Watson, Whither Weather?
February 2, 2016
i read “IBM Closes Weather Co. Purchase, Names David Kenny New Head of Watson Platform.” Big news. Watson is a platform and there is a new big rainmaker in charge of the alleged $10 billion revenue machine based on Lucene, acquired technology, home brew scripts, and weather data.
Weather is important. I agree. If I cannot look out the window, I am flummoxed.
The write up reveals:
As part of the deal, IBM is making some changes: First, the Weather Company’s cloud platform will now run on IBM’s Cloud data centers (recall that it once was a big client of AWS). That platform will now power all of IBM’s wider push into data services and Watson’s Internet of Things business. This will bring a massively bigger amount of data into the mix, covering what IBM describes as billions of IoT sensors. IBM will also use its weight to scale the Weather Company’s business: the company plans to expand weather.com into five more markets including China, India and Brazil “immediately”, as well as integrate it into IBM’s 45 global cloud centers.
I think this means that IBM is going to embrace an acquired company’s cloud platform. That’s okay. Does this suggest that IBM’s cloud platform is not very good? I will have to noodle on this a moment.
Okay, done. Yes, IBM’s cloud technology is less efficacious that the Weather Co.’s.
Next, I learned from the write up:
The Weather Channel — perhaps the Weather Company’s most mainstream product — is not included. But as part of the sale, under a long-term contract, it will license weather data forecasts and analytics now owned by IBM.
Er, okay. So it was the technology and fellow David Kenny.
Who is he?
A quick check revealed these items about the rainmaker:
- LinkedIn says he is a general manager, not a rainmaker. Good to know.
- He’s been a director of Best Buy and Yahoo. Okay, those are two firms which have made financial lightning.
- He was the president of Akamai for 15 months. That’s helpful, but I wonder is Akamai is the foundation of his cloud method and if there may be intellectual property issues. Nah, probably not.
- He worked at a PR firm. This is good. I want to see more of the Watson recipe and game show information.
- He was a Bainie. This is helpful background.
In my view, the Watson platform will be able to sidestep the issues raised in “The Truth about Bain.”
Will the Weather thing make Watson the perfect storm in IBM revenues? I am no weather person, but it looks as if it is cloudy with a chance for drizzle, then steadily falling temperatures, and a possibility of icy roads for tomorrow’s morning drive.
Fill your tank and take an energy bar. Delays are likely.
Stephen E Arnold, February 2, 2016
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