IBM-AWS, Deloitte-Google, Accenture-SAP: New Generative AI Partnerships
Plus, this cloud computing news roundup dives into several need-to know product releases.
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The generative AI partnerships between consultancies and cloud computing providers keep coming in hot.
The latest example? Today’s announcement between IBM Consulting and Amazon Web Services.
IBM Consulting has committed to training 10,000 of its staff on AWS’ generative AI tools by the end of next year, the companies said on Oct. 18. Then, they will also go to market with joint solutions and services featuring generative AI. They’ll start with a focus on Amazon Connect contact centers, as well as platform and supply chain services on AWS.
Furthermore, IBM Consulting will integrate AWS’ generative AI into its Cloud Accelerator, which speeds up the move to cloud computing. In addition, IBM plans to make watsonx.data, a data store built on an open lakehouse architecture, available as a fully managed SaaS offering in the AWS Marketplace. After that, IBM says it will make watsonx.ai and watsonx.governance available on AWS by 2024.
IBM and AWS have worked together for some time, including in generative AI. IBM already has infused Amazon SageMaker and CodeWhisperer into its portfolio and touts itself as one of the first partners to use Bedrock.
We look at a similar new partnership on the next slide.
Not to be left out, consultancy and system integrator Deloitte said this week it has expanded its alliance with Google Public Sector. Not surprisingly, generative AI stands out as a particular focus of the amped-up partnership.
On Oct. 17, the consultancy said it will release new solutions that combine Google Cloud’s AI/ML, generative AI and data analytics tools with its own engineering and other capabilities. As such, Deloitte expands to quadruple its Google Public Sector resources.
Together, the companies will take aim at helping public sector organizations better engage with their constituencies through Google Cloud’s AI; at using Google Cloud-powered geospatial planning for infrastructure development, disaster response and more; and applying Vertex AI and BigQuery to the enablement of advanced analytics.
Next up, Accenture and SAP form their own generative AI-centric venture.
This week, Accenture said it’s working with SAP to help customers adopt generative AI across business processes.
The companies are teaming up to create new AI-powered solutions aimed at making the most of investments in SAP platforms. They’ll specifically take aim at migrations from legacy SAP ERP Central Component to SAP S/4HANA Cloud; and at adding chatbots to SAP’s supply chain management software and its financial software.
Accenture and SAP have partnered for 40 years. But this aspect of the alliance will fuse SAP’s generative AI with Accenture’s consulting expertise. The effort comes as part of Accenture’s $3 billion AI initiative, launched earlier this year.
Next, we shift gears and look at several new cloud computing products within the channel, starting with a release from SAP.
Earlier this month, SAP released the private edition of SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
The platform is intended to make moving to the cloud easier, SAP said, and brings together finance, manufacturing, operations and suppliers brought into one place for full ERP management.
The private edition is part of RISE with SAP. Users may expect “innovations” every six months, SAP said. Maintenance also will increase from five years to seven.
On top of that, SAP customers can opt for a new premium plus package for RISE with SAP. This delivers more sustainability insights, generative AI for ERP with the new Joule assistant, faster decision-making for CFOs and more, the company said.
Looking for ways to make your clients’ hybrid cloud deployments simpler? Go to the next slide.
NetApp this week debuted its bare-metal-as-a-service platform exclusively through data center provider Equinix.
The biggest selling point? The platform, NetApp Storage on Equinix Metal, lets users build a hybrid multicloud environment that features built-in integration with the hyperscalers.
Delivered as a subscription through NetApp Keystone, the new product also allows customers to choose storage capacity and performance so they don’t overprovision. NetApp says this reduces upfront costs and supports businesses’ need for flexibility. Look for a full stack of compute, networking and storage infrastructure with low-latency interconnection to all major public clouds, NetApp said. There’s also encryption, ransomware protection and other security features, per NetApp.
Equinix said the new platform supports organizations’ accelerated adoption of cloud computing, AI and data analytics.
Up next, one control plane to rule them all … hybrid cloud environments, that is.
Storage vendor Hitachi Ventara this month unveiled its Virtual Storage Platform One, one repository for hybrid cloud environments.
The company says the release comes at a critical time, as organizations juggle consumption from (what else?) generative AI, cloud adoption and exploding amounts of data stemming from different cloud providers. And of course, these different environments all come with different management interfaces. In addition, the increasing workloads are causing concern among business leaders, who fear their current infrastructure won’t be able to withstand ever more intensive demands.
Hitachi Vantara says Virtual Storage Platform One simplifies matters, delivering one control plane, data fabric and data plane across block, file, object, cloud, mainframe and software-defined storage workloads. Along with all that, AI manages the software stack. Eliminating infrastructure, data and application silos lets businesses consume the data they need as needed, the company said.
Kimberly King, senior vice president of strategic partners and alliances at Hitachi Vantara, told Channel Futures that the new platform “is a game-changing hybrid cloud data management platform designed to meet our partners’ and customers’ needs.”
For partners, specifically, the new product “helps simplify the sales process, making it easier to manage data across an entire storage infrastructure by offering one integrated solution in place of multiple options, which helps reduce customers’ total cost of management,” King said. “Additionally, it is designed for non-disruptive use so that partners understand that anything purchased today will continue to be utilized and upgraded as additional features and functionalities are added in the months ahead.”
Virtual Storage Platform One also works with the hyperscalers’ platforms.
Finally, on the next slide, see what DigitalOcean is doing for small and medium businesses struggling with cloud storage capacity.
Independent cloud computing provider DigitalOcean, which sells through the indirect channel, recently took the wraps off of Scalable Storage for DigitalOcean PostgreSQL and MySQL Managed Databases.
The platforms allow SMBs to only pay for the data resources they need — a common theme in this week’s cloud computing news roundup.
Plus, DigitalOcean said, customers may increase their Managed Databases disk storage without changing compute and memory to meet higher data consumption demands. They do this by buying disk storage in 10 GB increments
Independent cloud computing provider DigitalOcean, which sells through the indirect channel, recently took the wraps off of Scalable Storage for DigitalOcean PostgreSQL and MySQL Managed Databases.
The platforms allow SMBs to only pay for the data resources they need — a common theme in this week’s cloud computing news roundup.
Plus, DigitalOcean said, customers may increase their Managed Databases disk storage without changing compute and memory to meet higher data consumption demands. They do this by buying disk storage in 10 GB increments
Generative AI is not fading into the hype ether any time soon — if ever. Knowing that, three global consultancies are talking up extended generative AI partnerships with cloud providers to capitalize on this trend. Who’s on board? IBM Consulting and Amazon Web Services, Deloitte and Google Public Sector, and Accenture and SAP.
The first part of this week’s cloud computing news roundup looks at each of those generative AI partnerships, starting with IBM Consulting and AWS. Find out how many employees IBM Consulting will train on AWS’ generative AI technologies. Then, learn how Deloitte plans to make use of Google Cloud’s generative AI capabilities for public sector organizations. Finally, Accenture and SAP have teamed up in yet another generative AI partnership — find out where they’ll focus their efforts.
After that, we bring you a plethora of new cloud products as you work with end users. There’s an introduction from SAP, and hybrid cloud-centric debuts from NetApp and Equinix, and Hitachi Vantara. We round out the list with a look at what DigitalOcean is doing as well.
Get started with a deep dive into the three new, high-profile generative AI partnerships you’ll want to know. Click the image above to start.
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