LAS VEGAS — Cloud and mobile are key growth pillars for IBM. During the opening sessions of this week’s Impact event, held in Las Vegas, IBM executives set a scenario in which enterprises of all industries are going through a disruptive moment in their businesses. To address new challenges, IBM recommends that they reinvent and innovate their processes with the objective of generating better decisions and real-time, actionable insights.
In order to achieve these goals, IBM advised companies to take a building block approach, using cloud computing, mobile and big data. Following this approach, firms should embrace cloud computing as the growth engine of their business; use mobile to reinvent how they engage with their customers; and rely on big data to transform their enterprise and industry.
“There is no industry that is not in some level of disruption,” explained Robert LeBlanc, SVP for software and cloud solutions at IBM during a keynote address.
To support the future IT environment, IBM made announcements concentrated in the areas of cloud computing and mobile. Those included the launch of IBM Cloud Marketplace, IBM MobileFirst Application Development portfolio, IBM Ready Apps, IBM MobileFirst Studios and BlueMix news services and capabilities.
Acknowledging that cloud computing deployments could take some time, LeBlanc explained that almost all cloud serviecs deployed by enterprises are hybrid clouds. “The value is not so much the cloud, but what cloud enables,” he said.
Challenges ahead for mobility
Last November, IBM released a survey showing that 90% of global organizations surveyed are willing to sustain or increase their investments in mobile technologies over the next 12 to 18 months. As enterprises improve their mobility strategy, they need to seek new engagements.
Marie Wieck, GM for MobileFirst at IBM, noted that the keys for successful mobile corporate strategies are to make every transaction secure; to build an agile approach (stay ahead of the competition); and to use mobile analytics to improve results at every moment (good understanding of mobile users).
“The IBM MobileFirst strategy is centered on protection and manage the mobile infrastructure to optimize performance; in transforming the value chain to drive growth and [return on investment], on engaging customers in context by leveraging mobile insights; and in building mobile apps and deploying mobile applications efficiently,” she explained during her keynote speech.
The focus on the cloud segments makes sense when evaluating IBM’s latest financial report. While IBM first-quarter net income was U.S. $2.4 billion, down 21% year-to-year and total revenues of $22.5 billion were down 4% (down 2%, adjusting for currency), the cloud revenue was up more than 50%. For cloud delivered as a service, first-quarter annual run rate of $2.3 billion doubled year to year.
In a statement, Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer, noted that IBM has continued to take actions to transform parts of the business and to shift aggressively to its strategic growth areas including cloud, big data analytics, social, mobile and security.
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Editor’s note: IBM provided travel costs to attend Impact event in Las Vegas.
