I was not exactly sure what to expect when I arrived at the world famous T. J. Watson Research Center at IBM last week. I have been there many times over the years but never to a birthday party. I walked in to the arrival tent where light refreshments were being served and the crowd of 350 invited guests began to build. One of the first people I saw was Allen Krowe. Allen had been CFO of IBM and then Vice Chairman of Texaco. I was his assistant back in 1981. I remember the day that he turned 50 years old and thinking that was very advanced. That was 30 years ago and NOW I am 15 years older than he was then. Then I saw Spike Beitzel. Spike had been a sales manager in Philadelphia for IBM’s insurance industry customers, the same position that I held some years later. Spike is a pilot, as was Allen, and many other senior IBM executives, including Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Spike is 83 and still flies his own airplane. It was nice to talk about aviation. It was a privilege to say hello to three IBM CEOs — John Akers, Lou Gerstner, and Sam Palmisano. There were four current and former heads of IBM Research there. One of them was Ralph Gomory. I am not sure how old Ralph is but he got his PhD in mathematics from Princeton in 1954. Whenb he retired from IBM in 1989 he became president of the Sloan Foundation. The pattern became clear — this was not just a birthday party for IBM; it was an alumni reunion for executives that worked for IBM over the past fifty years. Then I ran into the former heads of IBM Japn, IBM China, IBM Italy, IBM Brazil, and various other parts of IBM from around the world. Former Chairman Thomas J. Watson, Jr., said in 1957 that IBM “is a company of human beings, not machines; personalities, not products; people, not real estate.” That observation was true long before 1957 — and it remains so today. Although every IBMer makes a difference, there is a list of IBM Builders that were the pioneers who helped to fashion the IBM of the 21st century. Most of them were were among those in the tent; it was humbling to be in their midst and a thrill to shake their hands. Everyone had a smile on their face. It was a happy and nostalgic day that none of us will ever forget.
The main event took place in a really big tent. There were 2,000 members of IBM Research in attendance. During the opening ceremonies Sam Palmisano asked the thirty members of the Watson family in attendance to stand; everyone appreciated the heritage of the company. The family must have been proud to hear about Watson, the advanced Q&A system that triumphed at Jeopardy, and will surely change the way medicine is practiced as it transforms anecdotal medicine to personalized, evidence-based medicine. The program included some excellent videos about the past, present, and future of IBM. Senior VP Jon Iwata interviewed three journalists, Kevin Maney, Steve Hamm and Jeffrey O’Brien about the research they had done to write their new book about IBM called Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company. I have known Kevin for quite a few years. When he quoted someone in his columns at USA Today, you always knew that he would not use information out of context. Steve Hamm wrote the story about my home when he was at BusinessWeek. He now works for IBM. It was an alumni event with journalists too! Another panel with Senior VP John Kelly focused on IBM research efforts around the world, in particular about IBM’s advanced work on environmental and healthcare initiatives. Sam and senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing and strategy Ginni Rometty painted a rosy picture of IBM’s future. IBM also cares about the future of others. As part of its Celebration of Service, 300,000 IBMers around the world — nearly three quarters of its global workforce — volunteeried in more than 5,000 projects in 120 countries, helping millions in need. Since the beginning of the year, IBMers, retirees and their families have donated more than 2.5 million hours of service to communities worldwide. A lot of conofidence was exuded that another 100 years of innovation and growth are underway.
Tags: akers, Aviation, beitzel, evidence based medicine, gerstner, gomory, Healthcare, IBM, IBM Research, kevin maney, krowe, palmisano, personalized medicine, research, rometty, steve hamm, supercomputing, watson, yorktown
Posted by John Patrick on Jul 31, 2010 in
Favorites,
IBM 
After thirty-eight years at IBM, it was hard to cut the cord. One of my self-appointed duties as an e-tiree has been to post news clips of things going on at the company. Fortunately, there is a lot going on there! I post what I call “IBM Happenings” more or less once a month. Not sure if I will do this forever but people seem to find it useful. Click a thumbs up or down after the postings to let me know what you think. There is an archive of the news clips since I began posting back in 2004.
