First Take - IBM InterConnect Day #1 Keynote - BlueMix, SoftLayer, Watson

It is end of February and it is time to make it to Las Vegas for IBM InterConnect, the new mega IBM event, combining three separate previous events. Spanning from Mandalay Bay to MGM Grand it will for sure get those health tracker stats up – but better one mega event than 3 trips… 

Here are my Top3 takeaways

PaaS keeps rolling - On the BlueMix side IBM announced key new capabilities for its PaaS product. DataWorks is a nice re-use from its data management group, which makes it easy to move, cleanse, mask (and more) data. In the demo data was then uploaded to the cloud and enriched with the capabilities of Cloudant. With API Harmony it will get easier for developers to publish and leverage APIs. Finally the local deployment option will be a welcome option for regulated industries, enterprises that hold out for cloud, but also sister applications that complement cloud applications with handling local processing

 

Jerry Cuomo built a nextgenApp with BlueMix

SoftLayer keeps rolling – IBM confirmed to be on track of the close to 50 data center location rollout in 2015, just announcing Montreal and Sydney as the next locations. When using the new container capabilities and BlueMix local it open new options for enterprises to deploy nextgen Apps locally – satisfying statutory demands (and potential out of country data center concerns). Moreover IBM is bringing its Power servers to more data centers, which is key for IBM's converged system strategy. It will be interesting to see how much load Power will run in the IBM Cloud by summer.
 

The growing #SoftLayer network

Watson pushes into healthcare – It looks like IBM wants to make healthcare the main thrust for Watson’s capabilities, certainly a noble cause. It was back to Coriell Life Sciences as partner to explain their approach – but it would have been good to see the next set of partners taking IBM Watson into healthcare. At the very end we learnt that Watson will be available as a Watson Zone in BlueMix. 

 

The NextGen App built with Watson and BlueMix (?) at MD Andersen Cancer Center

MyPOV – A great start for the new IBM mega event, IBMInterConnected – bringing together the former IBM Impact, Pulse and Innovate conferences. A ton of announcements that we will try to take apart and validate with prospects, customers and partners in the next days. Stay tuned.