IBM announced a series of data and automation updates to its hybrid cloud software portfolio to help companies drive innovation across their expanding environments and accelerate their digital transformations.
The new updates are coming to IBM Cloud Pak for Data and Cloud Pak for Automation, which offer integrated data and AI capabilities that run on Red Hat OpenShift and are designed to better manage and automate data-intensive processes – fusing the intelligence of Watson AI in hybrid cloud environments.
With these updates, businesses will be positioned to more easily streamline everything from software provisioning and patching, to data discovery and document processing across expanding hybrid cloud environments, enabling employees to focus on higher value work.
The updates come at a time when more businesses are expediting their digital transformation plans. According to a new study by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, COVID-19 and the future of business, the pandemic has been the cause of accelerated digital transformation plans at 59 percent of organizations surveyed. But while most organizations agree on the need to unlock the value of data with AI, companies surveyed by IDC recently said only 10% of potentially useful data is effectively analyzed.[1]
“Cloud Pak offerings are integrated with AI and give companies a consistent experience from Pak to Pak,” said Michael Gilfix, Vice President, Chief Product Officer, Cloud Paks, IBM. “And because they run on Red Hat OpenShift, clients can deploy and manage them on any cloud environment, be it on-premises, and/or public cloud. With today’s announcements, we’re driving automation and data management capabilities even farther across the enterprise.”
New to Cloud Pak for Data Coming This Month
- New Industry Accelerators will be added to Cloud Pak for Data, including accelerators for banking, warranty management, supply chain forecasting, and retail. Now totaling more than 30, IBM Industry Accelerators are sample data science assets built to solve specific industry use cases. The assets include sample data sets, prebuilt machine learning models, and sample dashboards, for example supporting the Open Data for Industries standards for Oil and Gas clients.
- Watson Machine Learning Accelerator (WML-A) is a new deep learning service capability to optimize training models and monitor workloads. Also added to Cloud Pak for Data is a new feature called Federated Learning that enables users to train common models using remote, secure data sets. With this feature, data sets remain secure, while the resulting models benefit from expanded training. Also new with the platform is an updated version of Auto AI that now supports multiple data sources for training, enabling users to build a unified data set that can then be used as input for the Auto AI experiments.
- Quick Scan has been enhanced to perform more scalable automatic data discovery to support deeper analytics and generate more insightful outcomes. And, the results of the analysis can be published to one or more catalogs directly from the results page, speeding the process.
New to Cloud Pak for Automation
- Automation Document Processing is designed to help enterprises eliminate manual document processing and enable people to focus on higher value work. Available now, the new tool combines AI with deep learning and low-code tooling, making it quick and easy to accurately design, configure and deploy document classification and extraction for any document type and format.
- Process Mining capabilities from myInvenio (Cognitive Technology) provides a data-driven way to help identify the most impactful areas of business and IT to automate. Available in December, features including simulation, business rules, multi-level process, and task mining will be integrated into IBM Cloud Pak for Automation. The addition of process mining to Cloud Pak for Automation enables IBM to now offer a comprehensive set of hyperautomation capabilities for both business and IT.
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA) capabilities from IBM’s acquisition of WDG Automation are now integrated and available in Cloud Pak for Automation. The RPA capabilities enable businesses to quickly identify more granular opportunities for automation, including tasks that have many steps.
Credito Emiliano (Credem), a large Italian bank, is using myInvenio process mining with IBM Cloud Pak for Automation to make its operations more resilient by automating and streamlining its processes. So far, Credem Bank reports they have analyzed more than 50 processes and plans to scale up to 400. “We selected IBM Cloud Pak for Automation and myInvenio as key solutions for our digital transformation and continuous improvement of our processes,” said Nazzareno Gregori, General Manager, Credem Bank. “We are thrilled to see that the value of the choice we made years ago to work with myInvenio is now confirmed by this collaboration.”
“Since the beginning of the myInvenio journey, we have focused our vision and R&D effort on providing the best solution for continuous process improvement and automation,” said Massimiliano Delsante, CEO, myInvenio. “The integration of myInvenio into the IBM Cloud Pak for Automation fulfills this vision by providing a unified solution for hyperautomation and operational resiliency management. This is a great opportunity for our clients.”
Fueling the Cloud Pak Ecosystem
In addition to these updates, IBM also announced an expansion to its growing hybrid cloud ecosystem. Beginning today, Cloud Pak for Data is available on Tech Data’s Stream One Marketplace, as well as the new Red Hat Marketplace, making the platform more accessible to more businesses who can take advantage of IBM and its more than 50 ISV’s.
IBM Cloud Pak solutions offer integrated data and AI capabilities for hybrid cloud that enable customers to implement intelligent workflows throughout their businesses. All Cloud Pak offerings run on Red Hat OpenShift, the leading enterprise container platform, to enable business to easily develop, deploy and manage applications across hybrid cloud environments, including on-premises, private and public clouds.
In addition, Cloud Pak offerings integrate with IBM Watson, enabling clients to infuse AI into their systems to predict and analyze future outcomes, automate complex processes, optimize employees’ time and create more meaningful customer experiences.
