What's new and changed in Watson Studio Runtimes

The Watson Studio Runtimes include Jupyter Notebook runtimes for Python 3.10, Python 3.10 with GPU, and R 4.2. Updates to these runtimes can include new features and bug fixes. Updates are listed in reverse chronological order so that the latest release is at the beginning of the topic.

Cloud Pak for Data Version 4.8.7

A new version of Watson Studio Runtimes was released in October 2024 with Cloud Pak for Data 4.8.7.

This release includes the following changes:

New features

This release of Watson Studio Runtimes includes the following features and updates:

Updated library versions in 23.1 runtimes

The Tensorflow and Keras libraries that are included in 23.1 runtimes are now updated to their newer versions. For details, see Library packages included in Watson Studio runtimes.

Because of this change, some of your current code might stop working. Runtime 23.1 will be discontinued in favor of runtime 24.1 later this year. To avoid repeated disruption, you should switch to the 24.1 runtime now. For information about changing environments, see Changing notebook environments.

Cloud Pak for Data Version 4.8.6

A new version of Watson Studio Runtimes was released in August 2024 with Cloud Pak for Data 4.8.6.

This release includes the following changes:

Cloud Pak for Data Version 4.8.5

A new version of Watson Studio Runtimes was released in April 2024 with Cloud Pak for Data 4.8.5.

This release includes the following changes:

New features

This release of Watson Studio Runtimes includes the following features and updates:

Notebook images based on runtime 22.2 are no longer mirrored by default to images in container registries: Starting with Cloud Pak for Data release 4.8.5, notebook images based on runtime 22.2 (deprecated in release 4.8.4) are not mirrored by default to images in your container registries. If you want to keep using notebook images based on runtime 22.2, you must mirror them, as described in Mirroring images using an intermediary container registry and Mirroring images directly to the private container registry.

Customer-reported issues fixed in this release: The following issues, which were reported by customers, have been fixed in Watson Studio version 8.5.0:; DT366099: When running a widget in a Jupyter Notebook, the following error occurred: "Error displaying widget: model not found."

Cloud Pak for Data Version 4.8.4

A new version of Watson Studio Runtimes was released in March 2024 with Cloud Pak for Data 4.8.4.

This release includes the following changes:

New features

This release of Watson Studio Runtimes includes the following features and updates:

Runtime 22.2 is deprecated: Runtime 22.2 in Watson Studio notebooks is now deprecated and will be removed in a future release. To avoid disruption when the removal is completed, update your notebook environment to use Runtime 23.1.
For information about changing environments, see Changing notebook environments.

The com.ibm.connect.spark data source is deprecated: The com.ibm.connect.spark data source is now deprecated and will be removed in a future release. If you used com.ibm.connect.spark in one of your notebooks based on Spark, you must update the code. Use the com.ibm.connect.spark.flight data source instead.

Cloud Pak for Data Version 4.8.3

A new version of Watson Studio Runtimes was released in February 2024 with Cloud Pak for Data 4.8.3.

This release includes the following changes:

New features

This release of Watson Studio Runtimes includes the following features and updates:

New security protocol for notebook runtimes that run on a FIPS-enabled cluster: Starting with this release of Watson Studio Runtimes, notebook runtimes that run on a FIPS-enabled cluster enforce secure connections to remote servers by using TLS 1.3 or TLS 1.2 with Extended Master Secret. If you're running this service on a FIPS-enabled cluster, make sure that all of your notebooks and Python scripts are using connections to remote servers that support those protocols before you upgrade. See Known issues on FIPS-enabled clusters for more details.

Cloud Pak for Data Version 4.8.1

A new version of Watson Studio Runtimes was released in December 2023 with Cloud Pak for Data 4.8.1.

Cloud Pak for Data Version 4.8.0

A new version of Watson Studio Runtimes was released in November 2023 with Cloud Pak for Data 4.8.0.

This release includes the following changes:

New features

This release of Watson Studio Runtimes includes the following features and updates:

Use Apache Spark 3.4 to run notebooks and scripts: You can start using Spark 3.4 in your notebooks and scripts in Juypter notebooks and JupyterLab. You can use Spark 3.4 in environments based on Python 3.10 and R 4.2. For more information, see Spark environments.
Environments with Spark 3.2 are removed: You can no longer use Juypter environments with Spark 3.2. If you need Spark, you must use Spark 3.4. For more information, see Spark environments.
Removal of all Runtime 22.1 environments: Runtime 22.1 environments are not available anymore. For instructions on migrating your notebooks and Git projects to latest runtime environments, see Migrating Runtime 22.1 environments from Cloud Pak for Data 4.6 or 4.7.

Watson Studio Runtimes is now available on Power hardware: If you have a Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform on Power (ppc64le) hardware, you can now install the Watson Studio Runtimes service.