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IBM Garage helps Raise Green launch new digital platform using Red Hat OpenShift and IBM Cloud

ARMONK, N.Y. and SOMERVILLE, Mass., March 26, 2021 — IBM and Raise Green, an impact investment marketplace for clean energy projects, announced their collaboration to develop Raise Green’s software solution deployed using Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud, intended to empower any entrepreneur to start their own community solar energy businesses. Today marks the rollout of the latest Beta version of the Originator Engine, following the initial launch announced last year.

To help address the growing urgency of climate change, Raise Green came to IBM Global Business Services (GBS) with a need that the parties developed into the Originator Engine – a groundbreaking digital tool that customers, investors, and ecosystem partners can leverage to create, finance, build, and run new solar businesses.

“Everyone has a role to play in tackling climate change in an equitable way. Countries have committed to act, technologies are ready, and policies are moving in the right direction, but it’s not happening fast enough,” said Franz Hochstrasser, CEO and co-founder of Raise Green. “Raise Green is designed to empower communities tired of waiting for action on climate and social impact. IBM is helping us bring this innovation to life by designing a smooth user experience that makes starting a new business straightforward while enabling us to expand into areas beyond solar like template microgrids, energy efficiency, electric vehicle charging, urban farms, and affordable housing.”

Raise Green engaged IBM GBS to help build a digital experience that would empower climate entrepreneurs to start and finance their businesses and local climate projects by removing obstacles and equipping them with tools and resources. A team of IBM design and technology specialists worked with Raise Green to co-create, develop and deploy a proof-of-concept for the Originator Engine in just eight weeks through the IBM Garage – IBM’s approach to fast-tracking innovation at scale, to help transform organizations from the inside out. The Originator Engine uses Red Hat OpenShift and is deployed on IBM Cloud for all of Raise Green’s services. IBM Cloud is the industry’s most open and secure public cloud.

The Originator Engine combines multiple database standards, allows companies to create filings for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and offers investment opportunities through the Raise Green Investor Marketplace. The Originator Engine is designed to automate the process of creating and completing legal and financial documents by taking thousands of pages and converting them into streamlined and easy to use templates.

“The collaboration between Raise Green and IBM serves as a meaningful response to the question of how to get involved in the fight against climate change,” said Debbie Vavangas, Global Lead, IBM Garage. “To address the growing need for an innovative solution, Raise Green wanted to embrace cloud-based and agile methodologies which not only can accelerate the creation of a new digital experience for climate entrepreneurs but also gives Raise Green the flexibility to evolve digital capabilities for future growth.”

Suite of services can help organizations protect data, user identities, workloads and applications across dispersed cloud and on-premises systems

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 24, 2021 –Today, IBM  Security announced new and enhanced services designed to help organizations manage their cloud security strategy, policies and controls across hybrid cloud environments. The services bring together cloud-native, IBM and third-party technologies along with IBM expertise to help organizations create a unified security approach across their cloud ecosystems.

Organizations today are leveraging a mix of cloud and on-premises resources to achieve a balance of agility, security and cost savings for their business. While the flexibility of hybrid cloud can offer many benefits, many companies are challenged to maintain visibility and effectively manage the breadth of security controls across this dispersed IT environment. Cloud misconfigurations were a leading cause of data breaches according to the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report, accounting for nearly 1 in 5 data breaches studied.

Available today, the expanded suite of IBM Security Services for Cloud is designed to help companies adopt a consistent security strategy across their hybrid cloud environments – supported by IBM specialists with expertise to manage native security controls across Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Microsoft Azure, amongst others. IBM’s services can help companies assess current cloud security posture, as well as build and manage access, policies and technical controls to safeguard new and existing cloud resources. The services leverage AI and automation to help identify and prioritize risks, respond to potential threats across an organization’s cloud environments, and connect that data with their broader security operations and on-premises systems.

“Cloud security can appear daunting, with defenders facing an expansive attack surface, shared responsibility models and rapidly evolving cloud platforms and tools,” said Vikram Chhabra, Global Director, Offering Management and Strategy, IBM Security Services. “We cannot assume that legacy approaches for security will work in this new operating model – instead, security should be modernized specifically for the hybrid cloud era, with a strategy based on zero trust principles that bring together context, collaboration and visibility across any cloud environment.”

Combining Technology and Expertise to Simplify Cloud Security

IBM Security Services for Cloud offer an open, automated approach to help simplify hybrid cloud security – bringing together cloud-agnostic security expertise together with an integrated set of cloud, proprietary and third-party technology solutions. The services can support clients in any stage of their cloud security journey; from advising organizations on how to move data, users and workloads to the cloud, to providing continual risk monitoring and threat management of their existing hybrid cloud architecture.

