IBM’s most important priority during the COVID-19 crisis is the health and safety of IBMers, our partners and clients.

We are working in our communities and with government agencies on response efforts. At the same time, we’re working hard to support the many companies around the world that have been forced to make extraordinary shifts in the way they conduct daily business. We’re hearing and seeing firsthand from clients who are now grappling with the reality that most, if not all, of their workforces are conducting business from home.

I’d like to offer some insight into how IBM Cloud and our other business units are supporting clients to ensure they can continue to drive global business forward. 

Our Commitment

First, our teams are committed to working with organizations around the world to address their needs in this extraordinary time and help them tap into the power of our many services and applications so they can maintain productivity in remote work environments. Because our clients rely on our cloud environments to handle increased workloads, for example, our team is scaling up capacity in our public cloud for customers.

We’re also offering guidance from our industry subject-matter experts on how to maintain the same level of productivity with data-intensive projects. And we’re providing access to our extensive network of ecosystem partners. We have the broadest selection of open-source tooling, and our cloud provides the much-needed resiliency and security clients need to succeed in this challenging period. Our experienced professionals are also personally helping our customers quickly recover and get back on the path to growth and success.

Free Access to an Array of Vital Services

To further ease businesses’ burden during this difficult period, IBM is also providing free offerings that span cloud-enabled AI, data, security, integration, video and more via the IBM public cloud. These offers include:

• IBM Cloud is offering no-cost options to help our customers maintain business continuity while migrating to remote work environments, including IBM Cloud Virtual Server configurations.
• IBM Aspera is offering new clients free, 90-day access to its cloud service for high-speed file sharing and team collaboration. 
• IBM Security is offering a number of solutions and extended, no-charge access to technologies to help clients alter their operations and security programs to protect remote employees, protect themselves from cybersecurity criminals who might try to exploit on COVID-19 uncertainty, and address critical security needs. 
• IBM Video Streaming and IBM Enterprise Video Streaming solutions are available for free, 90-day access for new customers to stream events to public audiences up to 20,000 viewer hours or to stream to up to 20,000 authenticated users for one event per week.
• IBM Sterling is offering free, 90-day access to solutions to help navigate the challenges stemming from supply chain disruptions, such as managing medical supplies, COVID-19 testing kits, and migrating retailers to a BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick-up In Store) strategy. 
• IBM Blueworks Live is offering free, 90-day access to help clients facilitate remote collaboration with stakeholders and distribute new or changing processes to their workforce.
• IBM Automation Workstream Services is offering a free 90-day subscription to help managers and employees automate processes, communicate new and revised procedures, and manage and track approvals.  
• IBM Cloud Event Management is offering free, 90-day access to help teams cut through event noise to prioritize, diagnose, assign and resolve incidents from a single service. 
• Remote Learning Resources including free access to IBM Video Streaming for new K-12 education organizations, as alternatives are put in place for nearly a billion children around the world who have seen their schools close as a result of COVID-19.
• IBM Garage is using its expertise and the IBM Garage Methodology to remotely help clients address their emerging business requirements during this time. Access to all resources on our Enterprise Design Thinking site is temporarily free.
• IBM has also announced “watsonx Assistant for Citizens,” an AI-powered virtual agent that governments and healthcare agencies can use free of charge for at least 90 days to put the most trusted data and reliable information on COVID-19 into the hands of their constituents.
• To maintain business continuity, IBM Cloud Integration Expert Labs is offering our existing Cloud Integration clients access to remote consulting for 90 days and 30 days of the IBM Cloud Individual Learning Subscription at no charge.

As the work environment evolves in these difficult times, we’ll continue to evaluate ways we can ease the burdens our clients are facing so they can focus on driving their businesses forward.

Keep the conversation going. Join your peers in the public cloud community.