IBM to acquire BigFix
The acquisition accelerates IBM’s efforts to help organizations secure
the enterprise by managing and automating security and compliance
updates on thousands of computers globally.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32026.wss
IBM unveils Global Commuter Pain study
IBM surveyed 8,192 motorists in 20 cities on six continents, the majority
of whom say that traffic has gotten worse in the past three years.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32017.wss
Roche, IBM to develop DNA sequencing technology
Roche and IBM announced an agreement to develop a nanopore-based
technology that will directly read and sequence human DNA quickly and efficiently.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32037.wss
Comepay selects IBM System z10
Comepay, a leading provider of self-service payment kiosks in Russia,
has selected an IBM System z10 mainframe to run its core business
operations.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32004.wss
IBM launches Berlitz’s Language Services intranet
IBM announced Berlitz International Inc.’s ambitious project to use
social software and social analytics to improve the career development
and satisfaction of its employees.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32011.wss
IBM opens cloud center in Ehningen, Germany
The new facility will host a range of technology platforms and optimized
service delivery processes, enabling its clients to harness the potential
offered by cloud computing.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32135.wss
IBM bolsters research to improve healthcare
IBM will enlist some of the company’s leading scientists and technologists
to help medical practitioners and insurance companies provide high-quality,
evidence-based care to patients.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32125.wss
IBM introduces new security appliance
The new IBM Security Network Intrusion Prevention System helps
organizations take a more holistic approach to security, eliminating
the need for multiple point solutions.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32134.wss
IBM, People’s Hospital build patient-centric care system
IBM and Peking University People’s Hospital have built an
evidence-based patient centric care system to enable resource
sharing among medical services providers for improved patient care.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32126.wss
IBM announces open beta program for AIX 7
AIX 7 builds on the capabilities of previous releases of AIX and can fully
exploit the performance and energy management capabilities of the
new POWER7 servers.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32121.wss
IBM reports 2010 second-quarter results
IBM announced second-quarter 2010 diluted earnings of $2.61
per share compared with diluted earnings of $2.32 per share in the
second quarter of 2009, an increase of 13 percent.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32144.wss
IBM unveils zEnterprise System
IBM announced the zEnterprise mainframe server and a new systems
design that allows workloads on mainframe, POWER7 and System x
servers to share resources and be managed as a single, virtualized
system.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32166.wss
Memphis reduces crime with IBM predictive analytics
The Memphis Police Department has enhanced its crime fighting
techniques with IBM predictive analytics software and reduced serious
crime by more than 30 percent.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32169.wss
Sun World transforms produce business with IBM
Sun World International LLC is harnessing IBM analytics technology
to improve crop yields, reduce waste and expand its customer base,
while providing more cost effective and energy-efficient harvesting
practices.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32159.wss
IBM acquires storage company Storwize
Storwize provides real-time data compression technology to help
clients reduce physical storage requirements by up to 80%.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32219.wss
We discussed the acquisition during a teleconference on July 29.
Details are available at:
http://www.ibm.com/itanalyst/teleconferences
IBM opens cloud computing center in Poland
IBM Poland and the Wroclaw University of Technology announced
an agreement to establish the first university cloud computing center
in Poland.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32226.wss
IBM, Carnegie Mellon to create Smarter Infrastructure Lab
The IBM Smarter Infrastructure Lab at Carnegie Mellon University
will develop technologies that are consistent with IBM’s Smarter
Planet initiative.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32225.wss
IBM, Tridium to develop energy-efficient building systems
IBM plans to work with Tridium, Inc. to develop new technology
and solutions that will allow companies to maximize efficiency
of their new and existing buildings and facilities.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32218.wss
IBM, UPMC to make ‘smart’ patient rooms
IBM and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center are teaming
up to bring “smarter” hospital rooms to patients nationwide.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32217.wss
Complete index of IBM Happenings for 2004-2010
Tags: IBM, IBM Research, john patrick
Posted by John Patrick on Jul 17, 2010 in
Favorites,
IBM After thirty-eight years at IBM, it was hard to cut the cord. One of my self-appointed duties as an e-tiree has been to post news clips of things going on at the company. Fortunately, there is a lot going on there! I post what I call “IBM Happenings” more or less once a month. Not sure if I will do this forever but people seem to find it useful. Click a thumbs up or down after the postings to let me know what you think. There is an archive of the news clips since I began posting back in 2004.
