IBM (NYSE: IBM) says former Weather Co. CEO David Kenny will be the new boss for Watson, the Jeopardy-winning “cognitive computing” service that’s a central element of CEO Virginia Rometty’s campaign to find new revenue for the struggling tech giant.
Big Blue also has formed a team of 2,500 to focus on IoT.
IBM says former Weather Co. CEO David Kenny will be the new boss for Watson, the Jeopardy-winning “cognitive computing” service that’s a central element of CEO Virginia Rometty’s campaign to find new revenue for the struggling tech giant.
Michael Rhodin, had had led Watson business and spearheaded formation of Watson Health and Watson IoT, will lead Watson Business Development. “He will identify and incubate the next major industries and domains for Watson and will oversee related acquisition strategy,” IBM said.
Watson is a computing system that uses machine-learning and natural-language skills to analyze and find trends in data from a wide variety of sources. IBM has been promoting Watson and related technology as a powerful tool for use in health care, retailing and other industries.
The Armonk, New York, company announced last year that it was buying The Weather Co., including its websites, apps and data platform, for an undisclosed sum. The cable-TV Weather Channel was not part of the deal and is continuing to operate independently.
Beyond Weather: The Weather Company Cloud Data Platform to Serve as Backbone for Watson IoT
What IBM says The Weather Company means for its IoT efforts:
The Weather Company’s dynamic cloud data platform, which powers the fourth most-used mobile app daily in the United States and handles up to 26 billion inquiries to its cloud-based services each day, will run across IBM Cloud data centers globally and serve as the technology backbone of IBM’s data services and Watson IoT businesses.
Leveraging one of the world’s most scalable, high performance and flexible data platforms, IBM can now collect an even larger variety and higher velocity of data sets from billions of IoT sensors around the world while also serving out real-time information and insights to tens of millions of users worldwide. The new platform offers developers greater flexibility to access, store and analyze IoT sensor data and to create new apps with richer and deeper insights powered by IBM Watson.
IBM is dedicating more than 2,500 developers worldwide to help its clients and partners collect, analyze and act upon entirely new forms of IoT data resulting from the proliferation of automobile and airplane telematics, building and environmental sensors, wearable devices, medical implants, weather stations, smartphones, social media, manufacturing lines and supply chains, among others.
(Video: Watch how IBM says Weather Co. data adds to IBM analytics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsdR_w2ITOg )
Analysts say IBM Corp. is hoping to leverage The Weather Co.’s vast trove of climate data as well as its Internet platform, which delivers weather forecasts via free consumer apps along with more extensive services sold to airlines, insurance companies and other businesses.
IBM said Kenny will oversee the Watson business and related partnerships with outside developers who can build software that uses Watson’s technology
The Weather Co. and its current services will become part of IBM’s Data and Analytics unit.
Rometty has vowed to increase IBM’s revenue from new types of commercial technology, including cloud computing and data analytics, because its mainstay hardware and services businesses are no longer growing. The company reported earlier this month that its overall revenue for the last three months of 2015 was down for the 15th consecutive quarter.
IBM’s board has backed Rometty’s efforts.
The company disclosed late Thursday that she will receive a $4.5 million performance bonus in addition to her $1.6 million salary for 2015. She received a $3.6 million bonus in 2014.
