Creating a sustainable future with the experts of today and tomorrow

When extreme weather strikes, it hits vulnerable populations the hardest. In the current global climate of stronger and more frequent storms, heat waves, droughts and floods, how do we build more positive environmental and social impact? We have a responsibility to apply our technological expertise, resources and ecosystem to help the world become more resilient to these environmental challenges.

We need a three-pronged approach to long-term sustainability: preparing the workforce with skills for a greener future; forging strategic cross-sector partnerships; and empowering purpose-driven individuals and organizations with the right tools and technology to accelerate action.

Equipping the current and future workforce with green skills

According to new Morning Consult research commissioned by IBM, 71% of business leaders surveyed anticipate their business will emphasize sustainability skills criteria in their hiring in the next two years, with 92% expecting to invest in sustainability training in the next year. There is already a skills gap in technology and sustainability, and these results show that it continues to grow.

But when it comes to training and credentials in green and technology skills, there just aren’t that many options. IBM already has a strong track record of providing free skilling resources to communities that are underrepresented in tech, most recently with a commitment to skill 2 million learners in AI. So, to help prepare the experts of tomorrow with the green and technology skills they need, we are providing free training on IBM SkillsBuild.

Our initial curriculum offerings will include three courses: Sustainability and Technology Fundamentals, Data Analytics for Sustainability and Enterprise Thinking for Sustainability. Through these foundational courses, learners will explore topics like ecology, biodiversity and social impact to help them develop a comprehensive understanding of sustainability. 

Lessons will include real-life case studies and opportunities to learn about how AI can assist businesses in achieving sustainability goals and mitigating climate risks. The courses also provide instruction in data analytics contextualized around sustainability use cases. We will also add more advanced courses that take a deeper look at how data analysis and visualization skills can be applied to practical sustainability use cases, such as examining energy consumption in a community. 

These courses are available to high school students, university students and faculty, and adult learners worldwide. Learners are free to take as many courses as they want and to study at their own pace. Upon successful completion of some of these courses, learners receive a credential that is recognized by employers.

IBM SkillsBuild has a global reach, and it has already benefited many learners with the inspiration and resources they need to pursue careers in technology. For instance, in Nigeria, Clinton Chidubem Amam found employment as a graphics designer after completing IBM SkillsBuild courses, and his work was displayed at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year. Meanwhile, Oscar Ramirez, who arrived in the US as a child from Mexico, was able to investigate everything from AI to cybersecurity and project management while finishing his studies in Applied Mathematics and Computational Mathematics at San Jose State University.

Uniting sustainability experts in strategic partnerships

Whether it’s closing the green skills gap or tackling environmental challenges, you can’t go at it alone. Addressing big challenges requires collaboration and strategic partnership with experts that intimately understand the nuances of different domains.

That’s why IBM’s award-winning pro-bono social impact program, the IBM Sustainability Accelerator, selects innovative organizations focused on solutions worth scaling. In this program, diverse cross-sector experts in topics such as sustainable agriculture and renewable energy come together from both inside and outside IBM. Using a human-centered approach along with IBM Garage, artificial intelligence, advances in data, cloud and other technologies, these teams collaborate on projects to help vulnerable populations become more resilient to climate change.

Five organizations are now joining this initiative on the path toward clean water and sanitation for all (UN SDG6):

• The University of Sharjah will build a model and application to monitor and forecast water access conditions in the Middle East and North Africa to support communities in arid and semi-arid regions with limited renewable internal freshwater resources.
• The University of Chicago Trust in Delhi will aggregate water quality information in India, build and deploy tools designed to democratize access to water quality information, and help improve water resource management for key government and nonprofit organizations.
• The University of Illinois will develop an AI geospatial foundation model to help predict rain fall and flood forecasting in mountain headwaters across the Appalachian Mountains in the US.
• Instituto IGUÁ will create a cloud-based platform for sanitation infrastructure planning in Brazil alongside local utility providers and governments.
• Water Corporation will design a self-administered water quality testing system for Aboriginal communities in Western Australia.

We’re excited to partner with organizations that deeply understand the water and sanitization challenges that communities face. IBM has committed to support our sustainability accelerator projects, including our sustainable agriculture and clean energy cohorts, with USD 30 million worth of services by 2025.

Supporting a just transition for all

To build a more sustainable world, we must empower communities with the skills, tools and support they need to adapt to environmental hazards with resilience. By providing access to IBM technology and know-how, we can empower the communities most vulnerable to the effects of extreme weather and climate change. And by democratizing access to sustainability education through IBM SkillsBuild, we help the next generation of experts realize their passion for applying advanced technology to preserve and protect the environment. These efforts, along with our strategic partnerships, will lead us all into a more sustainable future.

Source: ibm.com

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Child support systems modernization: The time is now

The majority of today’s child support systems are dated, first-generation systems that are now more than 25 years old. These systems need modernization to meet the evolving needs of children and families in the 21st century. With more than 20% of families and children supported by these systems, the impact is significant.

