IBM has launched a global skills initiative to educate clients, business partners and college students how to use its business analytics and information management software, and other technologies of the Watson computing system to capture information from new sources and use it to create business opportunities.
The skills initiative provides IT professionals access to 1,200 on-site skills bootcamps at client, partner and university locations worldwide, at IBM Innovation Centers and online at DB2University.com, the company said.
The new initiative will cover topics including: Big Data, analytics, data management, and open source technologies plus Hadoop and Eclipse tools.
IT professionals and students will learn about InfoSphere, DB2, ‘Big Data’ management and analysis skills including data federation, integration and warehousing techniques using InfoSphere BigInsights, and other skills, said the company.
In addition, the initiative will provide advanced skills such as data management planning, data governance, and quality and security strategies. It will also provide information about the process involved in becoming certified on IBM Software.
IBM said that organisations are moving to its software in support of Big Data growth initiatives, to tackle Big Data challenges, reduce the cost of managing data and shift IT resources to growth investments.
IBM information management general manager Arvind Krishna said companies are amassing up to petabytes of information during peak hours of operations, and they see an opportunity to use this data to gain new insights into their customers and get ahead of the competition.
"Uncovering insights hidden among data in existing IT systems, and outside of the firewall in social networks, on clouds and from mobile devices, requires today’s IT professionals to possess new skills," Krishna said.
"As a result, we expect to see more companies move from Oracle to IBM software to capitalise on Big Data opportunities, and shift the economics from wasteful IT spending to growth investments."
