IBM Impact is IBM’s premier conference focussed on ‘IT and Business Leadership’. Traditionally this conference is owned and driven by the WebSphere brand in IBM Software Group. Over time, however, the focus has grown to include not just Business Process and integration, but also Mobile (from IBM MobileFirst), Cloud (from IBM PureSystems, Softlayer and C&SI brand), and the latest Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering for ‘composable’ applications and solutions – Codename: BlueMix. And of course, my favorite topic – DevOps!

IBM has been steadily investing in its Cloud portfolio. With the Softlayer acquisition last year, with the announcement and open beta of BlueMix this year and with the upcoming ‘Cloud Marketplace’ to be announced at Impact.

While Cloud will be a large topic of conversations and announcements at Impact, there will also be a big focus on Mobile and the API economy – two big areas of growth in today’s IT market. BlueMix has a large role to play in IBMs future in both these areas.

For DevOps enthusiasts, DevOps at Impact is a part of the Cloud track. With multiple sessions on DevOps on the Cloud and for the Cloud, filling the agenda. There will also be sessions on DevOps for Mobile and the value of DevOps for PureSystems customers.

Lets also not forget the #Mainframe50 celebrations that are in full swing. The 50 years of the Mainframe will be celebrated all over Impact and other IBM conferences.

Being a HUGE ‘House of Cards’ fan and a even bigger Kevin Spacey fan, I am looking forward to his talk on Wednesday morning. Always a breath of fresh air to hear from someone outside the IT industry and an IT conference. Let’s see if he can win over the nerds more than Peyton Manning did at IBM Pulse Last year.

</>Shameless self promotion:

My only session at Impact is: ‘DevOps 101: From the author of DevOps For Dummies’. I am co-presenting with Wai Lee, VP at Prudential Financial. Check us out on Wednesday morning at room Delfino 4003. </end>

I will be tweeting all thru #IBMImpact. Follow my tweets @sd_architect.