IBM today introduced software to help bring a new level of intelligence to the world’s physical infrastructure. The software aims to advance smarter cities and industry transformation across water, energy, transportation and healthcare industries by monitoring and analyzing new streams of data.
As part of the news, IBM is also announcing a series of client wins and advancements to transform infrastructures around water, energy management, buildings and more. This includes Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, the City of Waterloo, the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, McMaster University and Swiss Federal Railways.
The growing ubiquity of sensors, smart grid networks, RFID tags and 4G wireless networks, smartphones and tablets are transforming everyday objects in the physical world into ‘smart’ ones with information on their history, location and status. This is creating new streams of data for organizations to drive more data-based decisions and business transformation.
IBM’s expertise in analytics, systems management and sensors is unmatched for bridging the physical and digital worlds and creating new intelligent infrastructures critical for organizations to operate more efficiently. With today’s news, IBM is continuing these advancements, delivering new software to give greater intelligence to the business operations of the world’s infrastructure:
- Analytics software for monitoring telecommunications, transportation, or any network that distributes data such as escalators for metros, ATMs for banks and refrigerators for grocery chains;
- New software that monitors and manages smart meter networks for energy, water and gas utilities;
- New software that helps hospitals locate and monitor their clinical and biomedical equipment in real-time to ensure that life-saving medical devices are instantly available and expertly maintained; and
- Smarter buildings software that helps organizations to optimize their buildings’ energy and equipment efficiency.
“The proliferation of computing power into more and more devices, buildings and infrastructures is driving new levels of insight and operational efficiency for organizations around the globe,” said David Bartlett, IBM vice president of Industry Solutions. “From rail lines criss-crossing a country, utilities with thousands of miles of pipeline to hospitals with tens of thousands of clinical devices, we can put technology into places that you never could before and glean actionable intelligence.”
Here’s an overview of the products launched today:
Analytics Solutions for Monitoring Networks
IBM is delivering new and enhanced software to help enable predictive monitoring and event management across complex networks and operations. The software helps measure, analyze and pro-actively address network issues before they materialize such as network disruptions.
As information gets digitized and transmitted through sensors, this software acts as a nervous system that delivers updates on real-time status from events even thousands of miles away.
The new IBM Tivoli Netcool/OMNIbus software is key to helping complex networks such as telecommunications lines and transportation signals enhance monitoring, visualization, correlation and root cause analysis. These products provide insight into a business’s operations, such as monitoring escalators, ATM machines for banks and refrigerators for grocery chains to ensure they are operating smoothly and have the proper maintenance required. The software can reduce the time typically required to resolve network problems through enhanced network visualization and root cause analysis — improving network availability and lowering operational costs.