Today’s constituents are interested in engaging with services using modern, consumer-friendly technologies, platforms and devices. Families also expect interactive experiences that drive outcomes tailored to their needs.

Read More: C2090-623: IBM Cognos Analytics Administrator V11

The existing systems were simply not designed to provide a family-centric approach to service delivery and do not have the capabilities or features needed to realize that type of approach. Markedly, most states are at least in the planning stages of modernizing these systems.

To respond to the new requirements and expectations of state-provided child support services, these systems must:

• Empower families to get help when, where and how they need it, including via virtual and real-time communication mechanisms.
• Provide quick and transparent services to ease family stress and frustration in times of need.
• Be intuitive and user-friendly in order to reduce inefficiencies and manual effort for both families and caseworkers.
• Automate routine tasks to allow caseworkers to provide more personalized services and build relationships with families.
• Empower caseworkers with online tools to collaborate with colleagues and access knowledge repositories.

Though there are many challenges when it comes to child support system modernization, with a proven approach to mainframe application modernization, it is possible to facilitate technical application migrations while maintaining consistency in business functions.

State-level challenges and requirements

In addition to the shift in the way families engage with technology, there are several other factors driving states to pursue modernization. States are:

• Envisioning a holistic, family-focused model for service delivery that is personal, customized, and collaborative (rather than the “one-size-fits-all” process that ends up not fitting anyone very well).
• Providing more time for caseworkers to engage and collaborate with families by freeing them from inefficient system interfaces and processes.
• Utilizing the capabilities of modern technology stacks rather than continuing to use outdated and limited applications developed on existing systems.
• Upgrading their systems to leverage widely available and competitively priced technology skillsets rather than paying for the scarce, expensive skills required for existing system support.

Each state’s child support system is different, but core system requirements make them similar in many ways. These requirements include initiating new cases, providing location and establishment services, enforcing orders and handling financial transactions mandated by the Office of Child Support Services (OCSS). Despite these commonalities, every child support organization is distinct, and each needs a tailored modernization approach that supports its vision, addresses its specific system challenges and understands the reality of its issues “on the ground.”

The core systems technology landscape for each state could be an existing mainframe system with varying degrees of maturity, portability, reliability and scalability. States’ existing investments in modernizing and enhancing ancillary supportive technologies (such as document management, web portals, mobile applications, data warehouses and location services) could negate the need for certain system requirements as part of the child support system modernization initiative. This, along with overall maturity of state systems, the need for uninterrupted service requirements, state budget, timing, staffing and other factors, mandates a holistic modernization effort. The “one-size-fits-all” approach to child support system modernization doesn’t work any better than it does for the child support process itself.

Accelerated Incremental Mainframe Modernization (AIMM)

Existing applications are generally complex and expensive to maintain, which limits business agility and makes any attempt to rebuild, refactor or integrate the system a risk. IBM Consulting™ has experienced these challenges across the breadth of industry applications and has formed a generalized approach to modernizing existing applications (particularly those running on traditional mainframe systems) that addresses the challenges in an automated fashion.

IBM’s Accelerated Incremental Mainframe Modernization (AIMM) approach focuses on modernization with a lens toward incremental application transformation rather than code translation. Instead of a single, risky, “big-bang” application and infrastructure update, AIMM focuses on incremental, business-data-domain-centric initiatives that deliver immediate value while enabling a development approach and an ecosystem of processes and tools for continued incremental optimization. AIMM facilitates an end-to-end approach to mainframe modernization that places particular focus on a journey of coexistence. It begins with mapping business and technology processes alongside their IT ecosystems. This approach is distinct from the common code-conversion approach and ensures that both existing and new systems are in lockstep, seamlessly delivering the needed business functions to caseworkers and families while incrementally migrating to the new digital core system. Eventually, new platforms replace existing systems entirely and final cutover is accomplished with minimal to no disruption to the users. The diagram below illustrates an end-to-end flow of processes using AIMM to accomplish mainframe modernization.

The AIMM approach is bolstered by IBM’s industry-leading methodology, tools and assets, including:

• IBM Garage Methodology: IBM’s engagement and operating methodology (which brings together industry best practices, technical expertise, systems knowledge, client collaboration and partnership, cloud service providers and the consulting teams) uses a design strategy with iterative creation and launch processes to deliver accelerated outcomes and time to value.
• IBM Consulting Cloud Accelerator (ICCA): This approach accelerates cloud adoption by creating a “wave plan” for migrating and modernizing workloads to cloud platforms. ICCA integrates and orchestrates a wide range of migration tools across IBM’s assets and products, open source components and third-party tools to take a workload from its original platform to a cloud destination.
• Asset Analysis Renovation Catalyst (AARC): This tool automatically extracts business rules from application source code and generates a knowledge model that can be deployed into a rules engine such as Operational Decision Manager (ODM).
• Operational Decision Manager: This business rule management system enables automated responses to real-time data by applying automated decisions based on business rules. ODM enables business users to analyze, automate and govern rules-based business decisions by developing, deploying and maintaining operational system decision logic.

