IBM Tells Customers That ‘Cloud Native’ Is The Future

That is all changing as IBM is in the midst of overhauling its data centers—which now number 51, more than 30 of which are designated as Bluemix Cloud data centers—to bring them into the cloud native age.

That includes rolling out consistent infrastructure configuration throughout with Intel processors (and Power CPUs as well), flash storage and photonics-based mesh networking.

This isn’t exactly a lift and shift, said Considine, in an interview with eWEEK. “This is an evolution of our infrastructure. This isn’t a one replaces the other.

It’s actually to grow and expand what we are doing. In the long term though, the new technology will become the vast majority of what we are doing.”

IBM is planning announcements this year to address its data center strategy and expansion plans, Koehler said.

Rethinking the Cloud

The data center build-out is part of a two-fold strategy. The first part is to bring IBM in line with Google, AWS, Microsoft and Oracle. The second part is to make it easier for customers to incorporate Watson-based cognitive applications into their businesses.

Speaking to customers at his keynote, Koehler said, “This is the time to really think through where do you want to be 3 to 5 years from now, and how you can take advantage of cognitive abilities, and position your business for what lies ahead.”

What’s eye-opening about IBM’s plans are the fact that they are being led by outsiders who have not come up through the ranks of Big Blue. David Kenny, senior vice president of the IBM Watson and Cloud Platform efforts, was former CEO of the Weather Company, which IBM bought about a year ago.

Koehler, the CTO under Kenny at the Weather Company, came along as well. Considine formerly was CTO of cloud at Verizon before joining IBM in 2015.

“[Kenny] hired me to make the Weather ‘Channel’ into the Weather Company and turn it into a big data technology business, and change the business model from being a media TV company to being a big data technology company,” said Koehler, whose Storage Utility Network has become part of the Watson Data Platform.

Is the Weather Company acquisition of IBM now complete?

“Clearly, IBM is a massive global company that operates in many sectors with a lot of complexity around the world,” Koehler said. “Having subject matter expertise is awesome. But in many ways, as with anything in life, having a fresh perspective adds value. So a good solid mix of old and new is always a good thing.”

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.

Originally published on eWeek