The latest vendor to try to make Big Data insights easier to access, IBM has launched a new platform that integrates all kinds of data with its prized Watson artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

Called Project DataWorks, the cloud-based platform is available on IBM’s Bluemix cloud application development platform. It’s designed to improve collaboration between the various kinds of people in an organization who need data-driven insights to inspire their decisions. Project DataWorks is powered by IBM Watson Analytics, Apache Spark and the IBM Data Science Experience, a new technology offering launched in June that offers self-service access to data and models.

IBM’s big claim is that Project DataWorks is able to ingest data at a faster rate than any other kind of data platform. It’s capable of ingesting data from fifty to hundreds of Gbps. It can also pull data from just about any source, be it databases, Internet of Things sensors and devices or social media. Meanwhile, the platform sports cognitive capabilities from Watson.

“We are at an inflection point in the Big Data era,” Bob Picciano, senior vice president of IBM Analytics, said in a statement. “We know that users spend 80 percent of their time on data preparation, no matter the task, even when they are applying the most sophisticated AI.  Project DataWorks helps transform this challenge by bringing together all data sources on one common platform, enabling users to get the data ready for insight and action, faster than ever before.”

Project DataWorks follows an approach used by The Weather Company, an IBM business, in order to deliver valuable insights that can be used for everyday decisionmaking by both companies and consumers. The pillars of the offering are a flexible data architecture, rapid ingestion of multiple data sources, scalability and analytics, the company said.

The platform allows users to open any data set using Watson Analytics, then ask questions of that data in natural language. For example, a user can ask, “What drives this product line?” and find the answer “instantaneously,” IBM said.

Backing up IBM’s claims are two companies – Runkeeper, which builds the fitness app of the same name, and RSG Media, which sells analytical software and services to media and entertainment firms. The latter company uses Project DataWorks for monitoring cross-platform content and advertising viewership, and identifying individual viewing behaviors while cross analyzing demographic, lifestyle and social insights, among other things.

“IBM is the only cloud vendor who offers an integrated set of capabilities for building advanced analytics applications that would allow us to quickly and cost-effectively bring new offerings to market,” RSG Media’s Founder and CEO Mukesh Sehgal said in a statement.

Forrester Research Inc. Vice President and Research Director Gene Laganza also told PC World that the new offering brings two new concepts to the table.

Those include what Leganza described as the first “comprehensive cloud-based platform that brings together all the elements you’d need to drive data innovation,” meaning Watson, data management, analytics and collaboration. Leganza also heaped praise on Project DataWork’s AI capabilities, and said the combination of the two makes it “an enterprise architect’s dream” because they’ll no longer have to worry about integrating various diverse products to get the same end result.

IBM said Project DataWorks is available now, via a pay-as-you-go pricing plan that starts at $75/month for 20 GB of data.

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