The AIMM approach meets states where they are in their modernization journeys by analyzing existing code, extracting business rules, converting code to modern languages and deploying applications to any cloud platform. With its proven tools and processes, IBM Consulting applies and manages technology to help states realize their business goals and deliver value faster. 

Hybrid cloud architectures for balanced transformation

Technology decisions should be based on a thoughtful balance of cost, capability and sustainability to enable successful outcomes and attain program or project goals. The adoption of cloud technology has gained significant traction for child support agencies with mainframe systems due to its support for operational efficiences and its ability to facilitate on-demand innovation. Cloud computing offers many benefits, including cost savings, scalability, security, accessibility, software maintenance, data backup, disaster recovery, and advanced data and AI capabilities.

A technology architecture based on hybrid cloud (a blend of on-premises and cloud service provider capabilities) enables agencies to advance their missions with the advantages of cloud while still benefiting from their mainframe investments. Considering a hybrid cloud architecture allows states to prioritize transformation of problematic applications while retaining the portions of their existing child support systems that meet constituent needs.

Technical patterns for cloud migration

For states modernizing their existing systems, IBM recommends the combination of one or more of the following technical patterns to achieve cloud migration and realize the benefits of the modern cloud platform:

• Pattern 1: Migration to cloud with middleware emulator. With this approach, an agency’s systems are migrated to a cloud platform with minimal to no code alterations. The integration of middleware emulators minimizes the need for code changes and ensures smooth functionality during the migration process.
• Pattern 2: Migration to cloud with code refactoring. This approach couples the migration of systems to a cloud environment with necessary code modifications for optimal performance and alignment with cloud architectures. IBM has a broad ecosystem of partners who specialize in using automated tools to make most code modifications.
• Pattern 3: Re-architect and modernize with microservices. This strategy encompasses re-architecting systems with the adoption of microservices-based information delivery channels. This approach modernizes systems in cloud-based architectures which enable efficient communication between the microservices.
• Pattern 4: Cloud data migration for analytics and insights. This strategy focuses on transferring existing data to the cloud and facilitating generation of advanced data analytics and insights, a key feature of modernized systems.

Maintaining business functions across technical migrations

For all of the previously mentioned technical patterns, maintaining business functions while modernizing the technical components supporting them is essential to migration and modernization success. The following graphic shows an example of maintaining business functions while changing the underlying technology using Pattern 2 (migration to cloud with code refactoring).

In this example, IBM retains business functionality (shown in blue) while changing the underlying technology (shown in yellow). This incremental approach is critical to maintaining an agency’s ability to continue providing effective services to families and children while technology transformation takes place. 

IBM Consulting has solidified these accelerators to help clients migrate to cloud, and IBM continues to work with all major hyperscalers to accelerate application modernization. Our goals are to achieve automation to the extent it is feasible, reduce risk of application changes, create and deploy secure APIs, and reduce the need for specialized skills to accomplish state application migrations.

In the ever-evolving landscape of child support services, transformation is key to efficiently and effectively supporting caseworkers, children and their families.

By prioritizing family-focused models, embracing modern technology, respecting state uniqueness and harnessing the power of hybrid cloud architectures, modernized child support systems can pave the way for a brighter future for children and families in need of support.

IBM is proud to be a trusted partner for many states as they modernize child support systems to look after the welfare of our nation’s families.

Source: ibm.com

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The real secret to a successful digital transformation? Human empathy

According to Debbie Vavangas, IBM Consulting VP, one of the main reasons digital transformation efforts fail is that organizations don’t fully account for the humans involved. They don’t fully consider the various people working throughout the organization, and how changes affect their daily lives. When it comes to things like automation, AI, and intelligent workflows, it may seem like taking people out of the process is the whole point. In certain circumstances, it’s tempting to remove the human element in a digital transformation. 

But no matter how technical a transformation project might be, Vavangas says, “Digital transformation works at the people level. It’s how you design experiences that are adopted; it’s how people learn to love things. ​​If you’re not thinking about your people, your innovation is doomed.” 

“If you’re not thinking about your people, your innovation is doomed.”Debbie Vavangas

It’s not that organizations don’t recognize that people matter; they often get caught up in the more tangible elements of a digital transformation—app modernization, AI, automation or operational efficiency. If investments in digital technology are not grounded in stakeholder needs and preferences, they will not drive organizational value. If these investments in digital transformation and new ways of working are a challenge for employees to embrace, a company’s transformation ambitions will unravel. 

​​Vavangas is no stranger to digital transformation as the global lead for IBM Garage, a unique end-to-end model for accelerating digital business transformation that puts innovation at the heart of enterprise strategy. She’s one of IBM’s thought leaders on innovative ways of working and change management. In her observation, the importance of how people experience transformation is “almost always woefully underestimated.” 

​Human-centered transformation can be achieved through a combination of user research, breaking down organizational barriers, and ensuring that your organization’s culture is eager to adapt to change. 

​​“Transformation is pointless when we do it without purpose.”Debbie Vavangas

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​​“Transformation is pointless when we do it without purpose,” Vavangas says. If you transform an organization into something that doesn’t serve those responsible for its success, you will only waste time and money. 

