IBM and Amazon.com's Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced on Monday that they would collaborate to expand the reach of a collection of tools that oil firms use to manage various sorts of data.
In 2018, Amazon teamed up with Royal Dutch Shell to develop technology that converts data from more than a century of oil production, mostly based on paper records, into a common format that global oil corporations can use to increase efficiency across their operations.
This comprehensive solution is based on Red Hat OpenShift and will run on the AWS Cloud, allowing clients to execute workloads both on-premises and in the cloud.
IBM and Amazon also plan to collaborate on future capability development to give OSDU users more flexibility and choice in where they execute their apps.
The technology is open-source and only works in cloud computing data centers, but it is being shared across the industry. Some oil-producing countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Nigeria, do not have Amazon data centers and instead make it compulsory for businesses to store their data within their borders.
The energy industry is under pressure to cut greenhouse gas emissions as demand for inexpensive energy continues to climb, an IBM and Reuters whitepaper sponsored by IBM shows.
Energy companies want solutions that help them achieve savings in order to free up funds, time, and resources to invest in future research and development of new, more sustainable energy sources.
Digital technology can assist with this change, but based on an IBM report, just about half of oil and gas executives are utilizing data to drive innovation.
IBM and Amazon both stated that they were working collaboratively to remedy the issue. Oil businesses can employ oil-industry cloud data tools in their privately-held data centers within their countries, thanks to IBM's OpenShift technology.
In an interview, Manish Chawla, IBM's global managing director for energy, resources, and manufacturing, stated, "The data residency need is practically 50% of the oil-producing countries today."
Expanding the reach of the data tools would also enable oil companies to add non-petroleum assets like wind and solar to their portfolios, Bill Vass, vice president of engineering at AWS, said. Renewable energy producers must be aware of their output at various locations and times, he noted.
IBM and AWS will work together to enhance this platform's value for global customers. Ultimately, this combined effort aims to help energy companies today adapt to change amid energy transition in a flexible manner.
