From Dustin Amrhein, Technical Evangelist, IBM and
Vanessa Grose, Advisory Software Engineer, IBM
Summary: Virtual images allow users to freeze-dry preferred software environments and deliver them to users in a rapid and consistent manner: As a result, companies are turning to virtual images as a means to improve software delivery within their data centers. As they make greater use of virtual images, challenges are emerging — such as determining how much content to put into a single image and how best to construct these images. The authors discuss these challenges and introduce the IBM® Image Construction and Composition Tool (ICCT), freely available for download (see Resources), that addresses many of these challenges and provides a systematic approach to constructing virtual images in the cloud.