IBM’s Watson makes headlines fairly often and why not? The enterprise-ready AI offers a host of unique features and works across many systems for many industries.
As of today, however, Watson will also work with private and public cloud services.
What Makes This Move Possible
That’s right — the IBM AI works across cloud providers including Microsoft’s Azure, the Google Cloud Platform, AWS, and others. The IBM Cloud Private platform makes this possible.
Previously, IBM’s public cloud made Watson Assistant, Watson Studio for building AI, and Watson OpenScale available for users. But this new system lets users run programs using their own data centers.
Essentially, these will be AI-assisted services managed by your own team.
The IBM cloud platform still uses open-source technologies such as Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes. Though this move marks a straying from the previously open protocols, it does broaden their AI’s overall appeal and market share.
What Services are Functional Right now
This move signals that IBM wants to position itself as a major player in AI-assisted services. The purpose behind it, says Rob Thomas (IBM Data and AI Group general manager), focuses on helping companies save time and money by combining data and AI.
Currently, Watson OpenScale and Watson Assistant operate across clouds.
This reveal also comes in the context of IBM’s pending deal to acquire the company Red Hat for $34-billion USD. For those who may not know, Red Hat provides open source solutions including something known as “hybrid clouds”.
These are combinations of one (or more) private and public cloud environments.
It sounds like IBM is attempting to redefine its role in the tech landscape. Given that IBM also announced its first commercial quantum computer at CES 2019, it seems that we will hear more news from them before the year is through.
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