IBM opens 'elite' IT lab in Brazil

IBM has launched its sixth "SWAT team"--this time in South America.

The High Performance Software and Services Lab (HiPOD) in Sao Paulo, Brazil, opened on Tuesday.

IBM's HiPODs generally are staffed with 40 to 50 software engineers, developers and niche specialists who deal with issues such as capacity management problems and large customer infrastructures.

The company considers these "elite IT specialists" to be the "SWAT teams" or "Navy Seals" within IBM, said Mike Azzi, a spokesman for IBM Emerging Technologies & Global Communications.

"You need this mission accomplished; you call them in...Even IBM Global Services kicks things over to these labs. They focus on a lot of first-of-a-kind work, solving problems that have never been solved in terms of both size and complexity," Azzi said.

Although the HiPODs are available to any IBM client that has an unprecedented problem, they usually assist large companies with sophisticated systems. Visa, eBay and Charles Schwab, for example, have used their services.

In particular, IBM expects the Sao Paulo lab to provide solutions for the emerging South American telecommunications, banking and financial industries, whose rapid growth has been causing volume spikes in their systems, said Azzi. A global grid, however, allows HiPOD team members from each of the six labs to work together on specific problems spanning different physical locations.

The other HiPODs operate in China, India, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The labs were officially launched in 2002 out of a specialized Silicon Valley team within IBM that had begun tackling particularly difficult problems in the late 1990s, Azzi said.

[Captain_Spock]

"In particular,....

... IBM expects the Sao Paulo lab to provide solutions for the emerging South American telecom, banking and financial industries, whose rapid growth has been causing volume spikes in their systems,..."; it will be very interesting to see how the company (IBM) shapes up against companies like Microsoft and SAP who are also fierce competitors in the "banking and financial industries".

[Captain_Spock]

Spock's "Delta Force One" to IBM's "Seal Team" One!

... are there any signs that OS/2's are still "alive" deep down in banking and financial systems inside the Amazon Jungles! If so, why not port "Sametime" to it so that events like the Show-Down that took place at The OK Coral can be BEAMED in real-time! ;-)

[Captain_Spock]

Did this article mention....

..."banking and financial industries" that operate in South America? Wow!, how about this one for size:

http://www.iadb.org

Now, a word of caution for those IBM "Seals"; watch out for those "piranhas" and "jaguars" that make the rivers and jungles in the Amazon their homes - do not fall over-board or you might just disappear. WOW!