Acquisition will give IBM's Watson greater insights into weather data
As part of its $3bn march into the internet of things universe, IBM has acquired The Weather Company’s B2B and cloud properties and plans to join these up with its AI platform Watson’s internet of things unit.
The Weather Company’s cloud-based data platform will allow IBM to collect an even larger variety and higher velocity of global data sets, store them, analyse them and in turn distribute them and empower richer and deeper insights across the Watson platform.
IBM has agreed to acquire The Weather Company’s B2B, mobile and cloud-based web properties, including WSI, weather.com, Weather Underground and The Weather Company brand. The TV segment – The Weather Channel – will not be acquired by IBM, but will license weather forecast data and analytics from IBM under a long-term contract.
Sea of data
The Weather Company’s sophisticated models analyse data from 3bn weather forecast reference points, more than 40m smartphones and 50,000 airplane flights per day, allowing it to offer a broad range of data-driven products and services to more than 5000 clients in the media, aviation, energy, insurance and government industries.
“The Weather Company’s extremely high-volume data platform, coupled with IBM’s global cloud and the advanced cognitive computing capabilities of Watson, will be unsurpassed in the internet of things, providing our clients with a significant competitive advantage as they link their business and sensor data with weather and other pertinent information in real time,” said John Kelly, senior vice president, IBM Solutions Portfolio and Research.
“This powerful cloud platform will position IBM to arm entire industries with deep multi-modal insights that will help enterprises gain clarity and take action from the oceans of data being generated around them.”
Sea of data image via Shutterstock
