IBM and Red Hat Team on Edge Computing Advancements

IBM and Red Hat on Tuesday announced new edge computing services. The new offers combine IBM’s multicloud expertise and Red Hat’s open source technology.

IBM also announced its new Edge Ecosystem and the creation of the IBM Telco Network Cloud Ecosystem. The news comes out of this week’s IBM Think Digital 2020.

The new offers include IBM Edge Application Manager; IBM Telco Network Cloud Manager, a portfolio of edge-enabled applications and services; and a dedicated IBM services team.

IBM’s Denis Kennelly

“In today’s uncertain environment, our clients are looking to differentiate themselves by creating more innovative, responsive user experiences that are adaptive and continuously available — from the data center all the way out to the edge,” said Denis Kennelly, general manager, IBM Hybrid Cloud. “IBM is helping clients unlock the full potential of edge computing and 5G with hybrid multicloud offerings that bring together Red Hat OpenShift and our industry expertise to address enterprise needs in a way no other company can.”

A Closer Look

Here’s a closer look at the four offers.

• IBM Edge Application Manager is an autonomous management solution. It enables AI, analytics and IoT enterprise workloads to be deployed and remotely managed. And it delivers real-time analysis and insight at scale. It is the first offering to be powered by IBM’s open source project, Open Horizon. It enables a single person to securely manage such a vast network of edge devices.

Twenty IBM Edge Ecosystem partners are part of the IBM Edge Application manager launch. This community includes partners in infrastructure and software-defined networking (SDN). It also includes partners to facilitate distributed edge Kubernetes environments and devices, and industry solution providers.

Existing edge computing products – IBM Cloud Pak for Data, Maximo Worker Insights, IBM storage solutions and IBM Power9 Systems – are offered with IBM Business Partners.

“IBM business partners will be a part of business transformation, helping their clients take advantage of 5G while bringing insights to their data, wherever it is created,” Evaristus Mainsah, general manager, IBM Cloud Paks Ecosystem, wrote in a blog.

• IBM Telco Network Cloud Manager delivers intelligent automation capabilities to orchestrate virtual and container network functions. It runs on Red Hat OpenShift. IBM Telco Cloud Manager gives service providers the ability to manage workloads on both Red Hat OpenShift and OpenStack.
• The portfolio of IBM edge-enabled applications and services includes IBM Visual Insights, IBM Maximo Production Optimization, IBM Connected Manufacturing, IBM Asset Optimization, IBM Maximo Worker Insights and IBM Visual Inspector. All offer features to give clients the flexibility to deploy AI and cognitive applications and services at scale.
• Edge Consulting Services are new dedicated IBM Services teams for edge computing and telco network cloud.

IBM Telco Network Cloud Ecosystem

IBM’s Marisa Viveros

The IBM Telco Network Cloud Ecosystem brings together partners across telecom. These partners offer a range of network functionality that helps CSPs to deploy their network cloud platforms and provide choice.

“These certified network functions work with IBM’s life cycle management, orchestration and service assurance capabilities,” Marisa Viveros, vice president, strategy and offerings, with Telecom, Media and Entertainment Industry, IBM Industry Platform, wrote in a blog.