At CEBIT in Hannover, Germany, IBM announced a major expansion of its cloud capabilities with plans to launch 18 new availability zones for the IBM Cloud across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Additionally, ExxonMobil, Bausch + Lomb and Westpac are migrating central workloads to the IBM Cloud.
"The world's biggest companies work with IBM to migrate them to the cloud because we know their technology and unique business needs as they bridge their past with the future," said David Kenny, senior vice president, IBM Watson & Cloud Platform. "Our continued cloud investment and growing client roster reflect that companies are increasingly seeking hybrid cloud environments that offer cutting edge tools including AI, analytics, IoT and blockchain to maximize their benefits.
IBM Cloud continues to build out its cloud footprint with 18 new availability zones in high demand centers in Europe (Germany and UK), Asia-Pacific (Tokyo and Sydney), and North America (Washington, DC and Dallas, Texas). While IBM Cloud already operates in nearly 60 locations, it now has even more capacity and capability in these key centers.
Additionally, clients will be able to deploy multizone Kubernetes clusters across the availability zones via the IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, simplifying how they deploy and manage containerized applications and adding further consistency to their experience. IBM's global cloud footprint is especially critical as clients look to gain greater control of their data in the face of tightening data regulations, such as the European Union's new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
AgentOS is Infobip’s response to a phase in which agents are becoming an important tool for process automation and customer communication. Krešo Žmak says the market is still at an early stage, but clients are moving away from AI for the sake of innovation and towards measurable results. The next challenge will be controlling costs, user experience, and the nondeterministic nature of agentic systems.
Telecom operators approach AI from two directions: as providers of infrastructure for the digital transformation of other industries and as organisations embedding AI into their own processes. A1 Hrvatska has moved from prototypes to concrete products, from customer support to sovereign European cloud services. Daniel Šimić says workforce profiles are also changing, with fast learning, customer understanding and adaptability becoming more important.
Burra was created as a platform for consolidating IT services companies in Southeast Europe, with a commercial focus on Western Europe and the United States. Its first members, Devōt, Tacta and CoreLine, continue to run their existing businesses while integration is planned gradually, primarily through new projects. Sven Marušić says the aim is not to turn founders into corporate employees, but to build a larger organisation in which they remain shareholders and drivers of growth.
