Marina Lopes | Vox

IBM Launches Business Email That Integrates Social Media

2019-03-06T06:02:44-05:00

IBM on Tuesday launched a new email application for businesses that integrates social media, file sharing and analytics to learn a user’s behavior and predict interactions with co-workers.

The application is part of IBM’s attempt to shift its focus to cloud computing and data analytics from the hardware services that have long been the company’s bread and butter.

The new email service, known as IBM Verse, includes a built-in personal assistant that can learn from a user’s behavior and draft responses to emails based on similar previous interactions.

It also allows users to transform email content into threads for blogs and social media, view the relationships between different employees in an email, mute a chain and search through attachments.

The interface pins a user’s most frequent contacts, schedule and lists of assignments to a dashboard for easy access.

“We came at this from the perspective that this is about changing the game, not just incremental improvements in email,” Jeff Schick, IBM’s general manager of social solutions, told Reuters.

IBM’s enterprise mail service, known as Notes, is used by 25,000 companies worldwide, and more than 50,000 use IBM’s social platform for businesses, IBM Connections. The company hopes IBM Verse will eventually replace Window’s popular Outlook.

The free initial model will include limited mailbox sizes and file sharing. A paid version with additional features and data allowance will be available in January 2015.

IBM is not the only company trying to give email a makeover. In October, Google launched an email service called Inbox that will better organize mail and display information such as appointments, flight bookings and package deliveries in a more user-friendly way.

But unlike Google, IBM Verse will not sell the data it gathers about users to advertisers, a selling point critical for businesses concerned about privacy and security.

The service is delivered through cloud computing and will be available in IBM’s Cloud Marketplace.

(Reporting by Marina Lopes; Editing by Dan Grebler)

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Cisco to Pump $1 Billion Into Global Cloud Computing Network

2019-03-06T06:21:40-05:00

Cisco Systems will invest $1 billion over two years to expand its cloud offerings, the company said on Monday, linking hundreds of data centers and cloud providers around the world in a network with more than 30 partners.

The network, called Intercloud, will help businesses process and manage data generated from billions of devices and applications around the world, Cisco said.

Businesses in the network aim to bridge the gap between public and private cloud computing and will share cloud infrastructure the same way mobile telecommunications companies have roaming agreements.

With partners including Deutsche Telekom, BT group and Equinix, Cisco said it will add 250 data centers in 50 countries to its cloud network.

Intercloud will also allow companies to direct data traffic through specific clouds and data centers. This will help international businesses deal with foreign regulations requiring companies to house data collected from its citizens in local data centers.

The company also hopes the offering will address security and reliability concerns that have prevented businesses from accessing the cloud through public Internet connections.

Its partnership with Equinix, a data center provider that offers interconnection solutions, will provide customers a protected access path to public cloud networks.

Telecom provider BT will use Cisco technology to interconnect public and private clouds into the Intercloud, allowing their customers to securely move workloads between BT data centers and different clouds.

Cisco is also offering a hybrid cloud bundle that will allow customers currently using a private cloud to tap into the network.

(Reporting by Marina Lopes; Editing by David Gregorio)

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

IBM Launches Watson Tool for Business Clients

2019-03-06T06:21:03-05:00

IBM is rolling out a cognitive tool powered by its Watson supercomputer that uses companies’ internal data to answer questions about performance and efficiency and predict outcomes.

IBM said the tool — the latest in a series of Watson products — will make more widely available data analytics capabilities long reserved for research scientists. The move is part of IBM’s effort to shift resources away from a slumping hardware sector into more profitable fields like cloud computing and analytics.

In August, IBM launched Watson Discovery adviser, a tool scientists can use to identify patterns in data. In July, engine maker Pratt and Whitney said it would use IBM’s data analytics to predict aircraft engine trouble.

Watson Analytics clients can upload their business’ data and ask the tool personalized questions like “Who are my most profitable customers?”

Watson, which uses artificial intelligence to quickly analyze huge amounts of data and can understand human language, may ask several follow-up questions to give clients the most accurate results possible.

The cloud-based tool will then analyze various data sets and provide answers and visualizations that predict future outcomes.

Watson can also create graphics and charts that allow clients to share the results of their inquiries and better implement solutions to their problems.

“When people have individual problems, they can get answers without having to call a data scientist or call IT, without having to become a data scientist themselves,” said Alistair Rennie, general manager of business analytics for IBM.

IBM will equip Watson with geographic, industry and economic data that customers can use in conjunction with their own data. The interactive tool also automatically prepares, refines and houses data.

The offering will be launched in beta-testing mode within the next month and will be available for all IBM business clients in November.

The basic service is available on a freemium basis, where basic features are free and customers can pay for a premium service that allows them to work with larger, more complex data sets from a wider array of sources.

“Essentially, we think freemium is important because this is the type of tool that hasn’t been accessible to a wide audience. We’re convinced once professionals get a taste for the base features, they’re going to love it and want to use more of the premium features,” said Rennie.

(Reporting by Marina Lopes; editing by Andrew Hay)

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.