ARMONK, N.Y., May 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM)
announces advances in artificial intelligence (AI), hybrid cloud,
and quantum computing at the company's Think conference at
12:00 p.m. ET today. The innovations
highlight IBM's role in helping its clients and partners accelerate
their digital transformations, return to work smarter, and build
strategic ecosystems that can drive better business
outcomes.
"We will look back on this year and last as the moment the world
entered the digital century in full force," said IBM Chairman and
CEO Arvind Krishna. "In the same way
that we electrified factories and machines in the past century, we
will use hybrid cloud to infuse AI into software and systems in the
21st century. And one thing is certain: this is a
future that must be built on a foundation of deep industry
collaboration. No one understands this better than IBM, which is
one of the reasons we are boosting investment in our partner
ecosystem. Also at Think 2021, we are unveiling our latest hybrid
cloud and AI innovations – the very technologies that serve as the
building blocks of a new IT architecture for business."
IBM is all-in on hybrid cloud and AI because we understand that
businesses need a clear and credible path to modernizing their
mission-critical systems. A new IBM study on the adoption of AI for
business reveals that the imperative to embed AI into business
processes became more urgent during the pandemic. Of IT
professionals surveyed, 43 percent said that their companies had
accelerated their rollout of AI. And nearly half of global IT
professionals surveyed said they evaluate AI providers in large
part on their ability to automate processes. That is why IBM has
invested heavily in building rich and powerful AI capabilities for
business.
We are already helping thousands of clients across every
industry transform their businesses with the power of our hybrid
cloud and AI platform. The following innovations are designed to
equip businesses for the next stage of their digital journeys.
New Capabilities Bring Data and AI Together
- AI to Help Automate How Customers Access, Unify and Manage
Data Anywhere with Cloud Pak for Data: A breakthrough
capability in Cloud Pak for Data that uses AI to help customers get
answers to distributed queries as much as 8x faster than previously
and at nearly half the cost of other compared data warehouses.
AutoSQL (Structured Query Language) automates how customers access,
integrate and manage data without ever having to move it,
regardless of where the data resides or how it is stored.
AutoSQL solves one of the most critical pain points customers are
facing as they look to reduce the complexity of curating data for
AI and eliminate the high cost of moving data, while also
uncovering hidden insights to make more accurate AI-driven
predictions. With the launch of AutoSQL, IBM Cloud Pak for Data now
includes the highest-performing cloud data warehouse on the market
(based on our benchmarking study) that can run seamlessly across
any hybrid multi-cloud environment – including private clouds,
on-premises and any public cloud. AutoSQL will be one of several
new technologies woven into a new data fabric in the Cloud Pak for
Data. The new intelligent data fabric will automate complex data
management tasks by using AI to discover, understand, access and
protect distributed data across multiple environments, while
unifying disparate data sources across a common data foundation.
For more information, read the blog: 5 Things to Know about
Cloud Pak for Data and New Data Fabric.
- Watson Orchestrate Helps Professionals Automate Work to
Increase Productivity: Watson Orchestrate is a new interactive
AI capability designed to increase the personal productivity of
business professionals across sales, human resources, operations
and more. Requiring no IT skills to use, Watson Orchestrate enables
professionals to initiate work in a very human way, using
collaboration tools such as Slack and email in natural language. It
also connects to popular business applications like Salesforce, SAP
and Workday®. Watson Orchestrate uses a powerful AI engine that
automatically selects and sequences the pre-packaged skills needed
to perform a task, and connects with applications, tools, data and
history on-the-fly. This can help workers more quickly perform
routine tasks, such as scheduling meetings or procuring approvals,
or more mission-critical tasks, like preparing proposals or
business plans. Watson Orchestrate is the latest AI-powered
automation capability from IBM designed to help people reclaim a
significant amount of their time to focus on more strategic tasks.
