Originally posted by: smo_
 | The point of view from Christian Henke
Director of Client Advocacy, Technical Support & Systems Assurance EMEA |
In 2018 Christian Henke provided his view about IBM Think 2018.
Some weeks ago Think 2019 took place, let’s hear from Christian, How is IBM THINK 2019 different to Think 2018?
What's new compared to last Year? Is there really something new?
First, San Francisco is a very different location than Las Vegas, which had quite some influence on the conference. I liked the fact that there was more room and less bottlenecks to get from one to the other session. Many new products and solutions have been announced and to me this was done in a very comprehensive way by putting things into context of challenges that all industries are facing.
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” The underlying theme was: What problems can we solve together?”
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New to me was also how strong it was emphasized to follow the highest standards in protection and ethical behavior. This is big if you think about it in the context of Artificial Intelligence (AI) where IBM clearly is committed to systems, with no bias (to gender, heritage, age, race or whatever else one can think of). Similar strongly emphasized is the commitment to secure clients' data and that IBM ensures that clients retain control of their data.
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The code of ethics for AI and chatbots that every brand should follow..
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Can you please share the highlight of your client interaction during Think 2019?
All clients I met clearly see IBM as the supplier that can deliver the broadest spectrum in the IT industry.
Covering Analytics, Blockchain, Cloud, Financing, IT infrastructure, Security, Services and Watson
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Clients also expect that IBM delivers and supports them with the same high standards. All clients I talked to have long experience in using IT and had a balanced expectation about stability of single devices vs. the 'always up' requirement of their businesses
” It is not a question if those things happen, just when and to what extent.”
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Of cause high quality and minimal downtime is a basic requirement for everybody. But they were also clear that one need to take serious precaution to protect not only from individual device failure, but also other threats like fire, flooding, sabotage or hacking. Here I see an opportunity to better partner with our clients to prepare for this kind of challenges.
Then it was good to hear that, while nobody liked hitting those severe problems …..
” our technical support team was acknowledged as the best to work with in such critical situations.”
Is the IBM strategy aligned to client expectations today? And what are we doing to exceed client expectations?
This was one of the themes I noticed multiple times at Think2019: How to help clients to start with AI and Hybrid Cloud?
It was emphasized this is a journey that will sooner or later affect everybody - in all industries! A great chance, but also threat if one misses the boat while competition moves ahead.
A strong message in this regard were the clients in the keynote together with Ginni, who shared experience from their journey. All started small, saw the effects as well as setbacks, but as AI or Hybrid Cloud was fully embraced the results were quite amazing.
How does the interaction with clients change since the last years?
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“Instead of showing what AI or Hybrid Cloud can achieve, it was more about how to get there”
This did include also things that had to be solved along the way and setbacks requiring to course correct. I found this quite compelling and expect it will encourage clients to just try if there is value in it for them.
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Herein lays also a great opportunity for IBM Systems in my mind. While clients might start small with AI for example, they will want to scale once the benefits are convincing. With the IBM Systems infrastructure this can be done effectively, and scaling is easy too, while ease of managing and security can be ensured at the same time
What is the future of storage (“Data Is the New Oil of the Digital Economy” - what about Storage)?
Storage and Systems in general are optimized for AI as well as our multi Cloud solutions and therefore at the core of IBMs strategic response to client requirements. However, this is an option and not a requirement for clients to engage IBM with AI or Hybrid Cloud solutions
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Storage for the Data-Driven AI World
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Everything starts where a client is today, because rarely one has the option to start completely from scratch, with a new build datacenter for example. But if clients grow their AI engagement the question where to run this most effectively will come up sooner or later.
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All the IBM Systems portfolio is optimized to be the best place to scale AI and Hybrid Cloud infrastructure.
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AI & Hybrid Cloud is a complimentary open strategy for IBM Systems, compared to a proprietary strategy some of our competitors follow in this space. Personally, I'm convinced that this is more compelling to clients.
Scaling the AI Ladder.
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interview by Serge Monney, European Storage Competence Center, Member of IBM Technical Expert Council / Academy of Technology #AOT
tiny url http://ibm.biz/esccthink2019
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