IBM has announced a series of data and automation updates designed to fuse the intelligence of Watson AI into hybrid cloud environments.

The new updates are coming to IBM Cloud Pak for Data and Cloud Pak for Automation, which offer integrated data and AI capabilities that run on Red Hat OpenShift and are designed to better manage and automate data-intensive processes.

With these updates, businesses will be positioned to more easily streamline everything from software provisioning and patching, to data discovery and document processing across expanding hybrid cloud environments, enabling employees to focus on higher value work.

The updates come at a time when more businesses are expediting their digital transformation plans. According to a new study by IBM's Institute for Business Value, COVID-19 and the future of business, the pandemic has been the cause of accelerated digital transformation plans at 59 percent of organizations surveyed. But while most organizations agree on the need to unlock the value of data with AI, companies surveyed by IDC recently said only 10% of potentially useful data is effectively analyzed.[1]

"Cloud Pak offerings are integrated with AI and give companies a consistent experience from Pak to Pak," said Michael Gilfix, Vice President, Chief Product Officer, Cloud Paks, IBM. "And because they run on Red Hat OpenShift, clients can deploy and manage them on any cloud environment, be it on-premises, and/or public cloud. With today's announcements, we're driving automation and data management capabilities even farther across the enterprise."

New to Cloud Pak for Data Coming This Month

• New Industry Accelerators will be added to Cloud Pak for Data, including accelerators for banking, warranty management, supply chain forecasting, and retail. Now totalling more than 30, IBM Industry Accelerators are sample data science assets built to solve specific industry use cases. The assets include sample data sets, prebuilt machine learning models, and sample dashboards, for example supporting the Open Data for Industries standards for Oil and Gas clients. For a comprehensive list of the new accelerators visit here.
• Watson Machine Learning Accelerator (WML-A) is a new deep learning service capability to optimize training models and monitor workloads. Also added to Cloud Pak for Data is a new feature called Federated Learning that enables users to train common models using remote, secure data sets. With this feature, data sets remain secure, while the resulting models benefit from expanded training. Also new with the platform is an updated version of Auto AI that now supports multiple data sources for training, enabling users to build a unified data set that can then be used as input for the Auto AI experiments.
• Quick Scan has been enhanced to perform more scalable automatic data discovery to support deeper analytics and generate more insightful outcomes. And, the results of the analysis can be published to one or more catalogues directly from the results page, speeding the process.

For a comprehensive list of updates to Cloud Pak for Data, which will be available Nov. 20, visit here.

New to Cloud Pak for Automation

• Automation Document Processing is designed to help enterprises eliminate manual document processing and enable people to focus on higher value work. Available now, the new tool combines AI with deep learning and low-code tooling, making it quick and easy to accurately design, configure and deploy document classification and extraction for any document type and format.
• Process Mining capabilities from myInvenio (Cognitive Technology) provides a data-driven way to help identify the most impactful areas of business and IT to automate. Available in December, features including simulation, business rules, multi-level process, and task mining will be integrated into IBM Cloud Pak for Automation. The addition of process mining to Cloud Pak for Automation enables IBM to now offer a comprehensive set of hyperautomation capabilities for both business and IT.
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) capabilities from IBM's acquisition of WDG Automation are now integrated and available in Cloud Pak for Automation. The RPA capabilities enable businesses to quickly identify more granular opportunities for automation, including tasks that have many steps.

https://www.ibm.com/cloud/paks