The key to the data treasure box: An IT transformation

Imagine a vast ocean of data, brimming with potential insights, yet not fully utilized due to its disordered state. The IBM Chief Information Officer (CIO) organization faced a similar challenge. The CIO organization stored massive amounts of operational IT data related to applications, devices, networking, infrastructure and enterprise tools. This data was scattered across disparate data sources, including seven different data lakes built on various technologies.

This fragmentation led to several issues. First, the CIO team couldn’t access large amounts of data, hindering their ability to gain valuable insights and make strategic decisions. Second, governance, access controls and processes were inconsistent across repositories, compromising data security. Finally, rampant data and extract, transform, load (ETL) duplication not only undermined data quality, but also increased operational costs, drained resources and stifled innovation.

The team recognized the urgent need for a radical shift in their data management strategy. They envisioned a centralized, unified data platform designed to dismantle existing data silos, establish robust governance and empower users with self-service capabilities. This platform would democratize data, making it more accessible and easier to combine for analysis, ultimately boosting cost savings, efficiency and competitiveness.

To address the challenges of fragmented and disorganized data, the IBM CIO organization underwent an IT transformation in Q3 2024, implementing the I&T Data Platform powered by IBM® watsonx.data®, alongside IBM watsonx.ai®, IBM Cognos® Analytics and IBM Knowledge Catalog. Together, these tools helped create a unified hub, replacing disconnected silos with centralized control and streamlined accessibility. IBM watsonx.ai enabled advanced machine learning and AI-driven insights, IBM Cognos Analytics facilitated dynamic reporting and dashboards, and IBM Knowledge Catalog ensured robust governance and data discoverability.

A pivotal realization during this transition was how watsonx.data was able to significantly reduce complexity. Previously, users laboriously extracted data from disparate environments—including sources such as AskIdentity (DB2), Developer Platform (PostgreSQL), Voice of the Employee (PostgreSQL) and Infrastructure Inventory (MongoDB). Now, with a unified architecture powered by watsonx.data, a single query seamlessly pulls data from these diverse systems, eliminating substantial manual effort. The platform adapts to various databases and formats, with only occasional revisions needed.

To improve user access, the team implemented abstraction layers to standardize SQL syntax and leveraged IBM Knowledge Catalog to drive data consistency and trust. CI/CD pipelines and GitHub integration further streamlined development, making the platform more collaborative and scalable. As a result, the IBM CIO organization now operates a centralized, intelligent data ecosystem that drives efficiency and innovation.

The implementation of the I&T Data Platform has yielded significant positive outcomes for the IBM CIO organization. By moving data off legacy systems and reducing data redundancy, the platform has enabled USD 5.3 million in cost savings by Q1 2025. It has also led to a 100% SaaS deployment in IBM Cloud® for watsonx.data®, reducing the on-prem footprint and complexity.

Additionally, the platform has improved data governance, providing a single source of truth and enabling more defensive data strategies. Data redundancy has been reduced by an average of 26% for Identity and 7.7% for Developer Experience, as the platform eliminates the need for replicating data across multiple systems. This improvement has also reduced the time and effort required to perform ETL processes.

As the platform integrated more data sources, the team observed a significant increase in data volumes, exemplified by an additional 229 GB ingested daily from devices and IBM’s intranet use cases. Over the preceding four days, the team successfully loaded more than 1.25 billion rows from IBM’s intranet, demonstrating the platform’s capability for efficient, large-scale data ingestion.

Looking ahead, the team is exploring ways to further enhance the I&T Data Platform to reduce data redundancy and improve data quality. The goal is to have all operational IT data sources integrated into the platform by year-end and fully realize the benefits of a unified, governed data environment.

The IBM Chief Information Officer (CIO) organization leads internal IT strategy and delivers, secures, modernizes and supports the IT solutions that employees, clients and partners use to do their jobs every day.

The CIO organization aims to create an adaptive IT platform that makes tools, applications and systems easier to access across the enterprise. With a mission to catalyze business growth, the CIO organization accelerates problem-solving and serves as an innovation engine for IBM.