It was developed by IBM Research and is now available in preview as
part of the IBM Automation Cloud Paks and is expected to be
generally available later this year. For more information, read
the blog: 5 Things to Know about Watson Orchestrate.
- Maximo Mobile Transforms the Work of Field Technicians:
IBM has launched Maximo Mobile, an easy-to-deploy mobile platform
with IBM's leading Maximo asset management solution at the core.
Maximo Mobile is designed to transform the work of field
technicians who maintain physical assets such as roads, bridges,
production lines, power plants, refineries and more. A new,
intuitive interface provides technicians with the right asset
operational data at the right time. Even in the most remote
locations, users can access Watson AI and in-depth organizational
knowledge to easily solve complex issues. This powerful combination
of AI, intelligent workflows, remote human assistance and access to
digital twins puts decades of industry experience directly into the
hands of technicians for safer, more efficient operations. For
more information, watch the video: Empowering the Technician of
the Future with Maximo Mobile.
New AI Transforms How Companies Develop, Deploy and Operate
IT and Modernize Applications
- Project CodeNet Dataset Advances AI's
Understanding and Translation of Code: IBM Research is
releasing Project CodeNet, a large-scale, opensource dataset
comprised of 14 million code samples, 500 million lines of code and
55 programming languages, to enable AI's understanding and
translation of code. Project CodeNet is currently the largest, most
differentiated dataset in its class and addresses three main use
cases in coding today: code search (automatically translating one
code into another, including legacy languages like COBOL); code
similarity (identifying overlaps and similarities among different
codes); and code constraints (customizing constraints based on a
developer's specific needs and parameters). IBM believes Project
CodeNet will serve as a valuable benchmark dataset for
source-to-source translation and transitioning legacy codebases to
modern code languages, helping businesses speed up their
application of AI. For more information, read the blog:
Kickstarting AI for Code: Introducing Project CodeNet.
- Mono2Micro Helps Take the Pain Out of Cloud Migration:
IBM has added a new capability into WebSphere Hybrid Edition that
enables enterprises to optimize and modernize their applications
for hybrid cloud. IBM Mono2Micro uses AI developed by IBM Research
to analyze large enterprise applications and provide
recommendations on how to best adapt them for the move to cloud. It
can simplify and speed up an error-prone process, which can reduce
costs and maximize ROI. IBM Mono2Micro is one of IBM's suite of
AI-powered products and services that can make it faster to migrate
to the cloud. For more information, read the blog: IBM
Mono2Micro: Three Things You Need to Know.
Leading Brands Adopt IBM Hybrid Cloud and AI
Solutions
- IBM Watson Assistant Fuels COVID Response for CVS
Health: IBM is collaborating with leading diversified health
services company, CVS Health to help the national health care
company handle a tenfold spike in call volume as the US rolls out
its Covid-19 vaccination program. IBM Global Business Services
(GBS) and CVS Health developed and delivered a customer care
solution using IBM Watson Assistant on IBM Public Cloud in just
four weeks. Infusing AI and natural language processing into the
critical workflow of its telephonic customer care system, CVS
Health has been able to quickly and accurately respond to a range
of questions on COVID-19 from tests, to vaccines, symptoms, proof
of vaccination, cost and more, freeing up human agents to handle
the most complex requests. As government guidance has evolved, the
team's rapid updates have enabled the virtual agent to customize
responses based on vaccine status across all 50 US states. Since
launching in early January, the virtual voice assistant has handled
millions of calls –a majority without human assistance –and cut
call length down significantly.
- EY and IBM create Financial Services Center of
Excellence for Hybrid Cloud: EY and IBM have established a
Center of Excellence that offers new open hybrid cloud solutions
built with Red Hat OpenShift for the IBM Cloud for Financial
Services. The solutions will be centered on regulatory compliance,
digital trust and security, leveraging IBM technology and EY
experience working with financial institutions to drive digital
transformation and accelerate cloud adoption. They will be designed
to address the specific and evolving requirements of financial
services organizations as they transition to the cloud and
transform business processes. IBM Cloud for Financial Services
incorporates regulatory and compliance standards and offers a
highly secure environment for financial services institutions to
transact with their technology partners and customers. For more
information, read the release from EY: EY and IBM announce the
creation of Center of Excellence to help accelerate digital
transformation for financial services institutions.
