Big Data analytics and cloud computing in Africa: IBM paves its way with Watson.

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Today, we are very excited to observe how and why IBM Watson and other cognitive systems aim to improve living conditions and generate new business opportunities in Africa.

At Connectikpeople.co, we love Data, Analytics and their ability to transform lives and businesses, if combined with relevant technologies.  

Henceforth, its new IBM Innovation Centers in Lagos, Nigeria; Casablanca, Morocco, and Johannesburg, South Africa, IBM's Watson aims to represent a new era of cognitive computing, by analyzing massive amounts of Big Data.  

Connectikpeople.co recalls that, Watson technologies aims to provide researchers, partners, startups with a set of resources to help develop commercially-viable solutions in key areas such as healthcare, education, water and sanitation, human mobility and

agriculture.

IBM announced that, by joining the initiative, IBM’s partners will be able to tap into cloud-delivered cognitive intelligence that will be invaluable for solving the continent’s most pressing challenges and creating new business opportunities. 

About IBM Research - Africa

IBM has had a direct presence in Africa for over 70 years that today spans more than 20 countries, including Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Angola, Kenya and Tanzania. IBM Research – Africa - the continent’s first commercial technology research facility - was inaugurated in by His Excellency, the President of Kenya, Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta in November, 2013. The lab employs researchers from some of the world’s best universities to conduct applied and far-reaching exploratory research into the grand challenges of the African continent by delivering commercially-viable innovations that impact people's lives. 

The 2000m² facility features one of Africa's most powerful, cloud-enabled computing hubs giving researchers the ability to analyze and draw insight from vast amounts of data in the search for solutions to Africa's most pressing challenges. 

About Watson

Named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, IBM Watson was developed in IBM’s Research labs. Using natural language processing and analytics, Watson processes information akin to how people think, representing a major shift in an organization’s ability to quickly analyze, understand and respond to Big Data. Now delivered from the cloud from a single Power 750 server running Linux and able to power new consumer and enterprise services and apps, Watson is 24 times faster, smarter (with a 2,400 percent improvement in performance) and 90 percent smaller – IBM has shrunk Watson from the size of a master bedroom to three stacked pizza boxes. Watson’s ability to answer complex questions posed in natural language with speed, accuracy and confidence is transforming decision making across a variety of industries.  

For example, IBM is partnering with a range of healthcare organizations to apply Watson in order to transform how medicine is practiced, paid for and taught.  The company is also working with a variety of organizations to transform how enterprises conduct research, share data-driven insights, and engage their customers via Watson-powered solutions.  

To share cognitive computing with a broader group of innovators, IBM has made Watson available as a development platform in the cloud, enabling software application providers to build a new generation of apps infused with cognitive computing intelligence.