IBM announced the formation of their Cloud video unit before IBM Connect. While there are a number of announcements and observations from Connect, I wanted to get this post out.
The acquisition of Ustream caused IBM to announce their Cloud Video Service Unit and as the graphic shows, this business unit ties together several acquisitions as well as IBM’s own intellectual property. IBM is providing video on demand, live streaming and allowing companies to manage video as another other content type.
Video on the internet isn’t new, YouTube will be 11 years old this month and was acquired by Google nineteen months after being launched. We see video in our healthcare portals with doctor video bios, in manufacturing, in retail and short videos have overtaken traditional training at many of our clients. Personally there are many times before purchasing a product I not only use the manufacturer’s video but I find un-boxing and review videos on YouTube, to round out the recommendations and social feedback that I also use. This unit fills a clear need and one that will become larger as mobile networks and contracts encourage further mobile video consumption.
IBM has a good track record of integrating and support various Content Delivery Networks (CDNs); this Unit is not only providing their own CDN, which is software defined, but also exposes those services via IBM Bluemix. Analytic and content management integration were discussed in the announcement. Not part of the announcement but I am sure it is on the roadmap is Cognitive with Watson.
Between Connections, Verse, IBM Digital Experience and Web Content Management, IBM’s cloud approach, story and components gathering attention and for a number of our clients, it is a very good fit. I am looking forward to the early case studies and customer success stories.
