Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications

    IBM’s Recent Acquisitions Show Developer Mindset in Rebuilding Plan

    By
    Scot Petersen
    -
    February 27, 2016
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      IBM Rebuilds 2

      LAS VEGAS—David Kenny, the freshly minted General Manager of IBM Watson, took the stage at the InterConnect conference here Tuesday dressed in jeans and sneakers with his shirt untucked. I had to check my badge to see that I was, indeed, at an IBM conference.

      Kenny, the former CEO of The Weather Company, which IBM acquired in late January, didn’t apologize. “I’m dressed like a developer,” he said, “because developers are Watson’s customers.”

      Kenny, together with CEOs of other IBM acquisitions, like Braxton Jarratt, formerly of Clearleap, the video company acquired in 2015, and Derek Schoettle of Cloudant, a 2014 acquisition, represent a new breed of IBM’er, one who is not tied to the buttoned-down past and who can execute the strategy for where IBM is heading.

      That new direction, of course, is IBM’s “strategic imperatives” of cloud computing, analytics, mobile, social and security software and services. Revenue from those areas grew 26 percent in the past year and add up to $29 billion, but is that just accounting magic to make the company’s declining revenues look better or is the company’s on-the-fly transformation really working?

      Judging from the news from InterConnect, IBM’s focus is certainly in the right place. As Kenny said, the developer is the key to IBM’s strategy and success going forward. The biggest announcement was around Swift, Apple’s hugely popular programming language that IBM, a close partner, is extending with a new runtime and package catalog that will make it easier to develop cloud-based and enterprise applications.

      The other key piece catering to developers is IBM’s Bluemix platform-as-a-service, which continues to add services and now includes the new OpenWhisk, a direct counter to AWS’s Lambda event-driven service that enables code to be executed based on events triggered from other applications—a necessary piece of next-generation cloud applications.

      Other bright spots include IBM’s new Cloud Video Services unit, formed last month following the acquisition of Ustream and led by Clearleap’s Jarratt. When you consider that video represents most of the world’s overall Internet traffic and data, IBM is now well positioned to manage a lot of it. And by adding Watson to the mix IBM can do interesting things around that data, like build automated video recognition systems.

      Traditional video surveillance systems, for instance, are a “huge waste of time,” said Jarratt. “Machine learning and cognitive learning around video is simple and extremely valuable, increasing accuracy and reducing manpower costs associated with monitoring.”

      So far, so good. However, this “new” IBM, which makes up about 35 percent of the company’s revenue, is still small fry compared to the rest of IBM’s hardware, software and global services divisions, none of which are growth businesses any longer.

      IBM’s Recent Acquisitions Show Developer Mindset in Rebuilding Plan

      The question going forward is how much the legacy businesses will help or hinder the strategic imperatives. Can IBM move at cloud-scale time frames while still selling much of their technology as “solutions” that require a heavy service component to any customer engagement?

      Watson, of course, is the crown jewel with which IBM is trying to leverage cognitive capabilities across every business. At the conference, IBM introduced in beta three new APIs for Watson: Tone Analyzer, Emotion Analysis, and Visual Recognition, which can interpret text to recognize attitudes, emotions such as joy and disgust, as well as other emotions. But with Watson everywhere, simultaneously a service, a product, and a brand, it can be confusing to customers about what type Watson they are getting.

      It will be up to CEO Ginni Rometty to rationalize the new and the old IBMs. It will take some time, but the company still has a ton of resources, lots of cutting-edge and industry leading technology, and very loyal customers. It also is a great partner as well as an industry leader, especially around open source.

      In addition, certain areas of the hardware business, such as FlashSystem storage and mainframes, remain very strong. IBM appears prepared to continue acquiring companies and talent, as they did with the recent spree around digital marketing companies, such as Resource/Ammirati.

      So what is not to like? It may not be pretty watching IBM struggle as it transforms itself to remain relevant in a new era of computing or as revenue tumbles quarter after quarter, but it’s necessary. As hard as IBM works at making this transition, success is really going to depend on how eagerly customers want to go along for the ride.

      Scot Petersen is a technology analyst at Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment firm. He has an extensive background in the technology field. Prior to joining Ziff Brothers, Scot was the editorial director, Business Applications & Architecture, at TechTarget. Before that, he was the director, Editorial Operations, at Ziff Davis Enterprise. While at Ziff Davis Media, he was a writer and editor at eWEEK. No investment advice is offered in his blog. All duties are disclaimed. Scot works for a private investment firm, which may at any time invest in companies whose products are discussed in this blog, and no disclosure of securities transactions will be made.

      Scot Petersen
      Scot Petersen is a technology analyst at Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment firm. Prior to joining Ziff Brothers, Scot was the editorial director, Business Applications & Architecture, at TechTarget. Before that, he was the director, Editorial Operations, at Ziff Davis Enterprise, While at Ziff Davis Media, he was a writer and editor at eWEEK. No investment advice is offered in his blog. All duties are disclaimed. Scot works for a private investment firm, which may at any time invest in companies whose products are discussed in this blog, and no disclosure of securities transactions will be made.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×