IBM Watson Simplifies AI Open-Source Adoption Across Any Cloud

IBM Watson has leveraged the technical capabilities of leading Python data science platform Anaconda, to simplify the entire operation of managing and executing data science projects within a secured enterprise-grade Cloud environment. As part of the partnership, IBM Watson will now integrate Anaconda Team Edition repository with Watson Studio; while, Anaconda will feature IBM’s Watson Studio no-charge plan to its community of 20 million data scientists.

By working together, the two companies plan to use AI Open-Source to help fuel innovation and address the AI and data science skills gap that many enterprises face today.

In 2020, we are seeing a rapid rise of data scientists and AI engineers in mission-critical IT projects. Today, IT companies are hiring data scientists from around the world to keep mission-critical business Ops functioning in sync with the overall digitization goals. In 2019, we saw phenomenal growth in the Open Source AIOps projects and Programming projects that tapped into the rich mine of AI skills, talent and technical capabilities. For open-source, the size of the community alone makes it a great resource for enterprise adoption, even as IT companies continue to find a solution around technical and legal issues, such as co-location and testing in real-time with the company’s Devops and IT teams.

From both a technical and operational standpoint, the Anaconda-IBM Watson partnership is expected to help enterprises overcome these challenges.

How?

It will happen in two ways.

First, Anaconda Team Edition repository will be integrated with IBM Watson Studio on IBM Cloud Pak for Data, enabling organizations to better govern and speed the deployment of AI open-source technologies across any cloud.

And second, Anaconda’s community of 20 million users will now be able to access a no-charge lite plan of Watson Studio1, offering the opportunity to manage their data science projects within IBM’s enterprise-grade environment.

Currently, Anaconda provided Open Source data science platforms, including:

• Individual Edition
• Team Edition
• Enterprise Edition

At the time of this announcement, Daniel Hernandez, General Manager, Data and AI, IBM said, “By bringing the power of Anaconda to Watson, enterprises can now tap into a repository of open-source tools that they can manage in any cloud environment.”

“Our aim at Anaconda is to help organizations unleash their full potential through data science, and we’re proud to work with IBM to give their customers the latest open-source data science packages in an enterprise-friendly way,” said Peter Wang, CEO and co-founder of Anaconda. “Both our companies share a goal of making data science and machine learning more accessible, and this relationship is a further step in that direction.”

Speaking about the role of use AI Open-Source in the enterprise environment, Daniel added,

“AI for business is only as good as the ecosystem it supports, so it’s a natural fit for Watson to work with Anaconda, the industry leader in open-source data science and their community of 20 million users.”

The collaboration includes an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreement to market the Anaconda Team Edition solution with IBM Watson Studio as part of ​IBM Cloud Pak for Data​, an automated AI lifecycle platform that is designed to make it easy for businesses to build and operationalize AI.

The solution is expected to be available June 19,​2020, and is designed to help data scientists take advantage of comprehensive, managed and curated open-source libraries and tools. Also as part of the agreement, Anaconda will feature Watson Studio on the Anaconda Navigator interface, easing access for millions of additional practitioners.

Anaconda Team Edition provides a platform of leading open-source technologies in a secured environment that gives enterprise governance tools for managing data science projects. Through this relationship, IBM extends further its growth and open AI ecosystem to give customers choice and flexibility within an open, extensible hybrid cloud platform.

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