GK Software today announced it is collaborating with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to help clients adopt an edge computing strategy designed to enable them to move data and applications seamlessly across hybrid cloud environments, from private data centers to the edge. GK Software’s CLOUD4RETAIL hosted on IBM Cloud to help drive innovation and enhance the omnichannel experience.

CLOUD4RETAIL is GK Software’s flexible, open commerce platform providing services for the operation of integrated unified commerce environments from in-store and online touchpoints through to mobile devices. The platform is enriched by innovative services such as AI-based dynamic pricing, personalization, fraud detection, and mobile applications. Now optimized on IBM Cloud, the industry’s most secured and open public cloud for business, the extensive expansion and customization options of the various CLOUD4RETAIL services, can be used on a wide range of devices.

GK Software will also extend the deployment flexibility of CLOUD4RETAIL by adopting Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s leading enterprise Kubernetes platform, allowing customers to run GK solutions across hybrid environments – from on-premises to multi-cloud environments and at the edge.

A recent IBM Institute for Business Value report, "Why organizations are betting on edge computing: Insights from the edge," revealed that 91% of the 1,500 executives surveyed indicated that their organizations plan to implement edge computing strategies within five years. IBM Edge Application Manager, an autonomous management solution that runs on Red Hat OpenShift, enables the secured deployment, continuous operations and remote management of AI, analytics, and IoT enterprise workloads to deliver real-time analysis and insights at scale. With the introduction of Intel® Secure Device Onboard (SDO) and multi-tenant support based on Intel technology, the solution enables enterprises to manage up to 40,000 edge devices simultaneously per edge hub. IBM Edge Application Manager is the industry’s first solution powered by open-source project, Linux Foundation Open Horizon.

"We look forward to collaborating with GK Software to help clients deploy, operate and manage thousands of endpoints throughout their operations with IBM Edge Application Manager," said Evarsitus Mainsah, GM, IBM Hybrid Cloud and Edge Ecosystem. "Together, we can help enterprises accelerate their digital transformation by acting on insights closer to where their data is being created, at the edge."

Michael Scheibner, Chief Strategy Officer of GK Software, commented: "GK Software and IBM share a long partnership in the retail industry and many common customers. We are very pleased to accompany retailers on their transition to the cloud in cooperation with IBM. We believe that we can make an excellent offer for holistic omnichannel processes based on state-of-the-art technology, especially to long-standing IBM customers."

GK Software is part of IBM’s partner ecosystem, collaborating with more than 30 equipment manufacturers, networking, IT & software providers to implement open standards-based cloudnative solutions that can autonomously manage edge applications at scale. IBM’s partner ecosystem fuels hybrid cloud environments by helping clients manage and modernize workloads from baremetal to multicloud and everything in between with Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s leading enterprise Kubernetes platform.