BERLIN (Reuters) - IBM is rolling out innovations in artificial intelligence, hybrid cloud operations and quantum computing as the company that created the personal computer follows through on a roadmap it set out a year ago. The U.S. company made the announcements to coincide with its annual Think Conference on Tuesday as it builds momentum following its $34 billion takeover of open-source software company Red Hat two years ago. IBM, which last month reported its strongest quarterly sales growth in two years, has been restructuring since Arvind Krishna became chief executive a year ago to focus on cloud computing and AI. Last October, IBM announced its legacy IT infrastructure business would shift into a separate firm. "This year, we are going to talk about progress - and we have made a lot of progress," President Jim Whitehurst told reporters ahead of its Think Conference.

IBM Corp. is pushing the envelope on hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence with a number of key announcements early Tuesday ahead of its Think 2021 event, chiefly aimed at accelerating its customer's digital transformation strategies. One of the main highlights of today's announcements is a new Auto SQL capability within IBM's Cloud Pak for Data offering that automates data access and management without needing to move it first. The company also unveiled a new, AI-based tool for modernizing applications and workloads to run in hybrid cloud environments, plus new AI capabilities in Watson and advancements that should help to scale up quantum computing to more use cases. Available Tuesday, the new AutoSQL capability for IBM Cloud Pak for Data is a big deal because it enables companies to automate access, integration and management of their data no matter where it resides, the company said. IBM said it's addressing one of the most critical pain points customers face as they attempt to reduce the complexity of curating data for AI.

Fans can become instant "experts" about the players and the tournament match-ups with new AI-powered insights. This year, IBM is partnering again with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and has developed three new tennis-based digital experiences for fans of the US Open. Spectators won't be allowed at the Arthur Ashe Stadium at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, NY when the Grand Slam event begins on Aug. 31, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they will be able to participate remotely with new fan experiences that use artificial intelligence (AI) underpinned by hybrid cloud technologies. IBM has partnered with the USTA for 29 years, but 2018 was the first year that AI-powered tools were used by players and coaches. Last year, IBM introduced the IBM Coach Advisor and IBM Watson OpenScale.

By- Amith Singhee At the dawn of the Information Age in the 1970s, the role of Information Technology (IT) was limited to'computing plumbing' - to keep the networks and computers working. In the 90s and 2000s, it evolved into an enterprise shared servicesmodel that was essential for operational efficiency, cost takeout and decision support. Today, IT is witnessing another shift that increasingly requires the Chief Information Officer organization to act as a partner in defining business strategy and driving topline growth via IT-driven business transformation. To realize this, the IT delivery platform that includes infrastructure, applications, processes and roles of people -needs to be scalable and adaptable tokeep pace with the rapidly changing business and operational needs, and, hence, transform to a hybrid cloud IT architecture. The transformation will involve four phases: Advice for Cloud, Move to Cloud, Build for Cloud and Manage on Cloud.