IBM, a 108-year old technology pioneer, stands uniquely positioned to lead enterprises into an emerging paradigm it calls “Smart Work.” As artificial intelligence and cloud computing transform business operations, IBM continues doing what it does best - helping organizations extract insights from data to work smarter. This time, IBM isn’t just selling point solutions but an end-to-end blueprint for the next-generation digital workplace.
Over the company’s century-long history pioneering new eras - from mainframes powering corporate automation to personal computers revolutionizing the desktop - IBM led each wave early on. Today in the era of intelligent cloud and AI permeating business, IBM moves swiftly again to guide CIOs through an IT landscape growing more complex each day.
That’s because hybrid cloud and multiplicity now represent the new normal. Companies juggle private data centers alongside multiple public clouds hosting critical workloads with more arriving constantly. Managing security, compliance, data flows and spend across so many environments grows exceedingly difficult.
At the same time, executives expect employees to deliver faster without interruption despite going fully remote. Integrating and analyzing exponential data volumes to drive decisions also challenges traditional software.
Yet businesses able to master these compounding complexities position themselves to outperform peers overwhelmed by cloud fragmentation and data overload. Thus emerges IBM’s vision for Smart Work in the 2020s - an agile, insight-driven way of working that’s location-independent, modernizes collaboration and automates manual efforts.
IBM Cloud Underpins It All
Everything connects through the IBM Cloud serving as an open and secure foundation. With support for multiple public clouds (Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google) plus on-prem infrastructure, IBM Cloud streamlines accessing data and apps from anywhere while applying unified security policies.
IBM further touts its cloud’s open architecture along with over 30 availability zones worldwide as differentiators easing enterprise adoption. The IBM Cloud also purports advanced confidential computing tech securing data processed by AI.
CIO Strategist for IBM Cloud Howard Boville explains their infrastructure strategy:
“IBM Cloud gives clients uncompromising control over their own data privacy with industry-leading data confidentiality and security technologies. We offer a critical on ramp to AI adoption by addressing growing data privacy concerns inhibiting many enterprises.”
Infusing AI Everywhere
What really brings IBM’s vision for data-optimized work to life sits in its AI capabilities. IBM intends for its Watson-branded AI to infiltrate analytics, business processes and decision making at all levels of enterprise operations.
While machine learning permeates consumer tech from search to shopping carts, few businesses molded such algorithms into competitive advantages the way IBM prepares them to. Its AI platform operationalizes predictive insights so employees stay steps ahead and customers feel engaged through personalized interactions.
Some examples where IBM AI already converts raw data into strategic initiatives include:
- Predictive manufacturing minimizing assembly line disruptions
- Intelligent supply chain rerouting shipments based on external risk factors to mitigate delays
- Cloud migration foresight guiding which apps transfer seamlessly versus those needing re-platforming
- Call center virtual assistants fielding routine customer inquiries to boost human productivity
The list expands almost daily as IBM makes AI digestible across functions through turnkey apps. Its vast industry expertise applying new technologies at global scale gives IBM confidence in mainstream business AI adoption finally hitting an inflection point after years of empty hype.
The Future of Work is Smart
As a pioneer of business information technology for over a century, IBM feels the burden to elevate enterprises even when markets shift rapidly. In cloud, analytics and AI, IBM sees monumental opportunities again to shepherd organizations into more enlightened ways of working.
That’s why IBM aggressively courts decision-makers to bet on their Smart Work vision encompassing hybrid cloud flexibility, data-driven operations and ubiquitous AI assistants. This clears a path for knowledge workers to focus on judgment, creativity and meaningful collaboration with systems handling rote tasks.
By being the first to map such an ambitious workplace transformation strategy around AI and hybrid cloud, IBM expects to lead the next generation of corporate IT upgrades just as it did with mainframes and PCs previously. Should momentum build behind platform-agnostic AI integration, open clouds and distributed work tech, IBM in fact seems uniquely prepared to orchestrate how the world’s digital transformation unfolds.
“It’s tempting to move your data to a cloud-based platform, but where to start? In this experience report, Wes Pretsch explains how his team validated performance as part of their migration of a 1TB+ on-premise database to the cloud. And most importantly, Wes answers the most important question: Was it worth it?”