With tech increasingly moving to the edge and the internet of things infusing even the most basic household items, it’s more important now than ever to adapt to a modernized, digital world.

This Fourth Industrial Revolution, a convergence between humans and machines, will be driven by large-scale cloud services, AI and automation.

“It is about the edge. It’s about devices. It’s about capturing the data from the umpteen devices,” said Manish Chawla (pictured), general manager of global energy, resources and manufacturing at IBM. Recent chip shortages dramatize how much demand there is for compute power, and the world is becoming very software defined.

Chawla spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during IBM Think. They discussed IoT, adapting to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, IBM’s partnerships with other tech companies and more. (* Disclosure below.)

Industry 4.0 sparks working relationships

Digital transformation is rapidly spreading throughout the most basic aspects of society and infrastructure, especially with a pandemic making remote contact and working essential. Many companies took advantage of the pandemic as an opportunity to accelerate their digital transformation.

“And they are investing in two types of technologies, what I would call foundational technologies because there’s a recognition that to apply the differentiating technologies like AI and capturing and taking value of the data you need a strong architectural foundation,” Chawla said.

The second technology companies are investing in is the cloud — not just a public cloud or central spot, but bringing the cloud to the edge as well.

For “industry 4.0,” collaboration between companies brings the best results for both consumers and businesses alike. One example is IBM’s work with Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s largest oil field services company.

“We’ve collaborated with them to bring hybrid cloud to the digital platform so they now can deploy their capabilities to any customer regardless of whether they want it in country or on a public cloud,” Chawla said.

Another example is a data platform IBM built with Schlumberger to enable the data platform to be brought any location in the world.  With hybrid cloud and AI capabilities growing every day, these types of relationships yield better convenience for both customers and companies, preparing the world for a tech-dependent tomorrow, Chawla concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM Think. (* 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