As the planet becomes smarter, our computing must, too
The proof is everywhere and you live it daily: without chips, tags, transistors and crunchable data, the world as we know it wouldn't exist. For 65 years we've lived in the age of computers, and we're growing more entrenched every day. Every hour. Every minute.
And now, an entirely new computing era is here. IBM's groundbreaking Watson winning Jeopardy! is merely the most visible element of what comes next.
Just as ENIAC (dubbed "the Giant Brain") and mainframe exclusivity gave way to distributed PCs, the further portability and variety of ways to access and produce data has expanded computing again. Personal, portable devices have enabled an increase in the mobile workforce and ubiquitous entertainment alike. Billions of embedded sensors report the state of our traffic, health, goods and lives in multiple exabytes of data.
Yes, exabytes. Our needs and expectations for unlimited, on-demand information play to the tune of nearly 2.5x1018 bytes of data every day. Much of which has to be managed, processed and understood. Mined for meaning. Analyzed for insights. Preferably in real time. Sometimes with budgets that make "cost-effective" sound indulgent.
Welcome to the new era of computing
Smarter computing looks to integrated, flexible systems architectures to tame the digital avalanche and drive IT efficiently in our increasingly data-driven world. Declining IT budgets call for innovations that spark new ways of handling more data, heavier workloads and increased capacity per each investment in labor, space, energy and technology—and help create new revenue streams and business models.
Does this sound impossible? Just ask leading IT organizations why it isn't just possible, but totally sensible.
Internal developers at Citigroup needed to speed up their application delivery times, but were hampered by server issues. After adopting an internal cloud using IBM Cloudburst and Tivoli software solutions, server provisioning times decreased—from an average 45 days to less than 20 minutes—as did the time to deliver necessary apps to their customers.
For local agriculture and food-product businesses, the Università di Bari wanted to build a system that would help make delivery more efficient, reduce waste and improve product quality. Working with IBM to deploy a cloud-based solution of System z servers and IBM software and services, the university could provide heavy-duty computing power at minimal cost.
Insight, workload management and delivery
IBM's portfolio of offerings emphasize solutions for big data, optimized systems, and cloud and service delivery. With an approach that is inclusive of all data, platforms, vendors and applications, IBM partners with clients to set a shared agenda and achieve shared outcomes. Experts and expertise single us out to help any organization realize smarter computing and address the biggest challenges in computer science.
Innovators for a smarter planet
IT innovators describe some of their patents, inventions and innovation that go into IBM technologies
The benefits of a secure, all-in-one cloud-based solution, as described by an IBM senior technical staff member
An IBM Distinguished Engineer discusses a pre-integrated, workload optimized, smart appliance for engineers
An IBM Fellow and chief architect relates the smarter computing way to respond to business problems
The path to smarter computing and how IBM can help improve service delivery and performance