Human-centered digital transformations begin with understanding what’s inside the hearts and minds of the people your organization depends on, then using those insights to inform how you embark on new initiatives and include everyone in the journey. To plan for the real-world human factors that can make or break a digital transformation, consider these three underused best practices for analyzing human experience, overcoming challenges and driving successful digital transformation: 

​​​​​1. User research: “I believe in my bones in the power of user research to make sure that you get to the crucial secret sauce, which is adoption,” Vavangas says. ​​Conducting comprehensive user research—from specific qualitative interviews to extensive data analysis—is key to determining the right success factors for a digital transformation, as well as to ensure employees are prepared to deliver. By incorporating metrics and user feedback early and often, companies can manage risk and ask, “Is this working?” and “What can we do better?” If you don’t have the data you need for user research, synthetic data can help. 

​​​​​2. Breaking down human barriers: Vavangas is adamant about clearly defining the human pain points that can derail your digital transformation and calculating the cost of those roadblocks down to the dollar. Reluctant leadership, the culture shock of organizational change, bringing siloed teams together, rigid rules, and new technology systems—all of these can be obstacles unless managed effectively. Think about the actual costs of your sticking points so you can push for workarounds. “When you know how much an impediment is costing you each day,” Vanvagas says, “it creates a very different lens to problem-solving.” 

​​​​​3. Cultural transformation: “If you don’t change the culture, transformation doesn’t get adopted,” Vavangas says. Yet lasting cultural change is one of the most difficult things for an organization to achieve. It requires buy-in across your organization, and that won’t happen unless leadership teams understand employees’ experiences and respond to their needs. “Measure how people are feeling as you’re rolling out programs,” Vavangas says. “What does it feel like to work in this different way? Are they feeling supported? Do they feel like they’re growing? Have we made things easier?” 

If your organization is looking for a way to accelerate digital transformation while keeping the human in mind, learn more about ​​IBM Garage and how it helps enterprises boost innovation and achieve lasting cultural transformation. 

Source: ibm.com

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Is there a “right” cloud strategy for banking?

As public cloud technology and hybrid multicloud architectures are being adopted in financial institutions at an increasing rate, we’re observing that their counterparts in the public sector— central banks—are a long way behind, due at least in part to a profoundly risk-averse approach.

While central banks have a very different mission from commercial banks, what they do have in common is the need to modernize their IT operations to support digital transformation, contain costs, source key skills and mitigate operational and cybersecurity risks.

New report: Central Banking and Cloud Services: The New Frontier

To get a better understanding of how central banks compare to private sector organizations in how they think about public cloud and approach their cloud migration strategy, we partnered with the team at OMFIF to produce a first-of-its-kind report that looks at the opportunities and challenges of public cloud services seen through the lens of central banking officials.

Central Banking and Cloud Services: The New Frontier is based on a series of interviews with executives to illustrate an informed picture of what cloud technology can offer central banks and the challenges they face in adopting it. In exploring the benefits that cloud migration gives central banks, we also examined the ways in which financial institutions in the private sector have addressed the hurdles that are hampering central bank cloud adoption. Some of these challenges are technical, some are legal, some are cultural, and different solutions are necessary to address each.

What does it mean to “do cloud right?”

In IBM Cloud, we are working to drive new levels of ecosystem collaboration and knowledge-sharing that support cloud adoption by de-risking the journey and reducing the time-to-value. We see public cloud as an enabler of a better future for financial services, not as a destination.

The following five takeaways are insights that we have gleaned from our extensive customer engagements, global regulatory outreach program and the industry contributions of the IBM Financial Services Cloud Council:

1. Allow your digital transformation ambitions (not your fears) to drive your cloud strategy.

2. Know yourself, your stakeholders and your data.

3. Be solution-oriented and nimble in combining technical, operational and legal capabilities to deliver outcomes that matter to your organization.

4. Understand the immediate power and sustained value of great architecture with embedded security controls and continuous monitoring.

5. Maximize the optionality that hybrid multicloud brings to mitigate regulatory and technological uncertainty in your environment.

IBM believes that dependability, reliability and trust need to be at the heart of every cloud strategy. Done right, our take is that the cloud can deliver unparalleled benefits in performance and total cost of ownership without compromising resiliency, security and compliance. And that conviction holds true across both public-sector institutions and private-sector enterprises.

The good news is that for every cloud transformation challenge, there is a solution—this includes privacy-enhancing technologies like confidential computing and Keep-Your-Own-Key (KYOK) cryptography, architectural patterns that enable intentional and optimized choices about workload placement, pre-defined security controls with continuous posture management, and specific deployment measures that address data localization requirements.

We’re confident that by learning from the successes and challenges experienced by the private sector, the central banking community will unlock the benefits of public cloud faster than ever before by addressing inhibitors that may currently be holding them back and better informing their perspective on how best to manage the evolving risk dynamics in the financial services sector.

The future for financial services is bright. And we’re very proud to be at the heart of it.

