IBM Happenings: February 2009
The month of February was frigid in my part of the world but it was red hot at IBM. There was a flurry of announcements in hardware, software, services, acquisitions, and strategic alliances. See the list here and an index for prior months here. One of the major focus areas for IBM in 2009 will continue to be related to a "smarter planet". See Sam Palmisano’s letter to investors for the full story on why the company is so optimistic.
The Internet has made the world much smaller and "flatter” and now the next turn of the crank will make the world "smarter". IBM is not using a metaphor — they are not talking about the "knowledge economy" or the spread of education throughout the world. The company has a vision about introducing intelligence into the way the world actually works — not into people but into the systems and processes that enable goods to be developed, manufactured, sold, bought, transported, and serviced.
The concept of making things smarter lies in pervasive instrumentation, sensors and powerful computing — enabling the control of what things do and how they work. A simple example is a garage door sensor. If a bicycle is left on the driveway, the door senses that something is in the way and stops the door closing process. A more sophisticated example would be a node on the power grid sensing that power consumption is increasing in one location and decreasing in another. As a result the node switches the delivery of power from the surplus area to the area in need thereby avoiding a brownout. Likewise a smart web server might notice an increase in demand and shift workloads to idle servers and power down servers that are idle. A hospital gurney being transported down the hall is sensed and causes a message to be posted to the patient’s electronic patient record and a message is sent to their primary care physician notifying the doctor that their patient has moved from the ER to a medical floor at the hospital.
The potential is boundless. Stockholm’s intelligent traffic system, created by IBM, has resulted in 20 percent less gridlock and a 12-percent drop in emissions by sensing how many vehicles are moving in a particular part of the city. In Norway IBM built a system for the country’s largest food supplier that uses RFID technology to trace meat and poultry from the farm, through the supply chain, all the way to supermarket shelves. Smarter water? A collaboration between IBM and The Nature Conservancy is using computer modeling to simulate, monitor — and potentially manage — the behavior of river basins in the U.S., China, and Brazil.
There are countless projects of an urgent nature that can take advantage of IBM’s Smarter Planet vision to make the world more instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent. The result will be improved productivity, efficiency, responsiveness, profitability and huge societal benefits.
IBM is well positioned to continue delivering on large complex projects around the world. The financial results from this should be significant. Take a look at the IBM 2008 Annual Report for more insight about what they are doing.
Complete index of IBM Happenings
IBM unveils Tivoli Storage Manager 6
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager 6 helps customers reduce operational
costs by improving scalability and addressing the performance of their
storage management assets.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26608.wss
IBM announces energy and environment validation program
IBM’s new technical validation program helps clients easily identify IBM
Business Partner offerings that provide energy and environment benefits.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26604.wss
IBM to build 20 petaflop supercomputer
The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has
selected IBM to design and build two new supercomputers at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26599.wss
IBM delivers new talent management service
The Mid-Market Workforce Effectiveness service combines IBM’s human
resource expertise with Lawson’s Strategic Human Capital Management suite.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26586.wss
Suntel selects IBM Lotus Unified Communications
Suntel is deploying Lotus Notes and Domino and Lotus Sametime for unified
communications and collaboration and Lotus Symphony tools to its employees.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26607.wss
IBM unveils building blocks for 21st century infrastructure
The new products and services enable clients to use powerful computing
systems to manage and gain insight from an increasing number of things in
their physical infrastructure.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26550.wss
IBM advances enterprise cloud computing
IBM revealed a series of new products, services, clients and partnerships for
its Blue Cloud initiative – through which IBM is collaborating to develop and test
integrated cloud solutions for businesses.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26642.wss
IBM announces SPDE 3.0
IBM’s Service Provider Delivery Environment (SPDE) Framework allows for the
creation, delivery and management of new telecommunications, digital media
and Internet-based services.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26658.wss
IBM to deliver software via cloud computing
IBM announced a new agreement with Amazon Web Services to deliver IBM software
to clients and developers via the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud environment
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26673.wss
1-800-FLOWERS.COM grows business with IBM
IBM announced that 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc., the world’s leading florist and gift
shop, has selected IBM to provide its new e-commerce platform.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26668.wss
IBM helps clients set CO2 reduction strategy
