'Global Enterprises Adopting IBM Cloud Private'

IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced that in less than 12 months since the release of IBM Cloud Private – an open source technology that brings cloud capabilities to organizations running on-premises IT systems – hundreds of leading enterprises worldwide have turned to the platform to help modernize their operations. They include New Zealand Police, China's Fuyao Group, Japan's Aflac Insurance, Turkey's credit bureau Kredi Kayıt Bürosu and Brazil's Fidelity National Information Services.

Building on this momentum, IBM is announcing a slate of new advanced features for the on-premises private cloud platform, including the integration of powerful AI capabilities such as IBM Watson Assistant and IBM Watson Speech-to-Text, as well as support for additional public clouds, including the IBM Cloud. The updates provide clients with even more choice and flexibility for their IT journeys, and, for the first time, bring the power of IBM's Watson AI behind the company firewall.

IBM is releasing details of over a dozen organizations which are driving transformation with IBM Cloud Private, including:

• New Zealand Police (NZP) is using the latest technologies to transform its operations and increase its ability to address crime and keep the community safe. NZP is exploring how IBM Cloud Private and Kubernetes containers can help to modernize its existing systems as well as quickly launch new services such as a mobile based communications system for its officers.
• Fuyao Group is China's largest and most advanced manufacturer of automotive glass supplying Audi, Bentley, General Motors, Toyota and other top car makers. To meet growing demand, Fuyao has embarked on a Smart Manufacturing initiative and is using IBM Cloud Private to help integrate the management of enterprise applications across its global manufacturing and business operations, ensuring the free flow of information across the organization.
• Aflac Insurance, Aflac Insurance, a leading provider of medical and cancer insurance providing protection to 1 in 4 households in Japan, has signed an agreement with IBM to help simplify and automate its IT infrastructure. With IBM Cloud Private, Aflac plans to enhance the efficiency of its operations and speed up the development of new products and services.
• Kredi Kayıt Bürosu (KKB) provides the national cloud infrastructure for Turkey's finance industry. Last year KKB established a new data center in Ankara and is now using IBM cloud Private to help consolidate and localize the banking systems of over 150 members including banks and other financial services companies. With IBM Cloud Private, KKB is able to drive innovation across its financial services ecosystem while meeting the high standards for data security and privacy.
• Brazil's Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), a global leader in payment processing solutions for the financial industry, has adopted IBM Cloud Private to help streamline credit card chargebacks for its Brazilian operations. IBM Cloud Private is helping FIS to orchestrate the various IT systems involved in reconciling and checking of transaction chargebacks while meeting the stringent regulatory requirements of the industry and helping to prevent fraud.

"The cloud has evolved in a very short time from being a way to cut costs to a platform for business transformation and innovation," said Robin Hernandez, Director, IBM Private Cloud Offering Management. "Our IBM Cloud Private affords clients a transition to cloud that's designed to enable them to maintain their on-premises systems on which they still depend for many mission-critical applications and sensitive data sets."

According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly 2Q18 Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker, September 2018, total worldwide spending on cloud IT infrastructure is expected to total $62.2 billion in 2018 with year-over-year growth of 31.1%. While public cloud datacenters will account for the majority of this spending, on-premises private clouds will account for nearly 20% of the total cloud IT infrastructure market, growing at 19.3% year over year in 2018. "Enterprises have a range of business and IT needs some of which are well served by public cloud offerings and some which are not," said Natalya Yezhkova, Research Director, IDC. "On-premises private cloud is a powerful option for established companies that are looking for a gradual approach for transforming their organization while keeping control of their IT infrastructure."

Artificial Intelligence in Enterprise

Today IBM is advancing IBM Cloud Private even further, announcing major enhancements to the platform, ranging from AI capabilities to additional public cloud support. Starting today, IBM Watson Speech-to-Text is now available with the new IBM Cloud Private version 3.1, making it the first time the tool is available in an on-premises environment. With Watson Speech-to-Text, users can automatically transcribe and analyze audio from seven different languages.

In addition, IBM Watson Assistant is now available on IBM Cloud Private. The Watson Assistant platform helps developers and non-technical users to create conversational AI solutions, from simple chatbots to complex enterprise grade solutions for customer service and more.

IBM also announced today that IBM Cloud Private is now available on the IBM Public Cloud, to help clients to easily move their enterprise workloads from on-premises systems to the public cloud in order to create hybrid cloud environments.

"IBM Cloud Private is helping us to establish an end-to-end digital platform that will underpin a smarter, more agile, and more flexible corporate operating structure," said Mr. Lebing Xia, Vice President and CIO of the Fuyao Group. "And by enabling us to connect to other cloud-based services like AI, Blockchain and IoT, we will be able to get even more business value from the cloud."