IBM kicked off its IOD 2013 conference in Las Vegas today by launching several new big data analytics-based products.
The company announced an expansion to its BLU Acceleration offering, with new software that it says "will enable clients to apply foundational elements of cognitive intelligence throughout their IT infrastructure".
It also announced IBM SmartCloud Analytics – Predictive Insights, which it says will help users more easily work through terabytes of IT operations data in real time. Along with this, a new version of SmartCloud Virtual Storage Center was unveiled.
Within its existing big data portfolio, IBM also announced new big data "exploration capabilities" for InfoSphere Data Explorer, which it called "the first commercial search offering", along with InfoSphere Data Privacy for Hadoop and NoSQL.
Finally, IBM announced an "Information Governance Dashboard", which it says "displays confidence leves in data souces in a business-friendly interface".
If this seems a lot of products that IBM seems keen to impress upon its users, the company's open keynote reflected a mood that the company is ready to seriously take on its rivals in the big data space.
"We're on the cusp of tremendous change," said senior vice president of middleware software at IBM, Robert LeBlanc.
"When you look at the technology helping to define the next generation, you see mobility. It's having a fundamental impact on the way we think, the way we work. And when you think of social [media], and all the data being generated from all of us every day, and that the technology underpinning it is changing as well.
"These are all enablers, and are allowing us to be client-centric."
LeBlanc stressed that the conversation needs to shift from talking just about big data.
"It's time to think about all data. Big data is big, but you also need to think about variety," he said.
"The amount of unstructured data, and the impact social has had - think of how that has changed the way we think and work every day. You need to adjust our prices, products and services to what your customers want."