Continued Investments in IBM's Partner
Ecosystem
- New Benefits to Drive Partner Success: As part of a
$1 billion investment to support its
partner ecosystem, IBM unveiled new competencies, skills
training, and benefits to ensure its partners succeed in an
increasingly competitive market. For example, IBM has created a new
competency framework to enable partners to demonstrate expertise,
technical validation, and sales success in specialized areas such
as hybrid cloud infrastructure, automation and security. IBM
ecosystem partner Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has already
achieved competencies for building an industrial and manufacturing
AI solution for data scientists and AI developers. To further its
investment in ecosystem partners, IBM is also expanding
availability of its Cloud Engagement Fund (CEF), to all partner
types, whether they build on, service, or re/sell IBM technology.
CEF provides investment through significant technical resources and
cloud credits for partners to help migrate customer workloads to
hybrid cloud environments. IBM's collaboration with Siemens Digital
Industries Software is just one example of how the CEF is helping
IBM partners scale. Through this joint initiative, Siemens will
apply IBM's open hybrid cloud approach, built on Red Hat OpenShift,
to extend the deployment flexibility of MindSphere, the industrial
IoT-as-a-service solution from Siemens. For more information,
read the blog: IBM Announces New Benefits to Drive Partner
Success as Ecosystem Momentum Accelerates.
IBM Brings Quantum Computing One Step Closer to Everyday
Use
- Qiskit Runtime Software Boosts Quantum Circuit
Processing Speed by 120x: IBM is making it faster and easier
for developers to use quantum software by introducing Qiskit
Runtime. This software is containerized and hosted in the hybrid
cloud, instead of running most of its code on the user's computer.
Together with improvements in both the software and processor
performance, this allows Qiskit Runtime to boost the speeds of
quantum circuits, the building blocks of quantum algorithms, by 120
times. Qiskit, the IBM-developed open-source framework for quantum
computing for a global community of developers, aims to make
quantum computing accessible to all. By introducing Qiskit Runtime,
IBM is enabling quantum systems to run complex calculations such as
chemical modeling and financial risk analysis in hours, instead of
several weeks. To show the power of the software, IBM recently
demonstrated how the lithium hydride molecule (LiH) could be
modeled on a quantum device in nine hours, when previously it took
45 days. This kind of improvement is key to scaling quantum
computation for new use cases. For more information, read the
blog: IBM Quantum Delivers 120x speedup of quantum workloads
with Qiskit Runtime.
The announcements made during today's Think event come just days
after IBM unveiled the world's first two nanometer
chip which will enable faster, more efficient computing from
the datacenter to the edge; Cloud Engine, a front-end platform
that can help developers quickly deploy cloud-native applications
without having to acquire new skills or configure complex code;
Spectrum Fusion, a fully-containerized version of IBM's storage and
data protection software designed to provide a streamlined way to
discover data from across the enterprise; and IBM's alliance with
Zscaler on Zero Trust where IBM Security Services combines the
technology of Zscaler and the expertise of IBM to help clients
adopt an end-to-end secure access service edge (SASE) approach,
marrying authentication and permission to deliver security and
privacy enhancements.
About IBM
IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services
provider. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on
insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce
costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly
3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure
areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare
rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect
their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely.
IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing,
industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver
open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by
IBM's legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility,
inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more
information.
IBM Media Relations Contacts:
Angelena Abate
Angelena.Abate@ibm.com
1-646-234-8060
Zoe Hoffmann
Zoe.Hoffmann@ibm.com
1-480-580-7514
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