Mark III Recognized with 11 IBM Champions designations for 2019
Mark III Systems, the 2018 IBM Beacon Laureate Winner, is excited to announce that 9 Mark III’ers have been designated IBM Champions for 2019 by IBM, across 3 IBM brands: Power Systems (4 Champions), Storage (3 Champions), and Cloud (4 Champions).
The IBM Champion program recognizes external (non-IBMer) experts and thought leaders for their work with IBM products and communities and spans across all of IBM key areas, including Blockchain, Cloud, Collaboration, Data & Analytics, Security, Storage, Power, Watson IoT, and IBM Z. There is a total of 635 Champions worldwide for 2019 and those selected go through a rigorous nomination and screening process where only around 25-30% of those nominated are selected (or renewed) each year.
“The IBM Champion designation is the pinnacle of individual recognition of technical excellence for an IBM ecosystem partner or client,” said Stephen Rodriguez, Vice President at Mark III Systems and an IBM Champion for Power Systems. “It is an honor to be recognized both personally and collectively for our deep experience over the past 20 years and our focus on helping our clients both optimize and modernize their core applications, in addition to thriving in the new world of data-driven, digital transformation.”
For some perspective, when compared to the global IBM Champion ecosystem at-large, Mark III now has approximately 7% of all IBM Champions for Power Systems worldwide on staff (4 out of 64), in addition to around 7% of all IBM Champions for Storage (3 out of 44).
The industry-leading expertise of these Champions run the gambit, including:
-Building Data Oceans for unstructured and structured data for AI/Analytics/HPC with Spectrum Scale, ESS, Cloud Object Storage, Spectrum Computing, Spectrum Discover
-Modernizing and optimizing data storage stacks with IBM Spectrum Storage for agility, resiliency, high-availability, disaster recovery, and programmability for cloud-native and automation
-Data science skills and insights with our in-house data scientists relative to assisting clients with AI/Deep Learning frameworks, PowerAI, Analytics frameworks, visual analytics, pipelines, and more
-Modernizing and optimizing core IBM Power Systems stacks, including AIX, PowerHA, IBM i, and more
-IBM Cloud expertise, including Watson APIs, IoT, AI/DL frameworks, SaaS/PaaS/IaaS, DevOps, and server less strategies
“The future of digital enterprises, organizations, universities, and research institutions are all data-driven,” said Tim Medlin, Senior Systems Architect and IBM Champion for Storage. “The unique thing about what we’ve been doing at Mark III is the ability not only to make existing IT stacks better, but also weave these strategies in a coordinated way into a cohesive strategy to set the table for the future of AI, analytics, and cloud-native. The skills required to be successful in the future are very different than the past, and our Full Stack evolution has us uniquely positioned to make sure our clients and partners are successful, no matter their stage in transformation.”