Source: ibm.com

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How IBM Consulting and the US Open evolve the fan experience and accelerate innovation

IBM® has been the official technology partner of the US Open Tennis Championships for more than three decades, and the relationship goes much deeper than courtside logo placement. It’s an ongoing partnership delivering world-class digital experiences to fans, built on IBM’s open, flexible technology platform. “We need to constantly innovate to meet the modern demands of tennis fans, anticipating their needs, but also surprising them with new and unexpected experiences,” says Kirsten Corio, Chief Commercial Officer at the United States Tennis Association (USTA).

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Year after year, IBM iX, the experience design arm of IBM Consulting™, works with the USTA to integrate technology from dozens of partners, automate key business processes and use the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to transform vast quantities of tennis data to deliver key insights.

Bringing fans closer to the game they love

This year’s tournament features colorful personalities and compelling stories. But as host of a leading spectator event viewed by nearly 10 million people every year, the USTA is charged with delivering ever more engaging experiences. IBM Consulting asked: How can we use the digital experience of the US Open to serve the USTA’s mission and grow the game of tennis? How can we better serve fans with live scores, stats and player information while they watch a live match? How can we deliver the answers they need? How can we provide relevant and timely insights they can’t find anywhere else?

These questions led to several innovations: The IBM Power Index with Watson ranks player momentum and combines performance and punditry, queried through IBM Watson® Discovery, to create a “Likelihood to Win” prediction and highlight compelling matchups. Match Insights with Watson delivers head-to-head pregame analysis of every match, using natural language generation to translate historical statistics into easily read sentences. And US Open Fantasy Tennis, enriched with Match Insights, lets fans create and follow their own fantasy team.

A collaboration that drives innovation

Creating digital experiences that drive enthusiasm requires a human lens. To achieve that, the US Open digital strategy team partners closely with IBM iX, one of the largest business design consultancies in the world. IBM iX uses collaborative design thinking brought to life by the IBM Garage methodology — an end-to-end model for accelerating digital transformation — to address challenges within a variety of management frameworks including lean startups, human-centered design, agile and DevOps.

Stage 1: Co-create

At the co-create stage, squads agree on the nature of the challenges, prioritize them and conceptualize solutions. For example, for the 2022 US Open, a top priority was providing more explainability to the “Likelihood to Win” prediction.

Stage 2: Co-execute

At the co-execute stage, development teams build minimum viable products or solutions, and test them. Using this process, IBM and USTA developed the “Win Factors” feature, which shows the top three variables affecting the prediction such as head-to-head record, winning record on this surface or Power Index rating.

Stage 3: Cooperate

The cooperate stage is not simply about operational maintenance. It’s about ongoing performance management, improvement and product development. The USTA and IBM Consulting cooperate virtually year-round to develop and refine the digital experience, starting with a debrief after the tournament asking questions such as Where did we succeed? What could be improved? How can we be more efficient and effective?

Beyond solving the problems at hand, co-creating with IBM Garage can be a transformative experience for organizations, helping them prioritize their development queue, iterate solutions and evaluate them in a cycle of ongoing improvement. Using this method, IBM and the GRAMMYs delivered artist insights for live coverage based on IBM Watson analysis of millions of articles. IBM and the Masters® built a digital platform to scale the capabilities of the Masters Digital team.

Over 30 years in, IBM and the US Open continue to overcome new challenges and engage fans with new experiences. For a tournament, fan expectations and technology that are always evolving, this partnership keeps the USTA ahead of the ball.

Source: ibm.com

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Turn sustainability ambition into action

For nearly 20 years, IBM has surveyed thousands of CEOs about their biggest challenges. In the latest survey, sustainability ranked at the top, a 5-spot jump from 2021. Nearly 60% of CEOs told us they see significant demand from investors for greater transparency on sustainability. They are also feeling the pressure from multiple stakeholders. Regulators and governments in most top economies have developed corporate disclosure requirements around environmental impact. Customers want to buy from sustainable businesses. People want to work for these companies and invest in them. From the boardroom to the operations centers, all stakeholders want to play a role in making a positive difference for our world.

However, while 86% of companies say they already have a sustainability strategy in place, only 23% say they are implementing sustainability strategies across their entire organization. Many organizations with good intentions are stalled at the planning stage because implementing sustainable practices is complex and they don’t know how or where to make an impact. Despite this delay, the same IBV CEO study found that 80% of CEOs believe investments in sustainability will improve their own business results within 5 years. How can you turn strategy into results?

Take the first steps to build and operationalize sustainability

Becoming more sustainable is an opportunity to innovate, make a difference and grow. Take action by following these three steps:

Define your Sustainability goals – To succeed, your business needs to set and act on clear environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, then execute with exceptional data discipline across the enterprise.

Establish your ESG data foundation – Create a clear baseline to underpin every goal from which to determine your current impact, track progress and implement adjustments. This requires a single system of record to integrate and manage ESG data that aligns to your goals. Collect, correlate, visualize, and analyze relevant data so you can deliver transparent, verifiable, financial-grade information and more easily identify where improvements are most needed.

