IBM’s InterConnect event, held in Las Vegas, continued in its second day with plenty of excitement from attendees eager to dig into the new services, announcements and products being rolled out by IBM for public consumption at the convention.

John Furrier and Dave Vellante, cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, spoke with Steve Robinson, GM of client technical engagement at IBM, on a wide range of topics connected to IBM’s developing solutions-sets, with most linked in some way to the adoption and integration of cloud services.

Building the chain

An early topic addressed was IBM’s Bluemix utility, which enhances connectivity and makes applications management more accessible to linked teams and users. Robinson described the creation of a “full hybrid chain that goes from behind the firewall to a cloud to the consumer as well,” as well as IBM’s development of services to install on top of Bluemix infrastructures. Doing this to cover “more architectures, more points of view,” he said, was just one way that the new services are being put to use.

Watson was another big topic, explored in ways such as how people are turning Watson’s utilities into distinct services, increasing the API set, and in general “kind of blowing people’s minds.” Also touched on was the growing presence of cloud utilities and connections for companies, though as Robinson noted, this was a slow move for some sectors.

“We clearly found that getting clients to the cloud is a technical challenge, as well as a cultural challenge,” he stated, adding that for some companies, they were comfortable waiting out cloud adoption.

Infrastructure, ninja teams and magic

Describing IBM’s work with team engagement of other companies as “not doing dance lessons for life, but strategically placing key skills,” Robinson moved on to the conversation’s topic with perhaps the largest impact, infrastructural bases and compatibility.

Characterizing lab services teams as “the real ninja” behind the scenes, Robinson highlighted their importance to helping companies foster usage of Bluemix and similar management tools. “Most of the clients that we’re dealing with have been handling some sort of virtualized infrastructure,” he said, and finding ways to draw them on to newer options often comes down to pointing out the advantages in doing so.

“The goal of course is, if we can have the same infrastructure private, dedicated and public [to deploy it widely] … I think that’s the Holy Grail. If you can get the same infrastructural base across all three, magic can happen.”

“Data is king”

“Data services are the most visible, the most critical, and the one we have to harden up the most as well,” Robinson said. Considering all the capabilities of cloud services, along with Compose tools bringing “all your favorite flavors … to what an enterprise database can do,” Robinson felt, “It’s all going to be around control and automation. I think IBM’s got one of the broadest spectrums [of control].”

With PCI compliance and other global concerns at the forefront, keeping on top of data services will stay relevant for the foreseeable future.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM InterConnect 2016. And join in on the conversation by CrowdChatting with theCUBE hosts.

Photo by SiliconANGLE