The internals of a computer with a blue holographic cloud with arrows.

Last February 23, 2014 IAMTEAM attended the IBM Pulse 2014. The conference proper was on February 24-26, 2014 but as an IBM Business Partner, we also attended the Sunday sessions especially catered for IBM BP’s.

Even during the Business Partner sessions, it was immediately evident that IBM’s number one priority was its push towards the cloud. In the initial Key Note session, we were provided with IBM’s recent acquisitions Fiberlink and Trusteer and more importantly their cloud related acquisitions Softlayer and Cloudant. In these BP sessions, we were shown the opportunities business partners can have with IBM on the cloud, the lead opportunities we can attain and how both business partners and IBM can be more profitable working together. They showcased the IBM cloud marketplace and how service providers can leverage this to be more visible to potential clients.

Aside from the presentations, it was also nice that IBM had a Business Partner Lounge setup so attendees like us could be able to chat freely with other business partners, exchange ideas and further our own networks. In the evening, we were also able to attend the grand opening of the Expo which showcased the greatest and latest of the IBM products as well as what the IBM Business Partners had to offer.

The most intriguing aspect though was IBM’s presentation of Softlayer. From the beginning, IBM’s presence in the cloud was immediately established. With their acquisition of Softlayer, they had bought a big piece of the cloud pie and put themselves right in the middle of the mix. It was also great timing that this announcement at Pulse came on the heels of Facebook’s $19 Billion acquisition of WhatsApp (which of course is run on Softlayer). They showed an impressive demonstration of BlueMix, a cloud platform that is said to be language independent. In the demo, they built a retail app complete with a website, order completions with call and text capabilities within minutes. Yes, minutes! Even to a seasoned developer as myself, I must say this was pretty impressive (though of course there were already pre-built classes/modules that helped support this but it was still pretty good). Though all this is great to see, how easy BlueMix is to actually use (and how much it will cost) in my opinion will still determine if it takes off or is something left to be ignored.

As for the speakers, there was no lack of excitement from seeing the special keynote speakers from the wildly popular Breaking Bad. They talked about how big data and social media helped in making the show the success that it is. They also showcased what it meant to be a leader in their industry which is a valued lesson for every business. The event’s MC David Pogue was also very effective in making the topics relevant and relatable and shared a good amount of laughs with the audience.

Another aspect of IBM Pulse 2014 was the Dev @IBM Pulse event which was open to all developers. It was held in the swanky Hakkasan night club in the MGM. They showcased the (now recently Facebook acquired) Occulus Rift which features a virtual reality experience through specially made goggles. Visitors were able to try on the goggles and do different scenarios like sky diving and a sensory game which were pretty cool/entertaining. They also showed some programmable drones that were flying around the exhibit. The event ended with the Code Breaker’s Bash at Hakkasan which was a good change of pace to the other events of IBM Pulse. I found Dev @Pulse to be a good attempt in trying to lure in developers into IBM (and BlueMix) but found that it was lacking promotion or hype as not a lot of people were going to the event proper (except for the evening party). They should hold more engaging activities and create a bigger buzz if they were to do this again.

As an attendee, IBM Pulse 2014 was a fulfilling event to take part in. It was valuable to see IBM’s direction towards the cloud and what that means for Business Partners like IAMTEAM. It was also good to know about where the different IBM Identity and Access Management products are headed and what we can do to further improve the services we provide. Time will now tell how successful IBM’s recent acquisitions and their venture into the cloud will be.

IBM Pulse 2014: A Look at IBM's Push Toward the Cloud

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