Sometimes the answer to a heart-wrenching problem is just sitting there waiting for action.

That’s the feeling that IBM Corp.’s head of California operations experienced when she happened to turn on her TV as the global pandemic began.

“Almost a month ago when this all started, I sat there watching the news, watching people dying in the hospital without a chance to talk with family members and the burden it was putting on healthcare professionals,” said Laura Guio (pictured, left), general manager of the IBM global Cisco alliance and California senior state executive at IBM. “I said: ‘There’s a solution there.’ We were able to put a solution together pretty quickly.”

Guio was referring to videoconferencing tools like Webex and other enterprise-grade tools that could allow patients and doctors to talk with loved ones from afar. “We’ve got a number of hospitals who are evaluating it right now, and we’re almost ready to roll this out,” she said.

Guio spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the IBM Think Digital Event Experience. She was joined by Keith Dyer (pictured, right), vice president of sales and channels, IBM Alliance, at Cisco Systems Inc., and they discussed work by the two firms on security for remote workers and the value placed by customers on industry experience. (* Disclosure below.)

Addressing threat management

IBM’s initiative to assist healthcare workers facing an impossible task was part of the firm’s continued partnership with other industry giants, according to Guio. Working with mobile provider Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and longtime partner Cisco, IBM was able to craft a solution at a time when current events can often seem overwhelming.

The global pandemic has also led Cisco and IBM to collaborate on another important need — security. The sudden shift of employees around the world to remote work arrangements has increased the attack surface dramatically.

“As we move into this new class of workers who are working remotely and are working in these different environments, security is paramount,” Dyer said. “A lot of the work that we’ve both done together is around threat management, and we both put security measures and products in place to help workers be able to work securely in their networks.”

The two firms, with a combined 145 years in business, have recognized that experience and longevity created confidence among current and potential customers.

“What we’re finding is customers are coming to companies like Cisco and IBM and saying: ‘I need a solid enterprise solution, and I’m looking for someone who’s tested it, tried and true, and you’ve got recognition in the industry,’” Guio said. “They don’t have a whole lot of time to go figure it out, and they believe in us.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the IBM Think Digital Event Experience. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the IBM Think Digital Event Experience. Neither IBM Corp., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE