The journey to the cloud of the hottest IT company

Centennial IT company's journey to the cloud: IBM cloud strategy analysis

IBM and Apple announced in 2014 that they would become global partners. The two sides would jointly develop a variety of commercial apps for the mobile platforms of iPhone and iPad, which is unprecedented. The picture on the left shows Tim Cook, CEO of apple, and the picture on the right shows Virginia metty, CEO of IBM (image source/IBM, Apple)

for IBM's products, What was your first impression? Many people may first think of mainframe computers, or IBM PCs, which have contributed greatly to the popularity of personal computers, and ThinkPad series laptops, which are almost owned by IT engineers

not only hardware equipment, IBM is also actively developing software and services. Therefore, many people remember that they acquired lotus and became the largest software company at that time. For example, notes, an email and collaborative operating system, was once popular in half of the enterprise. Lotus also has many well-known software, such as cc:mail, an email system used by many enterprises in the 1980s and early 1990s, and smartsuite, which can compete with Microsoft office, And the video conference sametime launched around 2000; In addition, IBM also combined Lotus Series software with software development lifecycle management software rational, intermediary software WebSphere, database DB2, and system management Tivoli to form the five main software

another thing that may impress you is that IBM is one of the first large system manufacturers to support Linux. In the late 1990s, the company began to embrace open source software, and vigorously supported the Linux operating system in its mainframe and x86 servers, as well as software applications

during this period, IBM was also committed to breakthroughs in computing technology. For example, it continued to develop supercomputer platforms, including deep blue, blue gene, and Roadrunner. The more famous product recently was Watson; For improving the real-time analysis ability of big data, IBM proposed the technology of stream computing

of course, IBM is not absent from the cloud computing trend that has swept the world since 2008. Such an application originated from Sam Palmisano, the then CEO of the company, who proposed the concept of smart planet to the U.S. Council on foreign relations. By 2011, IBM then announced the framework of smart computing to realize the vision of smart earth

since its development, smart earth has involved an increasing range of applications, including nearly 30 kinds of applications, such as improving the development of cities, governments, public safety, construction, transportation, health care, commerce, energy, communications, education, environmental protection, as well as applications for banking, insurance, retail and other industries. The intelligent computing technology that helps practice can be divided into cloud, analytics big data, mobile enterprise and information security. Generally speaking, these five applications are referred to as camss for short

the first four of the above are usually classified as the third platform, which is different from the mainframe and master-slave computing architecture in the past. However, it is not easy to reverse the impression of engraving. In recent years, IBM has invested the most resources and time, publicized the longest, and is also the part that most people remember deeply, mainly cloud and big data analysis, while many people do not know much about mobile enterprises, social commerce and information security

mobile applications were the weakest part of IBM's influence in the past. In recent years, IBM has caught up quickly.

among these applications of camss, IBM has obtained most of the key products and technologies through self-development or mergers and acquisitions of other companies, but it can be seen that the company has paid more and more attention to mobile applications in recent years. For example, they especially put forward the strategic thinking of "mobile first", Why is mobile application more important than other products and technologies? After the holiday on October 1, Jinan trial work notification technology

IBM is eager to develop the mobile priority strategy. In just a few years, it has acquired many companies

for mobile applications, IBM acquired important technologies by acquiring other manufacturers or developing by itself. By 2012, it had obtained a total of 270 patents. Many companies have been acquired, including emptoris, worklight, tealeaf, urbancode, trustee, xtify, fiberlink, etc. In 2013, they officially announced the development strategy of mobile priority

looking at IBM's existing software products, some of them can indeed support mobile applications, but they are not one of the main development strategies. After the merger and acquisition of worklight in 2012, it was the beginning of the company's entry into the mobile computing platform. At that time, they first used four sets of products, including WebSphere cast iron, worklight, endpoint manager for mobile devices, to provide the cloud environment connection, application development, security control Business process and decision support improvement. Until 2013, the company launched mobilefirst enterprise class solution, officially announcing its entry into this field

mobilefirst platform currently provides a variety of components, including the tool studio for developing and designing apps, the intermediary software server (gateway of applications, back-end systems and cloud services) server, the client application execution interface that can strengthen governance and security, device runtime components The database management system that can expand the scale of back-end data on demand, with the help of the transformation and upgrading of the automotive industry, platform cloudant data layer local, application center that can help enterprises establish their own app market, and graphical interface console that can centrally manage all this. Moreover, this platform can integrate or extend the use of IBM products and services, such as bluemix cloud services, tealeaf CX, a mobile platform that can analyze user experience, truster, a security protection software with malware and prison break detection functions, and maas360, an MDM management system

