October 28, 2014

IBM Expands the IBM Cloud Data Services Portfolio

IBM yesterday introduced a new generation of data services on the IBM Cloud.

The new cloud-based services will enable organizations to simplify and automate the ability to find, refine, and prepare data; warehouse data in the cloud; curate unstructured data services; and enhance mobile and Web applications with embedded analytics.

"All the data in the world is useless if you can't put it to work. The new cloud-born services from IBM provide data professionals the ability to deliver data with speed and confidence as the fuel for applications and analytics," said Beth Smith, general manager of big data at IBM, in a statement. "The ability to source and manage the right data will help organizations keep data management streamlined, while adhering to increasingly stringent regulatory demands, and produce results and analysis of real value to the business."

The new services introduced by IBM help organizations shift from working on the data to putting data to work for their businesses. These new innovations include the following:

IBM DataWorks: IBM DataWorks is a set of cloud-based data refinery services that shape, cleanse, match, and secure data. The new services enable business users to find, use, and contribute data for analysis; application developers to embed data services into new applications; and IT and data professionals to enable self-service data access and instill confidence to act on the data.
IBM dashDB: IBM dashDB is a cloud-based data warehousing and analytics service with in-memory technology built-in to deliver answers faster. dashDB keeps infrastructure concerns out of the way of critical and time-sensitive analytics. A new integration of dashDB with Cloudant, IBM's NoSQL database as a service (DBaaS), allows Cloudant clients to embed analytics in their applications with a few clicks.
IBM Cloudant: IBM is extending its portfolio with Cloudant Local, an on-premises edition of the fully managed cloud database-as-a-service that enables a fluid hybrid cloud data layer that spans private data centers, mobile devices, and third-party cloud providers. This ensures customers can reconfigure their cloud data platforms over time to optimize the cost, security, reach, and performance.

The power of these capabilities could enable, for example, a ride sharing service company to improve their customers' experiences by ensuring their drivers are in the right place at the right time. The company can take taxi trip information, captured in a mobile application running on Cloudant, directly into dashDB, and then use DataWorks to refine and load additional weather and traffic data to provide more insight. With dashDB, Cloudant and DataWorks working together, new insights can be leveraged to improve customer experience and grow revenue.

IBM also introduced Watson Curator, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering that increases confidence in the delivery of quality content collections and governance for IBM Watson Solutions. For example, an individual insurance risk analyst can review and add context to documents so that many underwriters across the enterprise can get higher quality responses on risk assessments from Watson Engagement Advisor. IBM Watson Curator actively guides subject matter experts through the entire curation process.

IBM also announced that its broad portfolio of analytics capabilities, including Cognos business intelligence and SPSS predictive analytics platforms, will be available via the IBM Cloud marketplace.