Operationalize your sustainability goals – Full benefit can then be achieved by leveraging the links between this system of record for ESG data and the underlying operational systems that run across all the departments and business units of your organization. With these links in place, you can automate feedback loops that enable actions based on insights. These insights help drive sustainable transformation through intelligent facilities and assets, resilient IT Infrastructure, and circular supply chains.

Focus on three key operational areas

Intelligent facilities and assets—Monitoring and recording operational data from your organization’s physical assets and real estate facilities is a good place to start. The data you collect can fuel insights to drive significant energy savings, optimize waste management and provide predictive maintenance data to help reduce unplanned downtime.

Resilient IT infrastructure—Data centers provide multiple opportunities for improving sustainability. Upgrading IT infrastructure with newer, more energy-efficient equipment can help you reduce energy consumption and eliminate wasteful, outdated hardware. What’s more, the same steps you take to improve business resiliency across your organization also help you improve customer experiences and productivity while you work towards meeting your sustainability goals.

Circular supply chains—Encouraging reuse and providing customers with transparent sourcing data for the products they buy is something more consumers are demanding. Deploying intelligent workflows and taking advantage of automation opportunities can not only reduce waste but also optimize fulfillment and delivery paths with lower carbon footprints. Solutions powered by AI and backed by blockchain can help you progress toward a net zero supply chain.

Advance your journey with IBM

As you embark on your sustainability journey and tackle each of our 3 recommended steps, IBM and its ecosystem of partners are on hand to support and help you along the way. We recognize that no one can do it alone, but together we can turn sustainability ambition into action.

Define your sustainability goals with IBM Consulting™ — IBM experts, strengthened by our strategic alliances and partnerships, are helping clients embed sustainability into the fabric of their business to increase operational efficiencies, expose innovation opportunities and drive competitive differentiation. Many businesses rely on IBM Consulting as their partner for the new rules of modern business. We believe open ecosystems, open technologies, open innovation, and open cultures are the key to creating opportunities and the way forward for modern business and our world. Our expert advice helps you leverage sustainability as a catalyst for profitable business transformation.

Establish your ESG data foundation and a clear baseline with IBM® Envizi — Envizi provides a single system of record to manage ESG data that aligns to your goals in a verifiable and auditable way. Automate the collection and consolidation of more than 500 data types, with support for internationally recognized ESG reporting frameworks, to manage environmental goals, identify efficiency opportunities, and assess sustainability risks. Proactively plan and manage the economic impact of weather and climate change events with IBM® Environmental Intelligence Suite®.

Operationalize sustainability goals with IBM technology — At IBM, we are building a comprehensive portfolio of capabilities in collaboration with our network of partners, including AWS, EY, Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP, and WBCSD among others. We help you realize sustainable transformation by leveraging the connections between your ESG data and your daily operations. Many of our clients choose IBM® Maximo® as their foundation for operational insights on physical assets to drive clean energy transition, efficient water and waste management, and decarbonization using AI, analytics and IoT. If your goal is to automate workflows and establish resilient IT infrastructure, IBM Turbonomic® is a no-fuss solution that helps you improve data center efficiency, performance optimization and cloud workflow tracking. IBM LinuxONE can also bring sustainability to mission-critical workflows, helping you manage server sprawl and contain your corporate carbon footprint. And if you seek to improve responsible sourcing and supply chain transparency, IBM Supply Chain Intelligence Suite provides insights and intelligent workflows to enable equitable, net zero supply chains through AI and blockchain. No matter where you decide to act, IBM and its partners have the capabilities to help you achieve your sustainability goals.

Find out more about sustainability solutions from IBM

Industry leaders rely on IBM solutions to help meet sustainability goals

BestSeller—Reducing return rates, driving supply chain efficiencies, and stepping forward to sustainable fashion with the help of IBM Garage, by developing “Fashion.ai” to help customers purchase items that fit their physical dimensions and preferred style.

Celestica—Consolidating, streamlining, and automating ESG data reporting with IBM Envizi Sustainability Performance Management to produce finance-grade, auditable data and transform sustainability reporting across the manufacturing portfolio.

Sund & Baelt—Digitizing maintenance and asset management processes using IBM Maximo to extend the life of critical infrastructure (like bridges and tunnels) by 100 years and avoid 750,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Carhartt—Deploying cloud-first strategy with IBM Turbonomic® Application Resource Management to ensure 24×7 performance while reducing application needs and energy consumption.

BBVA—Adopting IBM z15’s central processing equipment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumption of BBVA Data Center processors by 50%.

Partnership for Carbon Transparency—Partnering with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and others to enable the secure exchange of verified, standardized product emissions data across organizations.

Source: ibm.com

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Building a platform of innovation to transform golf data into predictive insights

The Masters Tournament is steeped in tradition. From Amen Corner to Butler Cabin, it seems everywhere you look at Augusta National Golf Club, history is staring back at you. But the Masters has another, more forward-looking, tradition: innovation.

Since 1934, the Masters has pushed the boundaries of innovation in golf, from low-tech inventions like the under-over scoring system, to award-winning technology like serving up every shot, from every player, on every hole through the Masters app. And to help the Masters continue to define the future of digital experience in sports, IBM Consulting developed a next generation “platform of innovation.”

