IBM: Watching Cloud Patterns
June 1, 2008
Last week, IBM announced a cloud-based, software as a service initiative. IBM has partners in this venture, which appears to focus on the insurance niche. The announcement appeared in a news release, and you can read it here.
IBM has teamed with Millbrook, Inc., whose core business is software integration for the insurance industry. Another party to the deal is Sapiens America Corp. Sapiens (whose corporate family tree is pretty complicated) is another specialist with a core competency in property and casualty.
IBM will use its Cognos 8 Business Intelligence system and the Sapiens Insight software. Both systems will make use of the Millbrook property and casualty model.
The idea is that small- and mid-sized insurance agencies will be have access to industrial-strength business intelligence systems without any on premises software. The three companies said in their release:
Business intelligence and predictive analytics tools are becoming the strategic mainstay of how service enterprises in general, and insurance carriers in particular, conduct their daily business. Companies that have near real-time ability to analyze the entirety of their captured business data and extract key performance indicators and accurate answers to “what-if” scenarios can be more responsive to a rapidly evolving business environment and can competitively maximize profitable operations while moving away from risky propositions.
The announcement struck me as significant step for IBM. IBM has been a player in online and cloud-based services for quite a while. In the late 1990s, IBM Global Network ramped up as an Internet service provider eventually selling that business to AT&T. IBM made some noise several years ago about its grid computing capability. Its AlphaWorks initiative has pushed cloud computing as well. Now IBM is testing the water for niche-focused SaaS or Software as a Service. IBM and its new pal Google are working cooperatively on an educational project to stimulate the flow of programmers with expertise in writing programs for distributed systems.
My thought is that this SaaS warrants observation. On paper and in white board “what if” sessions, IBM could deploy a number its software systems as cloud-based services. The question is, “What’s next in online services for IBM?” Will IBM, like Google, sit on the sidelines and watch Amazon.com, Salesforce.com, and other companies push this market forward?
Stephen Arnold, June 1, 2008
Related story from InfoWorld here.
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