IBM announced that Deutsche Telekom, one of the world's leading providers of telecommunications and IT services, will implement the AI-powered solution IBM Concert. This solution aims to enable intelligent automation in patch management and the orchestration of security-related activities.
Deutsche Telekom has chosen IBM Concert for IT process automation.
IBM Concert provides AI-powered intelligent automation for patch management and security.
It aims to reduce patching time per instance from 90 minutes to 20 minutes.
A pilot achieved a 10x reduction in "Median Time To Patch" for critical vulnerabilities (80 to 8 hours).
The solution offers a single source of truth for vulnerability management and reporting.
This partnership enhances IT security, business risk management, and compliance for Deutsche Telekom.
Patches are a vital part of software lifecycle management, crucial for keeping systems secured, functional, and relevant. However, managing patches presents a significant challenge due to their sheer volume and complexity. IBM Concert is designed to help companies accelerate vulnerability protection in their IT systems while boosting operational efficiency, reducing costs, and improving response speed.
According to an IDC study, there will be one billion additional applications by 2028, largely driven by AI innovations. Even minor changes and updates require complex coordination across app owners, development, security, and operations teams to ensure smooth operation for millions of customers. The numerous manual steps in the end-to-end patching process increase the risk of errors.
Deutsche Telekom turned to IBM for a scalable approach to dramatically improve overall efficiency. The IBM Software Development Organization had developed IBM Concert specifically for this purpose, initially testing it internally as "Client Zero" to address similar complexity challenges.
IBM Concert provides Deutsche Telekom with intelligent resilience for complex IT operations. It acts as a single source of truth for vulnerability management, patching, and reporting. The solution consolidates all relevant data and specialized information, creating contextual insights that enable end-to-end AI-powered automation.
The fully automated patching process for operating systems is designed to reduce patching time from 90 minutes to a maximum of 20 minutes per instance. This dramatic time savings provides IT teams with new freedom for strategic tasks, innovations, and optimizations.
During the successful pilot implementation of IBM Concert, Deutsche Telekom achieved a remarkable 10x reduction in a key metric, "Median Time To Patch," decreasing it from 80 hours to just eight hours for critical vulnerabilities. This acceleration in patch rollout significantly increases IT security and improves business risk and compliance, enabling Deutsche Telekom to manage risks for its IT operations much more effectively.
“Secure operating systems form the foundation for all applications, databases, and services that we offer our customers. When it comes to patching, the time factor has taken on a critical role in the AI era. Those who use available updates immediately and automatically can reduce security risks. We face this challenge together with our partner,” explains Dr. Peter Leukert, Group CIO of Deutsche Telekom. “We were looking for a standalone solution on the market that combines all the complex aspects of patch management and reliably automates everything.”
Steve Canepa, Global Managing Director at IBM, added: “Security and trust are the cornerstones of success for all telecommunications companies. IBM Concert incorporates modern AI and automation technologies so that Deutsche Telekom can stay ahead of the dramatically escalating number and complexity of critical vulnerabilities across their Hybrid Cloud platform.”
Dinesh Nirmal, Senior Vice President IBM Software, stated: “By intelligently orchestrating and automating security-critical processes, clients like Deutsche Telekom can not only respond faster to new threats, but also use resources more efficiently using IBM Concert. In doing so, they are creating a solid foundation for a future-proof, scalable and highly secure IT operating model with the help of AI.”
IBM Concert is a comprehensive AI-powered automation solution using IBM watsonx that provides AI-driven recommendations and workflows to automate and optimize IT operations, including the patching process. IBM Concert:
Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies, with more than 261 million mobile customers, 25 million fixed-network lines, and 22 million broadband customers. Deutsche Telekom provides fixed-network/broadband, mobile communications, Internet, and IPTV products and services for consumers, and information and communication technology (ICT) solutions for business and corporate customers.
Deutsche Telekom IT GmbH (DTIT) is the IT company of choice of Deutsche Telekom Group. DTIT is responsible for the design, development and operation of all its own and transferred IT systems to support Deutsche Telekom's business processes. DTIT creates the basis for an integrated, cross-channel customer experience with Deutsche Telekom Group.
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.
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