IBM Cloud and watsonx Cheat Sheet

Updated 2026-05-22

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IBM Cloud is IBM's enterprise-grade public cloud platform, deeply differentiated by its hybrid cloud architecture, regulated-industry compliance, and native integration with the watsonx AI and data portfolio. Unlike the hyperscalers whose lineage is pure public cloud, IBM Cloud was purpose-built for organizations that must keep mission-critical workloads—mainframe, Power, SAP, regulated databases—close to on-premises infrastructure while consuming modern cloud services. The key mental model: IBM Cloud is not trying to win on breadth of services; it wins on governance, compliance, and IBM-legacy workload continuity, making it the platform of choice for financial institutions, government, and enterprises running IBM i, AIX, or Db2 at scale.

What This Cheat Sheet Covers

This topic spans 18 focused tables and 129 indexed concepts. Below is a complete table-by-table outline of this topic, spanning foundational concepts through advanced details.

Table 1: IBM Cloud Core Infrastructure ServicesTable 2: IBM Cloud Kubernetes and Serverless ComputeTable 3: IBM Cloud Databases (Managed)Table 4: IBM Cloud Object Storage — Storage ClassesTable 5: IBM Cloud IAM and Security ServicesTable 6: IBM Cloud Infrastructure as Code and AutomationTable 7: IBM Cloud ObservabilityTable 8: IBM Cloud Networking and Hybrid ConnectivityTable 9: IBM Cloud Satellite — Hybrid and EdgeTable 10: watsonx Platform OverviewTable 11: Granite Foundation Models on watsonxTable 12: IBM Cloud Pak for Data and watsonx.data ArchitectureTable 13: IBM Cloud Security — Confidential Computing and Key ManagementTable 14: IBM Cloud for Financial Services (FS-Validated Framework)Table 15: IBM Cloud Pricing and Commercial ModelsTable 16: IBM Cloud Geography — Multi-Zone Regions and Availability ZonesTable 17: IBM Power Virtual Server (PowerVS) — Hybrid IBM WorkloadsTable 18: IBM Cloud vs. Hyperscalers — Key Differentiators

Table 1: IBM Cloud Core Infrastructure Services

IBM Cloud's foundational infrastructure services cover compute, storage, networking, and container orchestration. These are the building blocks every architecture on the platform begins with, and understanding their scope and integration points is essential before diving into higher-level PaaS offerings.

Service	Example	Description
Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)	`us-south` region, 3 zones, subnets, security groups, ACLs	• Logically isolated network with subnets, security groups, and ACLs • supports zero-trust networking and Bare Metal, VSI, and Kubernetes compute
Virtual Server Instance (VSI) for VPC	`bx2-4x16` profile (4 vCPU, 16 GB RAM)	• On-demand VM in a VPC • profiles span balanced, memory, compute, GPU, and confidential • billed per second
Bare Metal Server for VPC	`bx2d-metal-96x384` bare metal with NVMe local storage	• Single-tenant physical server in VPC fabric • supports VMware and latency-sensitive workloads • FS-validated
IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service (IKS)	`ibmcloud ks cluster create vpc-gen2 --name mycluster`	• Fully managed, CNCF-certified Kubernetes • integrates with VPC, IAM, Block/File storage, Secrets Manager • 99.99% SLA for multi-zone clusters
Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud (ROKS)	`ibmcloud oc cluster create vpc-gen2 --version 4.18`	• Fully managed OpenShift (Kubernetes + developer tooling) • FS-validated • supports confidential computing tech preview and OpenShift Virtualization (GA May 2026).
IBM Cloud Object Storage (COS)	`ibmcloud cos bucket-create --bucket mybucket --region us-south`	• S3-compatible distributed object store • resiliency options: cross-region, regional, single data center • Smart Tier auto-optimizes cost across hot/cool/cold
IBM Cloud Block Storage for VPC	`--profile 10iops-tier` (10 IOPS/GB)	• SSD-backed persistent block volumes (10/5/3 IOPS-tier or custom) • attached to VSIs in a zone • encrypted at rest by default • FS-validated.

Table 1: IBM Cloud Core Infrastructure Services

Service	Example	Description
Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)	`us-south` region, 3 zones, subnets, security groups, ACLs	• Logically isolated network with subnets, security groups, and ACLs • supports zero-trust networking and Bare Metal, VSI, and Kubernetes compute
Virtual Server Instance (VSI) for VPC	`bx2-4x16` profile (4 vCPU, 16 GB RAM)	• On-demand VM in a VPC • profiles span balanced, memory, compute, GPU, and confidential • billed per second
Bare Metal Server for VPC	`bx2d-metal-96x384` bare metal with NVMe local storage	• Single-tenant physical server in VPC fabric • supports VMware and latency-sensitive workloads • FS-validated
IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service (IKS)	`ibmcloud ks cluster create vpc-gen2 --name mycluster`	• Fully managed, CNCF-certified Kubernetes • integrates with VPC, IAM, Block/File storage, Secrets Manager • 99.99% SLA for multi-zone clusters
Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud (ROKS)	`ibmcloud oc cluster create vpc-gen2 --version 4.18`	• Fully managed OpenShift (Kubernetes + developer tooling) • FS-validated • supports confidential computing tech preview and OpenShift Virtualization (GA May 2026).
IBM Cloud Object Storage (COS)	`ibmcloud cos bucket-create --bucket mybucket --region us-south`	• S3-compatible distributed object store • resiliency options: cross-region, regional, single data center • Smart Tier auto-optimizes cost across hot/cool/cold
IBM Cloud Block Storage for VPC	`--profile 10iops-tier` (10 IOPS/GB)	• SSD-backed persistent block volumes (10/5/3 IOPS-tier or custom) • attached to VSIs in a zone • encrypted at rest by default • FS-validated.