IBM’s Strategic Carbon Management offering assists clients in developing
strategies to manage and reduce energy use and CO2 emissions.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26724.wss
IBM helps HFCL go green
The HFCL Group, a leading player in the telecom sector in India, has selected
IBM to implement innovative blade server technology to reduce its operational
costs and “Go Green”.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26730.wss
IBM, IBEC initiate rural broadband access
IBM and IBEC have begun to establish Broadband over Power Line networks
for nearly 200,000 rural customers in Alabama, Indiana, Michigan and Virginia.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26728.wss
IBM study recommends biopartnering
A survey by IBM and Silico Research reveals that if biopharmaceutical
companies fail to collaborate, they risk delays in the production of medicines,
devices and diagnostics.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26732.wss
University of Louisville supercomputer advances research
The University of Louisville’s new IBM supercomputer will be used in areas
such as cancer research, materials science, atmospheric modeling
and bioinformatics.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26733.wss
IBM completes acquisition of ILOG
The ILOG Business Rule Management System, Optimization, Visualization, and Supply
Chain Management portfolios will build upon IBM software and BPM leadership.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26403.wss
IBM releases “Building Smarter Retail Systems” podcast
The latest episode of the “Building a Smarter Planet” podcast series addresses changes
retailers need to make in response to economic changes and empowered consumers.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26401.wss
Sara Lee, IBM sign services agreement
IBM has signed a seven-year agreement with Sara Lee Corporation to manage
and maintain pieces of the consumer products company’s global back office operations.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26347.wss
IBM helps Bank of Chengdu build banking system
Bank of Chengdu has chosen the IBM POWER 595 platform to upgrade its core banking system.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26411.wss
IBM signs IT infrastructure deal with Kotak
IBM has signed a US$5 million IT services agreement with Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited
– one of India’s leading banking and financial services providers.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26404.wss
IBM reports 2008 fourth-quarter and full-year results
IBM announced fourth-quarter 2008 diluted earnings of $3.28 per share from
continuing operations compared with diluted earnings of $2.80 per share in the
fourth quarter of 2007, an increase of 17 percent as reported.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26510.wss
IBM announces LotusLive
IBM LotusLive, a cloud-based portfolio of social networking services, will serve
as a single destination for all IBM Lotus online collaboration tools.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26508.wss
IBM and SAP announce Alloy
IBM and SAP AG will release their first joint software product, called Alloy, which
connects IBM Lotus Notes software with SAP Business Suite.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26505.wss
IBM to acquire Outblaze’s e-mail service assets
The asset acquisition will accelerate IBM’s delivery of affordable,
Web-based e-mail services in a software-as-a-service model.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26486.wss
Korea Exchange Bank migrates to IBM System z10
KEB’s migration to IBM System z10 enables the bank’s credit card
business to create an advanced and smarter IT environment to improve
efficiency and customer service.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26490.wss
BNP Paribas, IBM sign services agreement
IBM and BNP Paribas announced an agreement for their existing joint
venture, BP2I, to support and manage the IT infrastructure operations
of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26516.wss
Hospitals choose IBM to build electronic medical records
Capella Healthcare, Memorial Hermann Hospital System, Trillium Health Centre
and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have turned to IBM to help build a smarter
healthcare system.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26807.wss
IBM joins project to build smart grid for electric cars
IBM has joined the EDISON research consortium, a Denmark-based collaborative
aimed at developing an intelligent infrastructure that will make possible the large
scale adoption of electric vehicles powered by sustainable energy.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26783.wss
IBM launches health record system for Guang Dong Hospital
IBM announced the launch of a new suite of healthcare information sharing and analytics
technologies at the Guang Dong Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26789.wss
IBM sheds light on the smart energy consumer
IBM Global Business Services’ new report, “Lighting the Way: Understanding the smart
energy consumer,” shows that consumers are willing to become more involved with
managing their energy use.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26782.wss
Scientists discover oldest words in the English language
Evolutionary language scientists from the University of Reading are using an IBM
supercomputer, known as ThamesBlue, to investigate how languages evolve.
(‘I’, ‘we’, ‘who’ and the numbers ’1′, ’2′ and ’3′ are amongst the oldest words.)
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26806.wss
Pro Bono Partnership recognizes IBM as outstanding volunteer
The Pro Bono award was bestowed upon IBM in recognition of free legal assistance
the company’s attorneys have provided to the Partnership’s clients.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26747.wss
Complete index of IBM Happenings
