Why Ecosystem Is Central to IBM's Growth Strategy

Lata Singh Says IBM Has Developed Cloud Pak for Security
Why Ecosystem Is Central to IBM's Growth Strategy
Lata Singh, director of partner ecosystem, IBM India/South Asia

Rapid digital acceleration has created a heterogeneous IT landscape within enterprises. In 2020, a study by the IBM Institute for Business Value revealed that by 2023, Indian organizations are expected to be using an average of 10 clouds from a growing number of vendors. As a result, 46% of advanced cloud businesses in the country are leveraging open-source-based cloud platforms to provide visibility and control costs across all their clouds, vendors, clusters and data. Given the rise of hybrid cloud environments, it is increasingly important for partners like independent software vendors (ISVs) to embrace an open strategy, which allows them to build solutions once and deploy them across environments with speed and agility while ensuring that their client's security and compliance requirements are met. In addition, IDC research indicated that 58% of partner revenues are now coming from their own Internet Protocol (IP), that is, by building their own solutions, and even more are integrating their expertise with wider cloud-based solutions.

See Also: Research Survey Report: The State of Enterprise Mobile App Security

IBM has made investments and introduced program enhancements, including new benefits, skills and competencies to help ecosystem partners drive value as they transform to enhance their market positions and build their own IPs. Lata Singh, director of partner ecosystem, IBM India/South Asia delves deeper into IBM's ecosystem focus and momentum on "build" partnerships.

Edited excerpts follow:

Since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, there have been two subsequent waves - with a prediction that the third wave is coming soon. Businesses have become resilient as customer demands and expectations from solution providers seem to have undergone a change. What are IBM's focus areas, especially to support its large ecosystem of partners?

At IBM, we believe that clients benefit most when they're supported by an ecosystem of partners working together to offer the best platforms, products and services. Therefore, we are committed to enabling our partners to meet the demand of clients and accelerate their go-to-market strategies using IBM's Hybrid Cloud and AI solutions.

We are evolving our PartnerWorld program to connect partners of all types and sizes to technical, marketing and sales resources to co-create, drive additional wins and accelerate revenue. Last year, we focused on optimizing and simplifying our partner ecosystem programs through defined Build, Service and Sell models to drive growth and enable innovation. This year, we continue to unite with our ecosystem partners to be more effective, engaging and responsive across all phases of the client journey. Therefore, we have launched new competencies, benefits and skills across Build, Service and Sell tracks to enable our partners to move forward with confidence while leveraging open Hybrid Cloud and AI platforms.

For instance, IBM Build and Service models are designed to help partners create new revenue streams by leveraging IBM technologies. In addition, it helps partners accelerate their journey through access to technical expertise such as the IBM Hybrid Cloud Build team, along with skilling resources, Cloud Engagement Fund, benefits like co-creation centers, and more.

An important aspect of our partner ecosystem strategy is to provide support to the partners depending on their needs and where they are in their journey. For example, in addition to resources, we also provide technical support to our traditional partners who are modernizing their applications using IBM's software portfolio or migrating their workloads by leveraging IBM's Hybrid Cloud and AI solutions. On the other hand, having worked with large enterprise clients, we leverage our expertise to help the next-gen partners to create enterprise-grade solutions. Therefore, we provide tailored support to bring value to our partners.

The pandemic has transformed the way we work. The new normal is expected to be a hybrid model of remote working and working from the office. For business leaders, now is the time to prepare for the workplace of tomorrow. What are IBM's plans for the post-pandemic era?

IBM, like most organizations, will be looking at a hybrid model aligned to the government and state guidelines. IBM will adopt a phased approach to the workplace with evidence-based practices and policies meant to reduce the risks. We have developed the "IBM Return to Workplace Playbook" that provides guidelines for returning to work, preparations and processes to be followed by employees, clients and visitors; and a readiness checklist.

The rapid cloud adoption along with the work-from-home model made industries more vulnerable from a cybersecurity perspective. Hybrid multi-cloud deployments have many challenges. How are Indian companies managing cyberattacks? What solutions is IBM developing to resolve these security problems?

Over the past year, rapid cloud adoption along with large-scale adoption of the work-from-home model has enabled cybercriminals to leverage vulnerabilities. IBM's cost of data breach report 2021 highlighted that the average total cost of the data breach in India is INR 16.5 crore, while the price of one lost or stolen record stands at INR 5,900. Therefore, the threat is real, and as enterprises continue to accelerate their cloud adoption, they are progressively adopting an integrated approach toward security, while leveraging AI to gather and access threats with speed and accuracy. We are also witnessing companies leveraging a zero trust approach to their security strategy while evaluating dynamic behaviors and movements across hybrid cloud environments.

