The Nation Newspaper

Tag: IBM

  • Fed Govt, IBM partner on technology development

    Fed Govt, IBM partner on technology development

    The Ministry of Communication Technology and IBM Corporation yesterday sealed a partnership deal that will enable the technology giant provide solutions that will help resolve challenges in key sectors of the economy.

    Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson during a minsterial roundtable emphasised the place of technology in the development of the economy, a statement endorsed by Special Assistant, Media, to her, Efem Nkanga stated.

    Mrs Johnson said: “Technology is a key driver of economic and social development that should be adopted to facilitate the development of key sectors of the economy for the benefit of Nigerians. “The ministry is committed to ensuring that ICT is leveraged to enhance and facilitate the transformation of Nigeria in critical sectors of the economy such as power, health, education, agriculture, interior to enable inclusive development, job creation, transparency of governance and economic growth.”

    IBM’s Chairman and CEO, Ginny Rometty pledged to support the country.

    She said: “Technology innovation is a key ingredient for social and economic transformation and critical for crossing the innovation divide.

    “IBM will partner with the government, businesses, academia and innovators to aid the adoption of new technologies which will tangibly support efforts to spur development in Nigeria.”

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • IBM invests $1.2b on 15 new data centres

    IBM invests $1.2b on 15 new data centres

    INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. (IBM) announced a $1.2 billion commitment on Friday to build 15 data centers in key financial and geographic hubs as it initiates its first major cloud expansion since acquiring SoftLayer in June for $2 billion.

    The cloud expansion will cover 15 countries in five continents (all but Africa and Antarctica), including new data centers in China, Hong Kong, London,

    Japan, India, Washington D.C., Canada, Mexico City and Dallas, as well as a number of local “cloud hubs.”

    That will bring IBM’s total global toll to 40 data centers, including 13 pre-existing ones from cloud provider SoftLayer and 12 from IBM with plans to expand into the Middle East and Africa in 2015.

    “IBM is continuing to invest in high growth areas,” said Erich Clementi, senior vice president of IBM Global Technology Services.

    The expansion, which adds to the $7 billion IBM has spent since 2007 building its cloud portfolio through acquisitions, data centers and patents, will provide enterprise clients improved flexibility, transparency and control over how they manage data, run their business and deploy IT.

    Big Blue says it processes more than 5.5 million client transactions a day through its public cloud, a number it hopes will balloon and help it reach $7 billion in cloud revenues by 2015.

    The cloud is becoming an attractive feature for business owners, enabling them to run operations from anywhere in the world and at faster speeds. Just last week IBM pledged $1 billion to commercialize its Watson supercomputer, including $100 million that will fund a recently launched startup ecosystem to incubate new businesses that run on Watson’s cloud-based cognitive intelligence and SoftLayer.

    The idea is that it fosters innovation by enabling startups to get off the ground more quickly.

    “Cloud represents a growing area for venture capitalist investment,” notes Ann Winblad, co-founder and Managing Director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.

    Shares of IBM were up 0.55% to $189.84 in recent trade.

     

    SOURCE: www.reuters.com

     

  • IBM chief urges Fed Govt to fix power

    American multinational technology and consulting firm, International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, has urged the Federal Government to attend to the power needs of the country so that application of technological solutions to solve problems could easily fall in line.

    The General Manager, IBM West Africa, Taiwo Otiti, said if the Federal Government focuses on fixing the power deficit, so many other things will be alright.

    He said stability in the services offered by telecoms operators is vital because it is on their networks that services like e-transaction, mobile money and other forms of electronic payments ride. He added that seamless transaction may be wishful thinking if there is no constant power supply.

    “I think the main issue in telecoms is not just stability, majority of the cell sites are running on generators. So if the Federal Government can fix the power (sector), you will see a big transformation because if a generator goes down, the cell site also goes down and therefore, the nearest cell site which might be congested at that particular moment, your PoS (Point of Sale) is diverted to that one. So there are many issues. The major issue around it is power. If you fix power (the success of the initiative would be assured). It (power) has a big role to play in ensuring the success of the initiative,” he said in an interview.

    According to him, operators run cell cites on generators. This situation implies that once in a while, there will be hitches in services as the generators will need to be refuelled and serviced at a particular point in time.