of deploying Maximo Core or Maximo Core with Energy and Utilities, Nuclear, Transportation, Scheduling, or the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) modules. The entire deployment process is completed in under three hours.

IBM Maximo EAM High Availability Architecture on AWS

The Quick Start can be deployed into any AWS Region (with the exception of China). This includes two AWS GovCloud (US) Regions in the United States, both of which meet FedRAMP high standards. US-based utility customers should consider deploying Maximo Nuclear into the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.

Security First

The Quick Start uses AWS Key Management Service to encrypt all data. Customers can choose to use the AWS Certificate Manager to configure an SSL certificate to encrypt traffic between end users and Maximo. All servers are deployed in a private subnet with no direct route to the internet. This configuration offers an additional layer of security to the Maximo assets on AWS. An AWS NAT Gateway is configured so the build server can download patches, updates, and additional modules for Maximo.  The Maximo application servers are part of an AWS Auto Scaling group that ensures that at least two servers are running at any point in time. Customers can use this added resilience to know that their Maximo service will continue to operate even if a server fails for some reason.

Visit the AWS Power and Utilities security page for additional security resources or download the AWS IBM Maximo Quick Start to get started today.