IBM to Open New Innovation Centers in Africa

February 7, 2014

Feb. 7 — IBM today announced it is further expanding its operations across Africa with the opening of two new IBM Innovation Centers in Lagos, Nigeria and Casablanca, Morocco. These new centers aim to spur local growth and fuel an ecosystem of development and entrepreneurship around Big Data and Analytics and cloud computing in the region.

Approximately one in every two medium to large businesses in both South Africa and Kenya already use the cloud. In Nigeria, cloud usage is expected to more than double to 80 percent of businesses by the end of next year. At the same time, organizations around Africa are looking for ways to improve their analytics skills and more accurately tap into the data being produced by mobile devices and tablets – and, better anticipate the needs of their customers by delivering improved services.

As the local demand for these types of advanced technologies and skills increases, Africa is quickly moving to the center of global attention as the last big emerging market of the current economic era.   According to the IMF, Africa is set to be the world’s second fastest growing region with projected growth of over five percent this year. Africa-grown innovation is key to the continent’s future development, and dependent on close collaboration between local experts and global innovation leaders.

To take advantage of this explosive growth – clients, IT partners, developers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and academics will now have access to the latest Big Data and Analytics and cloud-focused enterprise software, hardware, client services, skills training, business and marketing support.

The new Innovation Centers will focus on providing constituents with solutions that use Big Data and Analytics and cloud computing technologies to solve key local and global challenges such as improving government services, digitizing banking services and enhancing customer centricity in telecommunications. Clients will now be able to participate in virtual and in-person training, test out new products, network with peers from around the world, and receive mentoring and guidance from IT and business experts. For example, the Innovation Centers will give clients hands-on access to cloud-based industry solutions such as IBM Intelligent Operations designed to provide cities, governments and utilities with a central command center that utilizes predictive analytics to enhance efficiency and centrally manage all of their operations.

“Innovation has become a key driver of positive change in developed nations, and IBM has blazed the trail once again in this market with its new Innovation Center,” said Victor Hammond, managing director of Bankers Warehouse Plc. “I foresee this facility becoming a key driver of technology innovation in Nigeria, helping to promote the culture of knowledge incubation and scientific enquiry in all sectors of Africa.”

The new centers will focus on:

  • Nurturing and grow regional IT innovation, help startups and new business IT solutions get to market faster.
  • Developing new advanced solutions and techniques across a variety of industries through the use of Big Data and Analytics and cloud computing that address important societal challenges.
  • Providing an environment for clients to meet, demo and explore new ways that these advanced technologies can improve decision making and streamline business operations.
  • Broadening awareness and strengthen skills in the various African regions among students, recent graduates and existing professionals.

As part of today’s news, IBM’s Innovation Center in Johannesburg has also been enhanced with new capabilities.  The first center of its kind in South Africa, it represents continued investment by IBM in the South African IT sector. Located at IBM South Africa’s offices in Sandton, the IBM Innovation Center will now offer clients hands-on access to advanced technologies in cloud, data, mobility and social business in a variety of industry and client environments.

IBM Continues to Expand Operations in Africa 

IBM is working to transform systems across Africa – specifically banking, telecommunications and government – and is working with clients and partners to put in place the systems, infrastructures and processes that underpin the continent’s economic and social transformation. IBM is engaged with hundreds of clients across the region, such as: Santam, RAWBANK in the DRC, Fidelity Bank and Surfline Communications in Ghana, Bharti Airtel across 17 African countries, and Morocco’s Ministry of Economy and Finance.

For example, IBM is already working with the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) to create the world’s largest and most comprehensive clinical dataset on cancer patients by building cancer registries in developing nations, beginning in Sub-Saharan Africa.

IBM has operated in Africa since the 1930’s, and today has a direct presence in more than 20 African countries, including: Tanzania, Senegal, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Mauritius.  Over the next few years IBM plans to continue strengthening this network with new facilities, offerings and partnerships.

According to the IMF, Nigeria is West Africa’s leading economy and Africa’s most populous nation accounting for over 160 million people and expected to become the world’s 13th largest economy by 2050.

Separately, the Moroccan economy is also growing rapidly.  The Moroccan government has had a clear strategic vision over the last five years to grow and diversify their economy by seeking to expand its renewable energy capacity with a goal of making 40 percent electricity output by 2020.

“As an IBM partner, Hightech Payment Systems sees great value in IBM Morocco’s Innovation Centre,” said Mr. Mohamed Horani, Founder, Chairman and CEO at Hightech Payment Systems.  “It is the ideal location to help our clients gain a greater understanding of our electronic payment solutions that run on IBM’s platforms.

Mr; Mohamed Horani added, “With the centre’s software and hardware resources, and the great expertise of IBM’s consultants, we have already organised numerous demo workshops for our clients.  I am thrilled to see that this centre is also positioned to better service universities, entrepreneurs, and start-ups in Morocco and Francophone Africa.”

The new Innovation Centers join a worldwide network of over 41 IBM Innovation Centers in 33 countries. Through this network, IBM connects local companies and entrepreneurs with technical and industry experts around the world and can support growth with introductions into new markets. The centers in Lagos and Casablanca join IBM’s other existing African Innovation Centers in Johannesburg and Nairobi.

For more information on IBM in Africa: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/34710.wss

For more on IBM’s Big Data and Analytics Portfolio, visit: http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/ and http://www.ibm.com/bigdata

For more on IBM’s Cloud Computing Portfolio, visit: http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/us/en/

—–

Source: IBM

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion XL — were added to the benchmark suite as MLPerf continues Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing power it brings to artificial intelligence.  Nvidia's DGX Read more…

Call for Participation in Workshop on Potential NSF CISE Quantum Initiative

March 26, 2024

Editor’s Note: Next month there will be a workshop to discuss what a quantum initiative led by NSF’s Computer, Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate could entail. The details are posted below in a Ca Read more…

Waseda U. Researchers Reports New Quantum Algorithm for Speeding Optimization

March 25, 2024

Optimization problems cover a wide range of applications and are often cited as good candidates for quantum computing. However, the execution time for constrained combinatorial optimization applications on quantum device Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at the network layer threatens to make bigger and brawnier pro Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HBM3E memory as well as the the ability to train 1 trillion pa Read more…

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing po Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HB Read more…

Nvidia Looks to Accelerate GenAI Adoption with NIM

March 19, 2024

Today at the GPU Technology Conference, Nvidia launched a new offering aimed at helping customers quickly deploy their generative AI applications in a secure, s Read more…

The Generative AI Future Is Now, Nvidia’s Huang Says

March 19, 2024

We are in the early days of a transformative shift in how business gets done thanks to the advent of generative AI, according to Nvidia CEO and cofounder Jensen Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, codenamed Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

Intel Won’t Have a Xeon Max Chip with New Emerald Rapids CPU

December 14, 2023

As expected, Intel officially announced its 5th generation Xeon server chips codenamed Emerald Rapids at an event in New York City, where the focus was really o Read more…

IBM Quantum Summit: Two New QPUs, Upgraded Qiskit, 10-year Roadmap and More

December 4, 2023

IBM kicks off its annual Quantum Summit today and will announce a broad range of advances including its much-anticipated 1121-qubit Condor QPU, a smaller 133-qu Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire