IBM 2009 Annual Report Download - page 8

As the new decade begins, some in our industry
still seem to believe that history will repeat itself —
for example, that clients will invest in IT simply
because of product upgrade cycles. Once again, we
have a different view. We believe that clients will
only invest in what delivers compelling, quantiable
business value. We believe that the fundamental
shifts I described earlier will continue to play out,
and that they create a unique opportunity for IBM.
And because of the way we have managed the
company during the economic downturn, we have
the exibility to take advantage of this opportunity,
and to invest for growth.
Our investments in 2010 are focused on four
high-potential opportunities.
1. Growth Markets
IBM has among the broadest global footprints of
any corporation or institution. We serve clients
in more than 170 countries around the world, and
we have been deeply established within myriad
local economies and cultures for decades.
Our Growth Markets unit, established in 2008, is
helping to capture the highest-growth opportunities
of the world’s emerging economies. Since 2005,
these markets have expanded their contribution
to IBM’s geographic revenue by a point a year,
growing at least 8 points faster than major markets
over the last three years.
Going forward, both mature and emerging
markets are building out and integrating their
physical and digital infrastructures, and in fusing
the resulting systems with intelligence. More
than $2 trillion in scal stimulus has already been
earmarked by governments around the world.
We are uniquely positioned to benet from these
large business and technology opportunities, and
we are pursuing them aggressively in 2010.
2. Analytics
Data is being captured today as never before —
both from the so-called Internet of Things (head-
ing toward trillions of connected objects) and from
hundreds of millions of individuals using social
media. In just three years, IP trafc is expected to
total more than half a zettabyte. (That’s a trillion
gigabytes — or 1 followed by 21 zeroes.) And this
data no longer consists merely of text and numbers.
It includes rich media of all kinds, from video and
audio, to images, avatars, simulations and applica-
tions. Thirty percent of the data in the world today
consists of medical images alone.
All this information — the knowledge of the
world, the ow of markets, the pulse of societies —
can now be turned into insight through sophisticated
mathematical models, also known as analytics.
Where once we inferred, now we know. Where once
we interpolated and extrapolated, now we can
determine. The historical is giving way to the real-
time, and even the predictive.
IBM is moving quickly to capitalize on this
promise. We have built the industry’s premier
analytics practice, with 4,000 consultants, mathema-
ticians and researchers, as well as leading-edge
software capabilities — bolstered by key acquisitions
such as Cognos and SPSS. Our new Business
Analytics and Optimization service line targets
the highest-growth opportunities by delivering
integrated analytics solutions based on the needs
of specic industries.
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