IBM helps clients simplify their IT
IBM announced new products and services designed to simplify the way that clients manage their IT environments by delivering specialized capabilities associated with cloud, integration and scalability.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/30799.wss
IBM research effort examines human health
IBM launched a multi-year research effort to enable individuals, governments and businesses to better understand which actions to take to improve human health.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/30969.wss
IBM, TTI collaborate on intelligent transportation
IBM and Texas Transportation Institute have agreed to collaborate on research and development of intelligent transportation projects in Texas and beyond.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/30809.wss
New software personalizes customer relationship strategies
The new software enables users to analyze information from social media sources and then merge that with vast internal data for faster insight and predictive intelligence.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31472.wss
IBM opens cloud laboratory in Singapore
IBM announced the opening of a cloud computing laboratory in Singapore to help businesses and government design, adopt and reap benefits of cloud technologies.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/30803.wss
IBM releases 2010 Global CEO Study
The survey of more than 1,500 CEOs worldwide finds that creativity – more than discipline, integrity or even vision — is needed to successfully navigate an increasing complex world.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31670.wss
IBM moves predictive analytics into new era
IBM SPSS Decision Management software places the powerof predictive analytics directly into the hands of business users for faster, more insightful decision making.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31689.wss
IBM announces new x86 systems
The new x86 systems leverage IBM software and hardware to deliver optimized performance and speed rollouts of high-performance clusters.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31685.wss
IBM announces new PartnerWorld program benefits
IBM announced new capabilities to help IBM Business Partners deepen their skills to deliver high-value solutions for clients, while creating opportunities for growth.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31696.wss
IBM software, services help clients take advantage of data
IBM announced new software and services designed to help organizations take advantage of the growing and diverse forms of data and content.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31687.wss
IBM, Hildebrand to bring smart metering to homes across Britain
IBM is teaming with energy consultant Hildebrand to help consumers make more informed decisions about their energy consumption with IBM data management software.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31690.wss
IBM to acquire Coremetrics
Coremetrics will expand IBM’s business analytics capabilities by enabling organizations to use a cloud-based delivery model to gain real-time insight into consumer interactions.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31907.wss
IBM releases Global Student Study
The study, “Inheriting a Complex World: Future Leaders Envision Sharing the Planet,” reflects the consolidated view of more than 3,600 students in more than 40 countries.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31937.wss
IBM announces offerings for the mobile business market
IBM unveiled a range of new software, services and research offerings designed to bring a new level of intelligence to the fast-growing mobile enterprise market.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31917.wss
IBM opens software lab in Massachusetts
The IBM Mass Lab is creating software that manages some of the world’s most complex process and infrastructure problems such as modernizing and automating the world’s physical infrastructures.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31916.wss
IBM announces Lotus Notes Traveler for Android
Lotus Notes Traveler for And roid beta version is no-charge software that provides two-way, over-the-air synchronization of information between Lotus Domino and mobile devices.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31936.wss
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts signs services agreement
IBM and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts announced a new five-year services agreement in which IBM will transform the organization’s IT environment.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31991.wss
IBM, Esty Environmental Partners to address sustainability
A group of major companies have formed the Sustainability Innovators Working Group — aiming to define and develop new approaches to environmental management and corporate sustainability.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31988.wss
IBM, SCWA to address water management in California
IBM and the Sonoma County Water Agency have teamed up to address the pressing problem of water management in the heart of Northern California’s wine country.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31995.wss
New IBM software helps manage electronic trading
IBM unveiled a new technology platform designed to transform how financial services firms manage the data and transaction volumes generated by capital markets around the world.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31975.wss
Wall Street firms to increase IT spend through 2011
A new survey of IT Wall Street professionals reveals that almost one-half expect 20-30% of their technology budget to be allocated for transformational initiatives in 2010 and 2011.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/31976.wss
Complete index of IBM Happenings for 2004-2010
Tags: IBM, IBM Research, john patrick
The months of March and April were busy ones at IBM with the usual flurry of announcements in hardware, software, services, acquisitions, and strategic alliances. See the list of the current press releases and also an index for prior months here. The major focus of the company remains on a “smarter planet” and the dimensions of this thrust continue to expand. An area of personal interest to me is aviation so I was pleased to learn about a joint project between IBM and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) working on a Research and Development project to protect the nation’s civilian aviation system from the ever-growing threat of cyber attacks.
