Cloud innovation has always soared due to clever strategic partnerships that bridge technology gaps and combine cross-niche expertise. IBM Corp. and Amazon Web Services Inc. share one such alliance. As the IBM and AWS collaboration deepens, their combined savvy in cloud computing and AI promises to reshape how organizations manage data, enhance AI governance and optimize resources.

“An inflection point and acceleration happened when we decided together to launch OpenShift on AWS, which is a huge step forward in terms of trust and hybrid cloud and the fact that we both believe there’s a hybrid world in the future,” said Nick Otto (pictured, right), head of global strategic partnerships at IBM. “We’ve got our consulting practice growing every single quarter. We’ve got over 24,000 certifications now from an AWS perspective, and then it took that next rocket ship two years ago when we kicked off our software collaboration.”

Otto and Manu Parbhakar (left), director and general manager of business application partnerships at AWS, spoke with theCUBE Research’s John Furrier at theCUBE on the Ground – IBM Analyst Forum event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the partnership as a forward-thinking alliance, propelling cloud computing and AI with technology and ecosystem integration at the forefront. (* Disclosure below.)

Data governance underpins cloud computing and AI innovation

The rise of gen AI has intensified the need for robust AI governance, which is a priority for both companies. With the recent integration of IBM’s watsonx.governance and Amazon SageMaker, both companies are addressing complex regulatory and compliance demands. These tools allow for comprehensive oversight of AI processes, from data security to audit requirements, a critical aspect as organizations scale their AI initiatives, according to Otto.

“That’s just the start of a lot more of that collaborative piece,” he said. “It’s going beyond just making our software available and moving towards making sure our software works amazing with our best partners.”

Through a connected ecosystem, both companies are fostering a dynamic where multi-model environments thrive, especially as AI use cases become more complex and customer demands for hybrid solutions intensify. For instance, AWS’ recent collaboration with Salesforce and IBM’s Watson Orchestrate highlights the companies’ shared goal of making AI tools interoperable across various platforms, Parbhakar noted.

“It ties back to the development and training of the LLM and the gen AI models and then on top of the high-level services,” he said. “I think this is where we are working very closely in that training layer with IBM and that’s the watsonx.governance, tying it together with SageMaker.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of at theCUBE on the Ground – IBM Analyst Forum event:

Watch the full event video below:

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

Photo: SiliconANGLE