IBM enrolls Watson in $100m push into enterprise data analytics

IBM has unveiled new software and services and a $100m research fund as part of a major push into the large-scale data processing and analytics business.

The company's 'Big Data' strategy will add 20 new services based around the processing and analysis of multiple data sources on a petabyte scale.

These include security services that can eliminate 99 per cent of critical problems without human control, according to IBM, and a datacentre assessment system that can reduce running costs by 30 per cent over a 10-year period.

IBM is initially offering its InfoSphere BigInsights data collection tool on a free licence. BigInsights collates information from traditional databases, as well as from unstructured sources like video and social media, and allows companies to mine for data using software developed for IBM's Watson supercomputer.

The company has also improved its Streams software, which performs similar analytics but focuses on data leaving rather than entering an organisation. IBM claimed that the updated code processes data 350 per cent faster than previous versions.

"The volume and velocity of information is generated at a record pace. This is magnified by new forms of data coming from social networking and the explosion of mobile devices," said Steve Mills, senior vice president of IBM Software & Systems.

"Through our extensive capabilities in business and technology expertise, IBM is best positioned to help clients not only extract meaningful insight, but respond at the same rate at which the data arrives."

BigInsights and Streams are based around the open source Apache Hadoop system which IBM has been developing to deal with some of the huge data loads expected as more sensors and data streams come online.

The company said that it will spend $100m over the next two years to develop further Big Data products and services based around the Hadoop and Watson systems.