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IBM Power Cloud Briefing for MSP’s Sponsored by IBM and Arrow

On behalf of United Computer Group, Inc., I was honored to be one of 25 IBM Business Partners invited to attend the IBM Q114 Power Cloud Briefing for MSP's. The event took place at the IBM Executive Briefing Center in Austin, TX on March 18-19.

To meet future client demands, MSP's must be able to expand infrastructure and service delivery capabilities while minimizing cost and increasing client value. The event focused on helping MSP's capitalize on new market opportunities and enable us to provide the right mix of services, products, and programs to clients.

Outstanding sessions and an honor to meet "Watson" and Ravi Arimilli, IBM Fellow, Analytics, Big Data and Cloud Platforms, who presented "Power: Journey and the Road Ahead."

Jim Kandrac with Watson

A fascinating article by +Matthew Herper was published this week in Forbes about Watson’s role in cancer research:

IBM's Watson Attempts to Tackle the Genetics of Brain Cancer

“This morning, IBM and the New York Genome Center announced a partnership to test whether Watson, the computer that won on Jeopardy, can sift through the genomes of cancer patients and help doctors pick drugs. This effort could hold the key to making DNA sequencing for cancer affordable, but there is a vast amount of work to do that will take years at a minimum.” Read article. 

As an interesting aside, Watson is engaged with a client (unnamed) and is working to ingest data to reduce their call center staffing from 3,000 to 100 people. You won't know you are NOT talking with a human. 

Many thanks to John Hardy, Senior Briefing Consultant, IBM Austin, TX; Jim Pinto, IBM Business Unit Executive, Power Systems Service Providers; and Dave Waddell, Brand Manager, IBM Power Systems, Arrow ECS for hosting this event, and to all who participated.

Jim Kandrac
Founder and President
United Computer Group, Inc.