The Masters has always had a clear and consistent vision for the digital experience on Masters.com and the Masters app. Among other things, they want to bring digital “patrons” closer to the Tournament with meaningful insights harvested from data. To do this, IBM and the Masters Digital team worked closely using the IBM Garage™ methodology, a way of co-creating solutions to a variety of business problems. The teams constructed a powerful platform that uses hybrid cloud and AI technologies to transform vast quantities of data into insights.

The result is a digital experience that generates player insights that bring patrons closer to the players they love. Using IBM Cloud Pak® for Data® and Red Hat® OpenShift® to manage the flow of structured and unstructured data, the platform applies the natural language processing capabilities of IBM Watson to analyze millions of statistics and articles, identifying and delivering insight right to the player pages in the app.

In addition, the teams built AI models that could analyze six years of historical Masters data on hundreds of players and more than 120,000 shots. These models generate predictions of every player’s score in every round. Users of the app can then use those projections to help select their Masters Fantasy foursome.

These new features do more than enhance the fan experience. They also automate critical elements of the editorial workflow for the Masters Digital team, which allows them to scale their capabilities and focus their attention on the most urgent, creative work.

These new features join other recent fan favorites, like My Group, Track, and the AI-generated Round in Under Three Minutes, all of which make the Masters digital experience one of the best in all of sports. And they extend the tradition of partnership between IBM and the Masters.

Source: ibm.com

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Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform now available on IBM Power Systems Virtual Server

Following the announcement of Red Hat OpenShift 4.6 availability across IBM Power Systems, IBM Z, and IBM LinuxONE infrastructure alongside x86, IBM Power Systems is pleased to announce the availability of Red Hat OpenShift on Power Systems Virtual Server leveraging OpenShift’s platform-agnostic installer. Clients will now be able to further expand the cloud capabilities of their Power Systems infrastructure to deliver a resilient and secure hybrid cloud platform.

The offering is engineered so that IBM clients can easily spin up new OpenShift clusters as devtest environments as well as create highly available clusters capable of handling data-intensive workloads. Offering OpenShift on Power Virtual Server opens new doors for running a world of containerized applications including IBM Cloud Paks, Red Hat Runtimes, open-source software, and applications from independent software vendors.

IBM Cloud Paks™ provide the containerized IBM middleware and open-source software components to modernize, move and build cloud-native business applications in hybrid and multicloud deployments. Based on feedback, Power Systems clients are already speeding time-to-market and infusing AI insights into existing on-premises applications with the Cloud Pak for Data and can now extend that capability to Power Systems Virtual Server.

Why this is important for customers

As you plan to deploy containerized workloads, Red Hat OpenShift on Power Systems Virtual Server is designed to provide the flexibility and on-demand scalability to get to market faster in a secured environment. Power Virtual Server pay-as-you-go billing allows you to best allocate scarce resources and to adapt to changing needs of the business. Now you have the resources to develop modern OpenShift cloud-native container-based applications to run alongside existing AIX, IBM i and Linux-based applications. In addition, IBM Systems Lab Services provides a wealth of offerings to help you get started with OpenShift and containers on Power Systems.

Potential use cases

◉ Spin up devtest OpenShift clusters for cloud-native application development and application modernization projects

◉ Transform traditional IBM middleware into agile, cloud-native, container-based services

◉ Co-locate your IBM i and AIX applications with new cloud-native services on OpenShift on Power Virtual Server for simplified management and optimal performance

Easy to configure and operate

Our design goal has been to make it easy for customers to get started with Red Hat OpenShift on Power Systems Virtual Server. We have automated much of the installation with Ansible and other automation technologies so that even those customers new to Red Hat OpenShift and Kubernetes will find it easy to get a cluster up and running. Installing Cloud Paks and other applications is simplified with automation technology that offers a consistent deployment experience across Power Virtual Server and on premises.

IBM provides a step-by-step learning path that helps all skill levels to deploy an OpenShift cluster on Power Virtual Server and to learn about how to leverage the environment across a range of use cases.

Source: ibm.com

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Hybrid cloud security

In our interconnected world, an organization’s ability to thrive is based on a foundation of operational resiliency, flexibility, and agility and the assurance of data security and privacy. The flexibility and resiliency of a hybrid cloud environment enables organizations to innovate more cost effectively and efficiently.  Our new physically disparate workforce demands a greater level of self-service, which requires us to focus even more on security. In fact, CCS Insight’s Senior Leadership IT Investment Survey (August 2020) showed that IT security is the highest investment priority for senior leaders over the next 12 months.

Security attacks, vulnerabilities, and data breaches are among the leading causes of downtime for many organizations, with resulting costs of up to $150,000 to $1,000,000, based on company size. Greater than two thirds of businesses have suffered a data breach in the past 3 years, according to CCS.  No organization is immune; it’s not a matter of if, but when.

