How IBM helps accelerate AI adoption and application-centric connectivity

This week is a great time to discuss how IBM® is shaping the future of network operations and communications as thousands of network operators, technology vendors and mobile device providers from around the world gather in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress. It’s an opportunity.

Beyond the glitz of new phones, connected cars, 5G, and more, there are some real challenges the industry must address. Top of mind for me are three key challenges and opportunities we all need to pay attention to if we expect our industry to remain healthy.

Accelerating AI Adoption and Technology in Telecommunications

The AI ​​skills gap is very real. Executives estimate that over the next three years, 40% of the workforce will require retraining due to AI and automation implementation. The telecommunications industry is no exception.

That’s why with GSMA, IBM recently announced A new collaboration to support the adoption and technology of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the telecommunications industry through the launch of GSMA Advance’s AI training program and the GSMA Foundry Generative AI program.

Our vision is to prepare telco leaders and practitioners for the AI ​​era by providing our members with the skills and knowledge to effectively leverage Gen AI technologies. Clearly, IBM has a huge stake in the success of AI through watsonx™, our AI and data platform with AI assistants. By equipping and sharing AI knowledge and best practices, we help ensure successful and safe adoption of AI across industries.

Generative AI has enormous potential to help improve all manner of operations and customer engagement. By developing and training generative AI technologies for the telecommunications industry, GSMA and IBM aim to help mobile operators deliver better services and ultimately enable more people to enjoy the benefits of digital connectivity.

Drive value from modern application architectures with hybrid cloud connectivity

“Connecting everything,” one of the key themes of this year’s Mobile World Congress Barcelona, ​​aligns with IBM’s work to help enterprises simplify application connectivity through products that are simple, secure, scalable and seamlessly deployable. It’s easier said than done. At least not without a proper set of tools.

Enterprises continue to adopt edge, hybrid, and multicloud architectures with application and data assets distributed across public and private clouds while also supporting a remote, dynamic user base. This causes consistent issues. IT teams struggle to provide the secure and predictable network connectivity their applications require, and they often have no idea how their applications are connected to each other because they no longer control or manage network resources.

At IBM, we are committed to helping enterprises put connectivity at the center of their application-centric strategies and regain control of network connectivity across non-corporate, multi-cloud environments. Last December, we announced the general availability of IBM Hybrid Cloud Mesh, a multicloud networking solution that can support IT’s journey to optimize application performance through reliable network connectivity. Maintaining business-critical application performance across complex networks is now a problem of the past.

Additionally, in 2023, we will extend the accessibility of IBM Hybrid Cloud Mesh to the Equinix Metal platform, enhancing customers’ ability to leverage the extensive Equinix infrastructure footprint to choose where to deploy and connect enterprise applications in a flexible and efficient manner. We also introduced IBM Hybrid Cloud Mesh for Red Hat Services Interconnect (RHSI) to help enterprises mitigate the impact of rising costs due to diverse IT environments and extract maximum value from modern application architectures.

Eliminate network complexity and enhance application connectivity

In a world where consumers expect the best possible experience when interacting with an organization’s products, DNS continues to play a critical role in the way they transact across applications and data.

Nearly a year ago, IBM made the strategic decision to acquire NS1, a leading provider of network automation SaaS solutions and authoritative DNS, with the goal of leveraging NS1 technology to improve network resiliency and performance for customers.

That’s why we’re excited to offer our customers IBM NS1 Connect®, a premium DNS solution that leverages the power of NS1 technology to deliver fast, reliable connectivity to applications and websites around the world. With IBM NS1 Connect, we are delivering customer experiences that help businesses drive revenue, reduce customer churn, and increase the agility of their network teams. With IBM NS1 Connect, we are delivering customer experiences that help businesses drive revenue, reduce customer churn, and increase the agility of their network teams.

It’s probably hidden from most users, but you’ve probably used IBM NS1 Connect many times today. This is how we continually find the highest performance and lowest latency to receive web and streaming traffic from many of the largest global content providers, banks, and retailers.

IBM NS1 Connect combined with IBM Hybrid Cloud Mesh creates tremendous value as an end-to-end solution for application connectivity by combining the ability to manage how traffic flows through infrastructure you cannot control.

We’re also proud to offer a new approach to modern Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB). With IBM NS1 Connect technology, we are providing enterprises with an end-to-end product that puts authoritative DNS at the center of the load balancing equation and supports a cost-effective approach to managing and influencing traffic flows.

Organizations are already implementing DNS and some type of load balancing solution, but they don’t have the full visibility they need to make critical decisions about their applications and workloads in real time, especially at the end of the connection.

We’re combining Real User Monitoring (RUM) data with IBM NS1 Connect DNS to provide a more holistic and actionable way to steer traffic that has never been done before. This enhances the use of GSLB as a strategic service for connectivity over a tactical load balancing solution.

To better understand how DNS and RUM work together in a GSLB solution, join our webinar on March 5 to learn how enterprises can best inform application and workload connectivity using this new approach.

Let’s continue the conversation

We are excited to return to Barcelona for Mobile World Congress 2024. Learn more about how applying AI and intelligent automation can help your organization drive new revenue, optimize network operations, and achieve application-centric connectivity. . We look forward to your participation at booth #2H20.

Reimagine our connectivity

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.