IBM Corp.‘s annual Think event in Boston showed how the company has had a complete facelift in the era of Chief Executive Arvind Krishna.
Krishna (pictured) has used the boom in artificial intelligence to reposition the company around Watson and make that the focal point of IBM’s next platform. I left Think 2024 more positive about IBM than I have been in a long time, primarily because the company isn’t just talking about transformation; it’s doing it.
Here the top five most notable takeaways from the event:
IBM’s technology partner program showcases watsonx
There was a flurry of technology partner announcements, including Adobe Inc., Amazon Web Services Inc., Microsoft Corp., SAP SE, Salesforce Inc, and more. Though these vendors may seem quite different, they had one thing in common: the use of watsonx.
For example, the partnership with AWS was about scaling responsible AI, while the announcement with Adobe was using watsonx to improve AI capabilities for content creators. The company also partnered with Palo Alto Networks to deliver AI-powered security.
Another interesting partnership is with Salesforce, where the two companies are making the IBM Granite model series available later this year in the Salesforce Einstein 1 platform. This gives customers a choice of models for AI in customer relationship management. IBM also made announcements with Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft, Mistral AI, SAP and SDAIA.
The reseller partner program has matured
IBM’s partner program was complex and sprawling for a company as old and storied as IBM. The old “blue” PartnerWorld program handled most partners the same way, regardless of their type. This created unnecessary friction and could cause partners to look elsewhere. About a year ago, IBM rolled out the new Partner Plus program, designed to be easy and predictable and address the needs of partners of all types.
This becomes increasingly important as partners evolve from traditional resellers to transformational partners. This creates more variety in how partners bill, the services they offer, where they specialize, and other factors, and IBM now has the flexibility to address diverse needs.
One emerging type of partner is the managed service provider. During her keynote, Kate Woolley, general manager of IBM Ecosystem, announced a new program specifically for MSPs that will launch in the third quarter. IBM is doubling down on its commitment to these partners, starting with a set of offerings from its automation portfolio that are specifically tailored to how they do business.
IBM is more open than ever
Krishna has made the focus clear: IBM is open and collaborative. At Think 2024, the company announced open source is a critical component of IBM’s generative AI strategy. When IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research Dario Gil was on stage, he stated, “When you think of the impact open had on the internet, it will do the same for AI.”
Putting its money where its mouth is, at the event, IBM announced an initiative called InstructLab, an open-source project by IBM Research and Red Hat that builds on the LAB technique for a community-driven approach to large language model development. IBM isn’t the leader in generative AI, but it’s looking to use open to scale up quickly.
Many of IBM’s competitors are now partners
Looking at the partner list above, some of them, such as Microsoft and AWS, were once considered fierce competitors, particularly early in the cloud era, as customers shifted their spending from IBM to one of the hyperscalers.
This is a different IBM, and in a discussion I had with Nick Otto, head of global strategic partnerships at IBM, he told me that instead of battling the headwinds, which make life hard for customers, the company is partnering with traditional competitors to turn those headwinds into tailwinds. “Our joint customers have asked us to work together, and that’s fueled many of the partnerships you see today,” he said.
Quantum is closer than you think
Though AI was the talk of Think, quantum computing did come up in Krishna’s keynote and in many of the sessions. During the mainstage session, Krishna mentioned that IBM has 70 quantum computers deployed globally with more than 3 trillion workloads. IBM predicts that quantum will become a reality within five years and solve many of the world’s unsolvable problems.
I liked the quantum topic at Think and would like to see IBM talk more about it. The company pioneered computing and whiffed on the cloud, but it has had the opportunity to establish itself as the dominant quantum computing company.
Overall, Think 2024 was a good mix of vision and future topics such as AI and quantum. It indeed highlighted the change in culture in the Arvind Krishna area. Looking ahead, I expect to see the themes of “open” and “partner” continue to evolve, enabling IBM to take its AI platform, led by Watson, and establish it as a mainstream enterprise offering.
