Setting up the IBM Cloud account

As an IBM Cloud account owner or administrator, you sign up for IBM watsonx.data and set up payment for services in the IBM Cloud account.

These steps describe the typical tasks for an IBM Cloud account owner to set up the account for an organization:

  1. Sign up for watsonx.data.
  2. Update your IBM Cloud account to add or update billing information.
  3. (Optional) Configure restrictions for the account.

Step 1: Sign up for watsonx.data as a Service

To sign up for watsonx.data:

  1. Go to Try watsonx.data for free.
  2. Select the service region (ca-tor). watsonx.data as a Service is available only in Toronto(ca-tor) region.
  3. Agree to the terms, Data Use Policy, and Cookie Use.
  4. Log in with your IBMid (usually an email address) if you have an existing IBM Cloud account. If you don't have an IBM Cloud account, click Create an IBM Cloud account to create a new account. You must enter a credit card to create a Pay-As-You-Go IBM Cloud account. However, you are not charged until you buy paid service plans.

You can skip this step if your IBM Cloud account has billing information with a Pay-As-You-Go or a subscription plan.

You must update your IBM Cloud account in the following circumstances:

  • You have a Trial account from signing up for watsonx.data as a Service.
  • You have a Trial account that you registered through an academic institution.
  • You want to change a Pay-As-You-Go plan to a subscription plan.

Setting up a Pay-As-You-Go account

You set up a Pay-As-You-Go by adding a credit card number and billing information. You pay only for billable services that you use, with no long-term contracts or commitments. You can provision paid plans for all services in the IBM Cloud services catalog, including plans for watsonx.data service.

To set up a Pay-As-You-Go account:

  1. From thewatsonx.data navigation menu, select Administration > Account and billing > Account.
  2. Click Manage in IBM Cloud.
  3. Log in to IBM Cloud.
  4. Select Account settings.
  5. Click Add credit card and enter your credit card and billing information.
  6. Click Create account to submit your information.

After your payment information is processed, your account is upgraded and you receive a monthly invoice for billable resource usage or instance fees.

Step 3: (Optional) Configure restrictions for the account

Complete these optional tasks to secure your account:

  • Restrict the scope of resources that are available in watsonx.data as a Service to the current account. See Set the scope of resources.

  • Restrict access to specific IP addresses to protect the IBM Cloud account from unwanted access from unknown IP addresses. See Allow specific IP addresses.

Next steps