Big Data Innovation Hubs Brought To UK By IBM And STFC

IBM and the Science & Technology Facilities Council [STFC] have teamed up to create a Big Data innovation hub that gives companies the chance to solve problems and gain an advantage over competitors.

The STFC’s Hartree Centre, where the hub is located, uses IBM Big Data and Analytics technology to help organisations find value in their data and then create a system that meets their business needs.

“As we see the ‘Internet of Things’ evolving with many more connected devices, we believe Big Data Analytics technology can be applied to developing new products and services for other areas. The work we have done with STFC is a great example of this,” said Dixit Shah, Big Data and Analytics Leader, IBM UK and Ireland.

Companies that choose to use the innovation hub can take advantage of advanced computational and data analytics facilities in addition to a team of data scientists that are on hand to help at every step. Once a firm has completed a proof of concept the STFC team will help to bring their operational Big Data Analytics system to life.

At the centre of the STFC IBM Big Data and Analytics environment is IBM’s Infosphere BigInsights offering that has enterprise grade Hadoop for data processing, warehousing and analytics. It is complemented by IBM Watson Explorer for Big Data analytics, IBM Business Analytics and Big Data reporting and visualisation.

STFC has already started working to help a number of industries realise the value of a Big Data technology with a solutions and skills service to help towards the final system implementation. These companies include construction firm Democrata, KnowHow Information, global healthcare firm GSK, and various other healthcare providers.

“We have a great track record of delivering high performance computing services to industry developing algorithms and complex models that are used to create new products faster and cheaper. This collaboration in data analytics provides an obvious and exciting extension opening up our skills to a wider audience of businesses,” said Lee Hannis, business development manager at the Hartree Centre.

The  Hartree Centre is based inside the STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory in North West England that is located at the Sci-Tech Daresbury national science and innovation campus.

Image Credit: Flickr (Martin)