by Angela Guess
Steve Callahan and Sandipan Sarkar of IBM recently wrote in Forbes, “Around the world, sustainability is increasingly being adopted as a social objective and a political need. Though approaches and pace differ from region to region, nearly every nation starting to focus on making electric supply more sustainable. How sustainability is embraced as a core business element in the electric industry varies globally and ranges from complete adoption, most aggressively by new entrants, to reticence by incumbent utilities heavily invested in fossil fuels… According to a recent report from IBM, ‘A New Natural Resource: Your Cognitive Future in the Oil and Gas Industry,’ now is the opportunity for innovation to be exercised under financial reward structures that need not be regulated in traditional ways.”
They continue, “One way to innovate is a holistic, hybrid cloud strategy that can help energy and utilities organizations identify and prioritize business functions in terms of cloud readiness. The companies can use the cloud to transform the utility network to embrace the role of energy integrator, engage customers as individuals and innovate to drive operational excellence. At the same time, we’ve entered the age of cognitive computing, where intelligent machines evaluate complex data in new ways to help solve society’s most vexing problems.”
The pair goes on, “For the oil and gas industries, cognitive computing has arrived, and its potential to transform the industry is momentous. A new report from the IBM Institute for Business Value, “A New Natural Resource: Your Cognitive Future in the Oil and Gas Industry,”found that leaders are ready to invest in cognitive capabilities for a digital future in oil and gas. Oil and gas executives agree that cognitive computing has the potential to radically change the industry. Among those leaders familiar with the technology, 94 percent believe it will play a disruptive role in the industry, 83 percent believe it will critically impact the future of their business, and 91 percent intend to invest in cognitive capabilities.”
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