Faa.gov is the official website for the Federal Aviation Administration. The site deals with many vital aviation topics including flights, airports, policies, news and events affecting aviation, pilot resources, weather, a wealth of safety information, regulations and guidelines, air traffic data, research, licenses and certificates, training and testing, alerts about specific airports, and medical and aircraft certification. The site has approximately a half-million monthly visitors who view an average of two million web pages. Needless to say faa.gov is a vital national resource. It is also a potential target for those who would like to harm it.
The joint project is part of IBM’s First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) program which engages scientists from IBM Research with clients to explore and pilot emerging technologies that address real world problems. In the case of faa.gov the IBM researchers and cyber security experts will design and build a prototype security system capable to accommodate the FAA’s high-speed networks. Building on IBM’s vast experience with analytics, the project will introduce first-of-a-kind security technologies and entirely new approaches to protecting large digital and physical infrastructures from hacking, botnets, malware and other forms of cyber attacks.
The prototype system will go beyond traditional security approaches of encryption, firewalls, intrusion-detection devices and anti-virus software. A flexible model is being designed to look retrospectively at event occurrences and system compromises. It will be able to correlate historical traffic patterns with dynamic data from monitors, sensors and other devices which capture information about network traffic and user activity in real time. Using “streaming analytics” and customized executive-level dashboards, the system will enable the FAA to continually analyze the massive amounts of data flowing through its networks and get instant and accurate insights about possible network threats and anomalies suggesting a possible attack in time to take action. The FAA will also be able to store real-time results in a data warehouse for later analysis and training.
“Cyber attacks have become a global pandemic and no system is immune,” said Todd Ramsey, general manager for IBM’s government business. “Through this collaboration with the FAA, as well as others underway in government and the private sector, we hope to develop comprehensive solutions for protecting the digital and physical infrastructures of critical national networks and enterprise systems.” IBM has also established the IBM Institute for Advanced Security in Washington, D.C., to help government agencies and other institutions gain access to tools, resources and expertise to address cyber security issues.
Complete index of IBM Happenings for 2004-2010
Tags: analytics, Aviation, cyber attack, faa, IBM, IBM Research
Posted by John Patrick on Mar 30, 2010 in
Energy,
IBM 
The months of January and February were busy ones at IBM with a flurry of announcements in hardware, software, services, acquisitions, and strategic alliances. See the list of the current press releases in the extended part of this posting and an index for prior months here. The major focus of the company is on a “smarter planet“, but underlying that is IBM Research. Much of what happens in the lab finds it’s way into the market as a solution to a problem.
One of the key problems facing all parts of the world today is the economical and clean production of energy. Solar energy in particular has seemed elusive for decades but progress is being made. In fact there may be breakthroughs on the horizon. IBM is not the first company you think of when it comes to solar energy — unless you look at the key challenges at hand and compare them to the core skills IBM has in the areas of microprocessor technology, materials science and manufacturing. Just last month IBM announced it has built a solar cell that set a new world record for efficiency and holds potential for enabling solar cell technology to produce more energy at a lower cost. Comprised of copper (Cu), tin (Sn), zinc (Zn), sulfur (S), and/or selenium (Se), the cell’s power conversion demonstrates an efficiency of 9.6 percent. That may not sound like much but it is 40 percent higher than what was previously possible.
“In a given hour, more energy from sunlight strikes the earth than the entire planet consumes in a year”, says Dr. David Mitzi, who leads the team at IBM Research that developed the new solar cell. In spite of this, solar cells currently contribute less than 0.1 percent of the electricity supply. The issue is cost. If solar energy can achieve a cost per watt comparable to conventional electricity generation, the world will be a different place. It is one of the great challenges and IBM is laser focused on it.
At some point the technology IBM researchers have pioneered may end up on the surface of the shingles on our homes and the roof of our cars.
Complete index of IBM Happenings
Tags: energy, IBM, IBM Research, solar, solar cell
