IBM Issues Watson Mobile Developer Challenge

The IBM Watson supercomputer.

At Mobile World Congress this week in Barcelona IBM is encouraging mobile developers to create apps powered by Watson, Cisco's Quantum virtualized packet core has passed portability testing, and Radware announces a SDN and NFV solution strategy for mobile carriers and service providers. The Mobile World Congress Twitter conversation can be followed on #MWC2014.

IBM launches Watson mobile developer challenge.  IBM announced a global competition to encourage developers to create mobile consumer and business apps powered by its Watson supercomputer. The program, being driven by the newly formed IBM Watson Group, aims to encourage developers to spread cognitive computing apps into the marketplace.  The challenge will encourage developers around the world to build sophisticated cognitive apps that can change the way consumers and businesses interact with data on their mobile devices. Through this initiative, mobile developers can take advantage of Watson’s ability to understand the complexities of human language, "read" millions of pages of data in seconds and improve its own performance by learning. "The power of Watson in the palm of your hand is a game-changing proposition, so we're calling on mobile developers around the world to start building cognitive computing apps infused with Watson's intelligence," said Mike Rhodin, Senior Vice President, IBM Watson Group." Imagine a new class of apps that deliver deep insights to consumers and business users instantly - wherever they are - over the cloud. It's about changing the essence of decision making from 'information at your fingertips' to actual insights."

Cisco Quantum vPC demonstrates portability. Cisco (CSCO) announced that its Cisco Quantum Virtualized Packet Core (Quantum vPC) has passed portability testing with Berlin-based European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC). This first-of-a-kind functionality test emphasized that leading mobile Internet intelligence capabilities can be extended by service providers in their networks and allow them to offer a range of new services such as machine-to-machine (M2M) and sponsored data. Tests performed included LTE (4G) and 3G radio-access technologies using IPv4 and IPv6 and simulating the equivalent of 10,000 end users. The EANTC tests confirmed that the virtualized and physical evolved packet core (EPC) solution that supports the same features and functions as the Cisco Quantum vPC is completely hypervisor and hardware independent. “With all the discussions about virtualization in the industry these days, it is nice to see a vendor ready for independent verification,” said Carsten Rossenhövel, EANTC managing director. “We were able to verify Cisco’s claims that their new virtualized packet core is based on the same Cisco StarOS code and provides the same look and feel as their Cisco ASR 5000 Series.” Using a catalog of virtual functions such as the Cisco Quantum vPC and working in conjunction with the infrastructure, the Cisco Evolved Services Platform help ensure the right type of experience for end users regardless of how or where they connect to the network.

Radware announces next generation SDN and NFV Strategy for mobile. Radware (RDWR) announced a next-generation software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) solution strategy for mobile carriers and service providers. Radware’s new solution strategy leverages SDN and NFV to pioneer an integrated security and application delivery framework that seamlessly enables comprehensive cyber defense and service delivery as network-wide native services. The new product line for mobile carriers and service providers includes new control-plane and data-planes solutions such as DefenseFlow - a SDN DDoS offering, Alteon NFV - a NFV-compliant ADC VNFC, and SteerFlow - a service–delivery control-plane application. “Mobile carriers and service providers can greatly benefit from Radware’s deep working relationships with the SDN and NFV ecosystems as the company has played an integral role in defining standards and technologies in this area from the ground up,” said David Aviv, vice president of Advanced Services. “Through Radware’s new solutions strategy, mobile operators can seamlessly integrate applications to automate virtual data center workflows, communicate with SDN controllers, scale on by leveraging the NFV infrastructure, and much more.”