bluemix cloud service provides mobilefirst development platform

on bluemix cloud service, it provides IBM mobilefirst platform for IOS, which can be used as the back-end system of mobile applications, including database storage, notification push, application security, code quality analysis and other functions

unprecedented! IBM cooperates with apple to develop enterprise level apps in various industries. There are many manufacturers promoting enterprise mobile applications in the market. IBM really focuses on this field and starts to develop late. Although they have their own software development tools and their own PAAS platform cloud services, it is not enough to provide such an application development environment. We need to produce results, To prove that IBM has the ability to help enterprise users do this thing well

after the merger and acquisition of worklight, IBM began to cooperate with many enterprises or organizations, and the key to this move that really began to attract everyone's attention was that they found several heavyweight manufacturers to lift the sedan chair together

first of all, it announced its cooperation with telecom provider at t in 2013. IBM assisted in the development of apps supporting voice recognition and mobile payment. The two sides also cooperated in the development of IOT applications and network security protection escrow services

is that IBM and Apple announced in 2014 that they would become global partners. They would jointly develop a variety of commercial apps for the mobile platforms of iPhone and iPad, which is unprecedented

there are several plans, one of which is that Apple will help develop IBM mobilefirst for IOS soluti, adjust the spacing based on the mobile console to connect the console ons, create more apps specifically designed for enterprise applications, and can take advantage of the problems faced by retail, health care, banking, tourism, transportation and other industries, or help enterprises grasp various business opportunities

the two sides have published two achievements on this cooperation. The first wave was to launch a variety of enterprise level apps developed for specific industries at the end of 2014, covering a wide range. In addition to the originally planned application industries, they also covered the insurance, financial services, telecommunications, government and aviation industries

the second wave was in March this year, during the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the mobilefirst solution was released, with the main focus on Banking and financial services, aviation and retail industries. It launched apps, and announced that 50 enterprises signed up to use this solution, such as Citibank, banorte, sprint, a telecom company, Boots UK, a British cosmetics chain American Eagle Outfitters of Canadian Airlines and clothing accessories

government units use apps to strengthen the ability to grasp emergency warnings

through incident aware, the police can quickly grasp the current emergency safety situation, immediately check the nearby scenes and GPS data, and check the instant video broadcast. If the incident is urgent, the police can receive an emergency notification through apple watch

medical institutions use apps to provide better health care for patients

with the help of hospital RN app, more time can be saved and patients can be better cared for. In addition, it can also be conveyed through iPhone and apple watch, so that nurses can keep abreast of patients' needs and the list of work items that must be prioritized

energy infrastructure industry apps improve on-site operation safety

among the field connect apps, personalized education and training information and safe operation tips are provided to reduce risk factors. With apple watch, personnel can view important alarms at the same time without interrupting their work

it is easier for the insurance service industry to retain customers with apps

with the help of retention app, it can be easier for insurance salesmen to retain customers. They can respond according to the importance of the situation, such as the update of unpaid advanced user declaration information

financial services use apps to improve the judgment of financial advisers

with the advisor alerts app for iPhone and iPad applications, financial advisers can serve customers faster and greatly improve decision-making efficiency. At the same time, this app can issue alerts according to priorities, so that consultants can quickly take action to change

the retail industry uses apps to assist purchasers in placing accurate orders.

when ordering, purchasers often delay placing orders for the optimization of the matching of items and quantities. Using the order commit app, you can refer to important values such as financial objectives, product sales and supplier performance to make decisions

it is worth mentioning that not long after that, the mobile application alliance of IBM and apple made another move. The two companies and Japan Post Group announced their cooperation in April, hoping to develop a variety of apps to improve the quality of life of the elderly. This plan will provide iPad, together with apps and analysis applications developed by IBM, to help many elderly people enjoy convenient services and medical care, and strengthen community and family care. Nippon post group will implement this service in stages, and it is expected to expand to fourorfive million users by 2020

the development of these apps will be customized by people in IBM's global business services department. Their functions include reminding users to take medicine, exercise and diet, and directly connecting community activities and support services, such as purchasing daily necessities and matching job search

and the system integration provided by Japan Post Group's own employees