The new and enhanced services include:

• Cloud Native Security Services: New advisory and managed security services that can provide centralized visibility, management and monitoring of native security controls across all cloud environments – helping reduce the risk of cloud misconfigurations, while providing insights into potential risks and threats. IBM specialists can help design and implement security practices for cloud-native controls based on specific business and regulatory requirements, and provide ongoing monitoring and reporting on how configurations are being optimized across the company.
• Cloud Security Posture Management: New advisory and managed security services can help clients design and implement a cloud security posture management solution (CSPM) to address governance and compliance across cloud service providers. These new services can offer a single solution for compliance and governance policy framework design, CSPM system integration and managed services – providing actionable recommendations and automation to help address compliance-related issues, as well ongoing monitoring and remediation activities.
• Container Security:  Security services for clients’ container environments, from consulting and systems integration to threat management, vulnerability management and managed security services for the full container lifecycle. This newly enhanced service includes:
  • IBM consultants can assess existing container environments, analyze DevSecOps processes, review application design and solution requirements, and help clients build a roadmap for future deployments.
  • IBM Managed Security Services can provide centralized visibility, management, and monitoring of containers through a single dashboard – across images, registries, orchestrators and cloud service providers.
  • Integration with IBM Security X-Force Red vulnerability management can help identify, analyze and rank thousands of container-related vulnerabilities within client environments in order to prioritize remediation.
• Cloud Security Strategy: Enhanced advisory services for hybrid, multi-cloud security assessment and strategy, based on industry frameworks such as CSA Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM). The services can now help organizations assess the security posture of cloud workloads and services, including recommendations to address risks. Using proprietary techniques, the services can deliver a customized strategy and security maturity roadmap tailored to specific client business and regulatory needs.

These services build on IBM’s existing capabilities and expertise to support clients’ cloud security journeys. IBM X-Force Threat Management Services can help clients manage the lifecycle of security threats across detection, investigation and response. IBM also offers security services for Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB,) which helps organizations protect cloud environments through an integrated approach in planning and implementing a CASB solution.

For information about IBM Security Services for Cloud, visit: www.ibm.com/security/services/cloud-security-services

Additional Resources:

• The IBM Security Services Cloud Assessment tool can help organizations measure their cloud security maturity and quantify risk.
• IBM will host a webinar on April 1 to review strategic and operational considerations for cloud security.

HCL Connections v7 Is Here

Staying connected at work is more critical than ever. Speed and efficiency are paramount, and communication is more and more vital. You can’t afford to get this wrong. The latest version of HCL Connections is here and it helps teams and organizations overcome workplace challenges and helps create solutions better than ever before.

HCL Connections v7 provides the structure to close information and communication gaps. It drives efficiencies for teams that are working remotely and enables employees to get project teams up and running more quickly, to interact more seamlessly with other team applications, and drastically reduce deployment and upgrade cycles. Connections keeps project teams connected, helps manage communication around strategy and shifting business focus. And it helps promote a strong sense of community for employees — especially important as we work through the last months of this global pandemic.  Unlike other collaboration platforms that require tiresome toggling between application silos, HCL Connections delivers an intuitive experience that delivers team content, news, conversations, and project tasks all in one place.

HCL Connections v7 lets you deliver these innovations and more:

• Jumpstart your project teams and make success repeatable: get your teams up and running 80% faster with new, easy-to-use set-up Community wizard and templates built upon your best practices. Templates save time and help drive increased consistency that promotes successful results.  
• Integrate the power of HCL Connections with Microsoft 365® eco-system: leverage the value of your Connections people-powered communities and content into your Microsoft applications. Readily access and share critical knowledge, conversations, and content in your communities. Make teamwork more seamless — built-in integration amplifies team communication, decision velocity, and productivity. Accelerate discovery and decision-making and remove boundaries with one–click access to content, conversations, and expertise.  
• Reduce IT costs and headaches with cloud–native support: deploy powerful new features 90% faster with component pack and cloud native support. Deploying and upgrading is dramatically faster and easier with new component pack installation scripts which automate deployment. Easily deploy the latest functionality with a cloud-native version of Component Pack (Amazon EKS and RedHat OpenShift).

Connections enables a structured, collaborative approach for teams to get their work done. It offers a seamless work experience and the flexibility to work anywhere, anytime. People power your business. Connections v7 powers your people.