IBM's virtual Think conference today proferred a set of new offerings built on Red Hat OpenShift, which will allow enterprises to autonomously manage workloads across a massive volume of edge devices.

Rob Thomas, senior vice president, Cloud and Data Platform at IBM. said: "The convergence of 5G, edge computing, and hybrid multicloud is redefining how businesses operate -- speeding innovation, creating better user experiences, and improving employee and customer engagement. IBM is helping enterprises unlock the full potential of these technologies, with new offerings that draw upon the power of Red Hat OpenShift and our depth of industry expertise to provide the flexibility and choice enterprises need to innovate anywhere -- all the way out to the edge."

The announcement covers a range of solutions including IBM Edge Application Manager -- an autonomous management solution designed to enable AI, analytics and IoT enterprise workloads to be deployed and remotely managed. The solution enables the management of up to 10,000 edge nodes simultaneously by a single administrator. It’s the first solution to be powered by a breakthrough open source project, Open Horizon, created by IBM engineers designed to enable a single person to securely manage a vast network of edge devices.

There's also IBM Telco Network Cloud Manager -- a new solution that runs on Red Hat OpenShift, to deliver intelligent automation capabilities to orchestrate virtual and container network functions. Service providers will have the ability to manage workloads on both Red Hat OpenShift and on the Red Hat OpenStack Platform, which will be critical as telcos increasingly look for ways to modernize their networks for greater agility and efficiency, and to provide new services today and as 5G adoption expands.

There are shedloads of edge-enabled applications and services, including IBM Visual Insights, IBM Maximo Production Optimisation, IBM Connected Manufacturing, IBM Asset Optimisation, IBM Maximo Worker Insights, and IBM Visual Inspector. All offer features to give clients the flexibility to deploy AI and cognitive applications and services at scale.

The IBM Edge Ecosystem and Telco Network Cloud Ecosystem are aimed at bringing together a set of partners across the telecommunications industry to offer a breadth of network functionality. Providers include Cisco, Dell Technologies, Juniper, Intel, Nvidia, Samsung, Vodafone Business and more, many already working with IBM to deliver edge technologies.