IBM Business Analytics

IBM's strategy around analytics has taken two huge leaps in the past year:

1. The launch of IBM Cognos Express, a midsized version of Cognos 8
2. The announcement of a new private Cloud environment for business analytics
3. The launch of its analytics consulting services and centers

IBM Smart Analytics Cloud - Business Analytics in the Private Cloud

A Private Cloud is a virtualized platform within a clients own firewall. This can be either in house, or in a public multi-tenant Cloud.

IBM launched its own internal solution, and then announced it would share its success models as a new solution for clients to build their own private cloud environments.

IBM Smart Analytics Cloud provides "easily consumable business intelligence services, systems and software to help customers create an efficient delivery of shared business intelligence services across lines of business and functional organizations".

The offering is intended to help boost corporate business intelligence return on investment. It includes planning and strategy sessions, installation and implementation of the Smart Analytic cloud solution, and optimization of the Cloud for a particular enterprise.

Using:

• IBM Cognos 8 BI, a broad range of BI tools are included - reports, analysis, dashboards and scorecards.
• IBM System Z - the Cloud platform runs on Linux and world leading virtualization technology

Keep watch, as IBM plans to do a lot more in the Cloud space. With IBM's acquisitions of Cognos, RedPill Solutions and SPSS, IBM is building strength in its business analytics portfolio, but I doubt it has finished yet.

According to Ambuj Goyal, general manager, Business Analytics and Process Optimization, IBM Software Group, "This is a trend for us. This is not just an announcement; it's a journey for us."

IBM Trends with Analytics

1. IBM is addressing three core trends:
2. Workload optimized computing
3. Workload optimized systems
4. Simplified, unified infrastructure.

Characteristics of analytics workloads include search and query, predictive analytics, and risk analysis.

IBM is also looking at the potential for hybrid Clouds, with a mix of public and private Cloud information.

Analytics Consulting

IBM launched an analytics consulting service in April of 2009, under the banner of IBM Global Business Services

Senior vice president of IBM Global Business Services, Frank Kern, at the launch of the line stated businesses today need for than a sense and respond capability, they "need to speed business decisions, understand the consequences of any decision and predict outcomes with more certainty...moving to a new level of enterprise intelligence."

IBM is opening a series of IBM advanced analytics centers around the world to promote the use of analytics. Initial centers have been launched in Washington, D.C., New York, Dallas, Berlin, Beijing and Tokyo.

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