During the IBM Think Digital conference on Tuesday, IBM announced a new series of edge services and multicloud solutions for the enterprise. The new tools include IBM Edge Application Manager, IBM Telco Network Cloud Manager, and a bevy of edge-enabled applications and services. 

SEE: Special report: The cloud v. data center decision (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

“Gartner predicts that by 2022, half of the newly deployed on-premise infrastructure will be in critical edge locations rather than in corporate data centers,” said Hillery Hunter, CTO of IBM Cloud, during a press conference. “This is up from less than 10% today.

“When we look at bridging infrastructure, it is critical that we enable our clients to be able to create an open cloud-based environment also at that edge and that they have a rich set of capabilities for the analytics, the insights and the decision making,” Hunter said. 

With 5G expanding through the enterprise, IBM aims to converge this technology with edge computing and hybrid multicloud to revolutionize business operations, according to Hunter. 

“The announcement combines open source technology from Red Hat with IBM’s edge cloud solutions and is an extension of open hybrid multicloud platform. This means the latency, the bandwidth, the need for reliability at the edge, security, and compliance,” Hunter said.  

“All of these factors are essential for edge computing, but our edge technologies are also built on open source, Hunter added. “This enables clients to have a consistent and holistic out architecture.” 

New edge and multicloud solutions 

The following new features help organizations manage workloads across large volumes of devices and realize the benefit of edge computing, according to a press release. 

• IBM Edge Application Manager

“This is the industry’s first autonomous management solution that enables AI analytics and IoT workloads to be deployed securely and remotely managed with a single pane of glass,” Hunter said. “It delivers real time analysis and insights. Up to 10,000 endpoints can simultaneously be supported and managed.”

It’s also the first project to be powered via Open Horizon, an open source project created by IBM engineers to help a single person manage large networks of edge devices, according to the release. 

• IBM Telco Network Cloud Manager

Powered by Red Hat, this service delivers intelligent automation abilities to organize virtual and container network operations in minutes. Constructed on Red Hat OpenShift, users can manage workloads there as well as on Red Hat OpenStack Platform. This will help companies modernize networks and provide new services as 5G expands further, according to the release.  

“As 5G matures, it will become the network technology that underpins the delivery of telco services,” Hunter said. “Moving toward a cloud architecture will be essential to make all of that really work together for enterprises. Having a hybrid cloud model that extends all the way from their existing corporate data centers and their public and private cloud instances out to their edge is going to be critical to unlock new connected experiences for their customers.” 

• Edge-enabled applications and services

“The portfolio of edge-enabled applications and services enable optimization of managing the production of these environments and deployment of AI cognitive applications to all of these endpoint types of environments,” Hunter said. 

These services include IBM Visual Insights, IBM Production Optimization, IBM Connected Manufacturing, IBM Asset Optimization, IBM Maximo Worker Insights and IBM Visual Inspector, according to the release.

IBM also announced a dedicated IBM services team for edge computing and telco networks to help deliver 5G and edge-enabled solutions across industries, Hunter said. 

• IBM Edge and Telco Network Cloud Ecosystems 

The IBM Edge Ecosystem includes a large set of ISVs, GSIs, and more that will assist companies in capturing opportunities within edge computing, according to the release. 

The Telco Network Cloud Ecosystem joins partners across the telecommunications industry to help users deploy network cloud systems. These partners include Cisco, Dell Technologies, Juniper, Intel, NVIDIA, Samsung, Packet & Equinix, Hazelcast, Sysdig, Turbonomics, Portworx,  Humio, Indra Minsait, EuroTech, Arrow, ADLINK, as stated in the release. 

For more, check out Red Hat Summit 2020 virtual conference introduces advanced OpenShift capabilities on TechRepublic. 

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