IBM Security portfolio addresses three key areas for an enterprise: people, processes and policies. The solutions help in securing identity and networks, protecting data and workloads, and managing and modernizing threat management and operations. To help businesses uncover threats, make informed decisions related to those risks, and respond faster, IBM has developed Cloud Pak for Security. It is a single platform that integrates tools and connects workflows across hybrid and multi-cloud environments using a security platform that runs anywhere. With Cloud Pak for Security, customers can gain access to a first-of-its-kind security hub that bridges a critical gap in today's security operations. We are working closely with several ecosystem partners like TCS, HCL, Persistent Systems and more to help enterprises strengthen their security posture.

How are you helping channel partners overcome this challenging time? What is their current sentiment?

The sentiment across the ecosystem has been similar, beginning with the health and safety of employees, followed by business continuity, demonstrating resiliency, and adapting their engagement models to help their clients return to growth as they redesign enterprises for the new normal. What we have witnessed is that each partner has a unique journey and their go-to-market models are aligned to their business roadmap as well as their overall focus areas. The similarity is that the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technologies for the partners and introduced delivery models that are continuously evolving.

This ecosystem is central to our growth strategy. IBM is investing $1 billion in its partner ecosystem so that our partners can play a much bigger role in fulfilling the various needs of our clients. This investment revolves around three key areas:

Benefits: IBM is providing partners access to new benefits such as co-creation client centers, proof-of-concept incentives to fuel co-innovation, cloud engagement funds, and messaging acceleration workshops to help partner organizations develop custom, buyer-centric messaging plans.

Technical Support: Earlier this year, IBM unveiled the Hybrid Cloud Build Team, which is dedicated to co-creating advanced solutions with ecosystem partners. The team helps in modernizing and migrating workloads, and infusing technologies like AI, 5G, Kubernetes, and Edge into their applications and software. The Hybrid Cloud Build Team works with the partners through strategic, technical, and operational considerations and is an example of a collaborative approach, which demonstrates showing versus telling. The additional benefit is that the technical experts from our partners' teams also acquire skills in IBM technologies along the development journey.

Competencies: IBM has launched a competency framework to help partners demonstrate specialization, which allows them to differentiate their business, showcase expertise, open new client opportunities, and exhibit sales success in specialized areas such as hybrid cloud, automation, and security. In addition, aligned to each of the competencies and job roles, IBM has created a guided skills courseware, which can be integrated with the partners' learning management systems through a training API. This enables partners to affirm expertise and increase credibility in the market.

How do you see the future of quantum application? What is IBM doing in this space?

We believe quantum computing is close to a commercialization phase and will change our world. We have seen early adapters have the unique ability to solve certain problems quickly and achieve breakthroughs leading to new business models. For example, together with Mercedes-Benz Group, IBM is exploring the future of electric vehicles; along with ExxonMobil, we are finding solutions to address complex energy problems. We are also working with several organizations like Mitsubishi Chemical, Elevance Health and Delta Airlines as we unravel potential applications of this technology.

There is a vast opportunity in a country like India. We believe that scaling the global community is key to unleash the transformative power of quantum, especially in the fields of science and business. At IBM, we are also working toward some of the key aspects to get quantum ready.

Firstly, we believe open-source access and adoption by the ecosystem of developers, scientists, educators and professionals across different industries will pave the way for next-gen computing. Our journey started in 2017, as the first company to have commercial clients via the IBM Quantum Network. Today, we work with over 150 organizations, businesses, research and government labs, and educational institutions to explore practical and future use cases for quantum computing.

Also, a growing community with talent from the interdisciplinary field is crucial to expand the potential of quantum computing. Since India has a rich talent pool across science and technology and the potential, we are driving various initiatives to build and grow the quantum ecosystem in the country. For example, we are introducing students to quantum computing earlier to capture their interest and consider it as their future career. As a step forward in this direction, we've established IBM Quantum Hubs at universities and labs all over the world, with the mission to accelerate learning, skills development, and industry collaborations.

Singh is an IT professional with over 25 years of industry experience. She has consistently worked in alliance management and consultative sales sector and developed a strong network in the IT industry.

This article was previously published on the DynamicCIO website on July 30, 2021.


About the Author

Smruti Gandhi

Smruti Gandhi

Executive Editor, ISMG

Gandhi has more than a decade of experience in community engagement and incubating industry events. She is extremely proactive in building engagements with communities including CEO, CFOs and CIOs. Prior to joining ISMG, she worked with Dun & Bradstreet and Great Place to Work.




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