A holistic approach to security planning

So it is key that everyone in an organization co-creates together to develop a holistic security solution based on common goals.  That’s exactly why in our upcoming webinar, Secrets from the C-Suite: Building a Secure Hybrid Cloud, we discuss the importance of a collaborative effort across an organization to develop an end-to-end security strategy.

Comprehensive evaluation is key

Many organizations work on security in a piecemeal manner, addressing specific applications or employing individual tools or strategies. That approach can leave an organization vulnerable. Comprehensive planning should assess the security landscape taking all stakeholders into consideration–both the business and technical organizations–to encourage collaboration. This will ensure a complete view of the entire organization’s goals, vulnerabilities, risks and existing solutions. Your approach and your infrastructure architecture need to consider not only your needs today but also your needs tomorrow.

We often hear that leaders are aware of the risks but don’t consider a holistic plan to be an important goal for their organization — until they are impacted by a breach. That’s why it’s never too early to get started.

Multi-faceted hybrid cloud security

A multi-faceted approach to hybrid cloud security is the most comprehensive. This strategy should take into account both internal and external vulnerabilities — because internal breaches often occur with greater frequency and can incur as much damage as external threats. Equally important is the approach to encryption. Selective encryption can result in obvious vulnerabilities; bad actors can identify specifically encrypted data as their target, as it is clearly the most valuable.

Pervasive encryption protects data, at rest and in-flight, across your entire organization. Eliminating vulnerabilities with pervasive encryption prepares your organization to comply with regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR, providing a safe harbor to avoid potentially significant fines for non-compliance.

Security is a crucial focus for all industries.  In the healthcare industry the protection of proprietary information such as test results can impact patient outcome; patients need to feel confident that their information is protected. In the financial industry, trust is imperative. Individual or corporate financial data must be considered safe to be trusted. Across all industries, a comprehensive security strategy is an opportunity for competitive advantage.

Source: ibm.com

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Five key things to know about IBM Garage for Systems

What if you had access to experts who specialize in the IT solutions you were considering for your business? What if you could test-drive new IT hardware or software to make sure it’s the right fit?

IBM Garage for Systems gives businesses the opportunity to see firsthand how IBM IT infrastructure can support their business needs. Whether it’s through a co-creation workshop, a solution benchmark or a Redbooks training course, IBM Garage for Systems has infrastructure specialists who can help you gain confidence in your next infrastructure investment. We’ve helped organizations find the best platforms for their critical applications, take advantage of the security features in their systems to make sure their data is protected, put AI models to work on complex analytics and much more.

Interested to learn more? Here are the five essential things to know about us.

What sets IBM Garage for Systems apart?

1. Our mission is to deliver IT expertise that helps give you the best possible experience with IBM IT infrastructure.

We know that planning and implementing IT solutions is challenging, and our offerings are designed to help in the decision-making process. Working with IBM Garage for Systems gives you access to top-notch subject matter experts in IBM infrastructure technologies and solutions — from AI to hybrid cloud to enterprise security. We provide demos, benchmarks, proofs of concept and proofs of technology to help you find the right infrastructure solution for your business needs.

2. We co-create innovative solutions side-by-side with you.

Co-creation is a collaborative process for creating shared value between you and IBM, and it’s a fundamental approach to our work. The IBM Systems Co-Creation Lab helps organizations move IT projects from idea to implementation through workshops covering opportunity discovery, design and development. Co-creation gives you a chance to work side-by-side with IBM experts to create first-of-a-kind strategies and solutions together with IBM.

3. Our technical training content helps IT professionals build knowledge and skills on IBM Power Systems, IBM Storage, IBM Z and LinuxONE.

Experts from IBM Garage for Systems develop technical training courses and content to deliver the latest information about IBM Systems solutions to clients, Business Partners and IBM employees. IBM Redbooks content formats include online courses, videos, papers, books and other media. Here’s where you can find us:

◉ Online courses and certification programs are available through IBM Skills Gateway.

◉ Our Expert Speaker Series on YouTube provides short explanations of tech topics straight from the experts.

◉ IBM Redbooks offers print and web publications to help you grow skills and technical knowledge, and you can follow Redbooks on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to see the latest.

4. We offer expertise in AI, hybrid cloud and quantum computing.

IBM Garage has skilled data scientists with expertise in AI who are ready to help you develop a new AI solution or advance an existing one. We also have teams specializing in hybrid multicloud and multivendor environments, bringing the capabilities of IBM Cloud and Red Hat to you wherever your business is on the cloud journey. Additionally, we host an active IBM Quantum System in partnership with IBM Research. We provide tours and briefings on IBM Quantum offerings and have several certified IBM Quantum Ambassadors ready to engage with you. In all these areas, our experts can meet you where you are and help you go to the next level.

5. We have expert teams located around the world and can offer most services virtually.

IBM Garage for Systems is a worldwide team with the capability to service businesses all over the planet. We offer virtual services leveraging our IBM Systems infrastructure hubs in North America and France, and we have skilled teams in key geographies around the world as well, so wherever you are, you can access our support. In addition to online training and consultations, Co-creation Lab workshops, benchmarks and proofs of concept can be done virtually.

Source: ibm.com

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