As digital transformation accelerates across industries in Canada, companies are looking to build a much stronger digital foundation to fundamentally change the way their business works. Artificial Intelligence (AI), hybrid cloud and quantum computing are playing a significant part in helping private and public organizations further advance and contribute to Canada’s progress.
IBM is accelerating innovation for its clients through the practical adoption of these technologies to help make businesses more efficient, intelligent, and sustainable.
The company is building and deploying AI techniques and solutions to unlock real-time value from data wherever it resides to help AI creators reduce the time they spend training, maintaining, and updating their models.
It is reimagining computing to help its clients and ecosystem partners tap into the benefits of hybrid cloud; pursuing open-source standards and code to create an agile and scalable platform that can be deployed anywhere. And it is advancing quantum computing across three key areas: hardware, software, and ecosystem development to help businesses tackle significant challenges in the future that will forever be unsolvable for classical computers.
IBM is helping clients run some of the most mission-critical systems around the world and here in Canada, including banks, airlines, mobile networks, and essential services. These systems support modern society and by making them faster, more productive, and more secure, IBM is not just making business work better, but helping to make Canada work better.
IBM has maintained a strong presence in Canada since 1917 and has been working to create a marketplace where homegrown innovation can drive domestic growth — today and in the future. Its rich history of innovation speaks for itself – as many game-changing breakthroughs in the IT industry have their roots in IBM Canada Lab, including Watson AIOps. Key elements of this innovative product were developed at IBM Canada Lab’s Area 6-3-1, a made-in-Canada internal incubator program that gives six entrepreneurial IBM employees three months to build one great idea into a working demo.
Photos: Ben Rahn/A-Frame
IBM Canada Labs in Markham, Ontario, is the second largest software development in IBM and the largest in Canada. The lab supports development of core IBM technologies and worldwide strategic missions including Data and AI, Security, Cloud and Cognitive, Supply Chain, IT infrastructure, and Internet of Things. It includes Client Centres, Machine Learning hubs and Design Studios. The Client Centres deliver highly customized, fully facilitated briefings and workshops for clients offering a fully interactive series of discussions tailored to meet the client’s near term and strategic goals.
IBM Canada Machine Learning Hub in Markham is one of five locations globally where clients and partners can be updated on industry trends and get hands-on training. They learn how to leverage machine learning to gain insights into their business using their own data to drive new innovations and accelerate business outcomes. While the IBM Design Studios in Toronto and Markham are part of the global platform of more than 100 locations that allow IBM to amplify and accelerate innovation and human-centered product and service delivery. The Studios provide unique, highly collaborative spaces where clients and IBM teams can co-create with their users in new ways.
Over the years, IBM has established deep partnerships with industry, academia, and all levels of government to improve commercialization prospects with “made in Canada” products and services — fueling innovation right here at home. IBM Canada Advanced Studies connects IBM product teams with students and faculty in joint academicindustry projects that promote innovation within IBM’s offerings and in published academic research.
IBM Canada’s investment in education also extends to the partnership with Six Nations Polytechnic and Mohawk College to deliver the P-TECH school model, where students are given the opportunity to gain emerging skillsets in technologies that are in high demand. In addition to P-TECH, IBM worked with colleges and universities and launched [email protected], a micro credential program for students at several universities. IBM also launched Cloud for Education which offers faculty and students access to IBM Cloud to run their classes with Watson and many other IBM and non-IBM classroom tools.
The company’s investment in research and development is building a thriving domestic innovation ecosystem that is helping businesses grow to internet scale, create new jobs, and compete on a global stage. IBM is applying innovation to real-world problems, thereby driving progress for both business and society.
IBM CANADA
