As businesses take stock after the panic of overnight transformation, they are seeing a post-COVID business world that looks very different from its pre-pandemic incarnation. Remote operations and the need to rapidly respond to the changing economic climate have made cloud computing essential for modern business survival.

Adapting means adopting hybrid cloud. But stepping smoothly from a legacy or pure cloud environment into one where applications and data are dispersed across multiple clouds, on-premises, and even in devices out there at the edge, is a hard task.

This is the backdrop of IBM’s Think 2021 event. Scheduled to be held virtually in a series of sessions, workshops, learning opportunities and networking sessions, the conference is taking place May 11 in the Americas and May 12 for Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Middle East. With a focus on success in the digital economy, the conference will spotlight real-life use cases for hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence in enterprise. During the event, theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio will discuss the future of hybrid cloud and AI and how it is becoming the bedrock for smarter business as industry navigates digital transformation, automation and modernization. (* Disclosure below.)

“Think 2021 is the most creative, inspiring, comprehensive digital experience we’ve ever created, and we are so excited to share it,” Erin McElroy, program director, digital and event innovation at IBM told theCUBE. “Any business leader, executive, technical professional or developer will come away from Think with new insights, strategies, an expanded network and community. For Think Academy participants, they will receive thousands of dollars worth of training and knowledge of great value to technical professionals.”

Hybrid cloud is the practical cloud model to manage modern workloads

IBM has been charting its own course toward a hybrid identity for over a decade. Back in the early 2000s, the company invested US$1 billion in open source Linux, helping make Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) a performance leader for mission-critical computing. Since then, IBM has invested heavily in research and made strategic acquisitions that have moved it from traditional tech to a leader in open source, hybrid, and artificial intelligence.

“The world is going to move towards containers, the world has already embraced Linux, and this is the time to have a new architecture that embraces hybrid,” Arvind Krishna, chairman and chief executive officer of IBM, told theCUBE in 2019.

The prediction has come true today, with a Fall 2020 survey finding that 91% of companies use Kubernetes to orchestrate containers; and the demand for cross-platform agility is making hybrid cloud a default strategy.  

“This hybrid reality is happening in most organizations,” stated Jo Petersen,  member of the Forbes Technology Council and vice president of cloud and security at Clarify360, during a recent enterprise technology event. “Their actual IT portfolios include a mix of on-premise and cloud infrastructure, and we’re seeing this blurred line happening between the public cloud and the traditional data center. Customers want a bridge that easily connects one environment to the other environment, and they want end-to-end visibility.” 

Hybrid links, AI brings smarts

If hybrid cloud is one side of the coin for business success in the digital world, then AI is the other. Hybrid cloud links together the various environments of public and private cloud, on-premises infrastructure, and edge locations. This allows the seamless access of applications and data wherever they reside. Add AI into the mix and an organization can streamline operations through automation, upping employee efficiency, increasing security, accessing faster, more accurate data insights, and spotlighting potential problems before they impact the business.

“AI-enabled automation is the next wave for data management tools,” John Santaferraro, research director at Enterprise Management Associates, told theCUBE. “Vendors that excel in the use of AI and ML in their analytics, business intelligence and data management platforms will create significant differentiation and barriers to entry that will change the face of how information is accessed, delivered and acted upon. In addition, companies that invest in these platforms will also experience an acceleration of insight-driven decisions and gain a competitive advantage.”

IBM Think 2021 gives a game plan for organizational rebirth in the hybrid cloud

Many organizations already know that smart hybrid cloud is the key to success in digital business. But rapid adoption has led to hybrid strategies that involve a random assortment of cloud and smart solutions from a mish-mash of providers. Instead, companies need to move toward a streamlined and cohesive hybrid cloud strategy with embedded AI that pinpoints the most critical problems and provides in-the-moment data analysis.

As a traditional company that has already taken its digital journey and embraced the hybrid model, IBM is in a great position to guide others. And Think 2021 is the place to find knowledge on hybrid cloud and AI use cases and learning opportunities The event brings IBM’s knowledge pool of industry experts together with thought leaders and business strategists to provide a road plan to creating a more inclusive, efficient, intelligent, environmentally sustainable and successful business through a cloud model that embraces hybrid and AI/ML. Attendees at Think 2021 should expect an experience unlike any previous conference, according to Colleen Bisconti, IBM’s VP of global conferences and events, who recently spoke to theCUBE about the event.

“We have completely reimagined the attendee digital experience, creating an immersive experience where there is deep engagement with all attendees,” she said. “We have created a variety of business level and technical content across a wide range of topics, with five hours of personalized and thought-provoking programming and interactive digital experiences. Along the way, our attendees will also have some fun with brain breaks and entertainment when they are not networking with peers.”

Livestream of IBM Think

IBM Think is a livestream event, with additional interviews to be broadcasted on theCUBE. You can register here to access the live event. Plus, you can watch theCUBE interviews here on demand after the live event.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch the live coverage of IBM Think, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify, which you can enjoy while on the go.

Guests

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during IBM Think include IBM’s Jim Whitehurst, president; Rob Thomas, senior vice president of software, cloud and data platform; Seth Dobrin, global chief AI officer; Brian Hoffmann, chief operating officer of Global Financing; Andrew Coward, general manager of software defined networking; and Robin Hernandez, vice president of hybrid cloud management and Watson AIOps.

TheCUBE will also speak with Kumaran Siva, corporate vice president, strategic business development at Advanced Micro Devices; Caroline Cappell, research director at Analysys Mason; and Mirko Novakovic, chief executive officer of Instana. 

Other guests on theCUBE include IBM’s Cameron Art, managing director, AT&T; Ed Lynch, vice president of Business Automation; Madhu Kochar, vice president of offering management, data and AI; and Jerry Cuomo, fellow, vice president and chief technology officer of automation at IBM.

Stay tuned for a complete list of speakers.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for IBM Think. Neither IBM, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE