Setting up the IBM Cloud account

As an IBM Cloud account owner or administrator, you sign up for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service, set up payment for services in the IBM Cloud account, and then add users to the account.

These steps describe the typical tasks for an IBM Cloud account owner to set up the account for an organization:

  1. Sign up for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.
  2. Set up a billable IBM Cloud account to provision paid service plans.
  3. (Optional) Configure restrictions for the account

Step 1: Sign up for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service

You can sign up for a free version of Cloud Pak for Data as a Service, to provision Lite plans of the core services. The core services of IBM Watson Studio, Watson Machine Learning, and Watson Knowledge Catalog, plus the Cloud Object Storage and Watson OpenScale services.

If you have already provisioned an instance of Watson Studio or Watson Knowledge Catalog, sign up for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service with the same IBM Cloud account to create Lite plans of the remaining core services.

Sign up for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service:

  1. Go to the Try Cloud Pak for Data as a Service page.
  2. Select the IBM Cloud service region.
  3. Log in if you have an existing IBM Cloud account. If you don't have an IBM Cloud account, create one.
  4. On the Select account screen, select the account and resource group where you want to use Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.

With a Lite account, you can try out Watson Studio and other services with limited functionality. To access the full functionality, upgrade to a billable account and then upgrade the services to an appropriate plan.

You must have a billable IBM Cloud account to provision billable service plans and to work with complete functionality. There are two types of billable accounts: Subscription and Pay-As-You-Go.

Subscription accounts

With subscriptions, you commit to a minimum spending amount for a certain period and receive a discount on the overall cost. Subscriptions are limited to service plans in the Cloud Pak for Data as a Service catalog. To purchase plans for other IBM Cloud services, set up a Pay-As-You-Go account.

Subscription credits are activated using a unique code that you will receive by email. To activate the subscription, you apply the subscription code to an account. Be careful when selecting the account, because once the subscription has been applied to an account, it cannot be undone.

To purchase subscription credits for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service, contact IBM Sales by filling out the subscription form. Click here to open the form: Subscription form.

If the form is not available, you can also open it from the Cloud Pak for Data as a Service dashboard:

  1. Log in to Cloud Pak for Data as a Service and then click Upgrade in the header or choose Administration > Account and billing > Account upgrade from the main menu.
  2. On the Account upgrade page, click Contact sales in the Subscription section.

Complete and submit the form to communicate with IBM Sales that you want to set up a subscription account for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.

An associate from IBM Sales will contact you to set up a subscription. When your subscription is ready, you will receive an email from IBM containing a unique subscription code.

Follow these steps to apply the subscription code to your account:

  1. Locate the unique code from the email that you received from IBM.
  2. Navigate to your IBM Cloud account, and select Manage > Account from the header. Be sure to select the correct account.
  3. Select Account settings and locate the Subscription and feature codes section on the page.
  4. Click Apply code.
  5. Copy and paste the code from the email into the Apply a code field and click Apply.

Your subscription account is active and you can provision billable services from the Cloud Pak for Data as a Service service catalog.

Pay-As-You-Go accounts

IBM Cloud accounts paid by credit card are called Pay-As-You-Go accounts. You pay only for billable services that you use, with no long-term contracts or commitments. You can provision plans for all services in the IBM Cloud services catalog, including plans in the Cloud Pak for Data as a Service services catalog.

To set up a Pay-As-You-Go account:

  1. Log in to Cloud Pak for Data as a Service and then click Upgrade in the header or choose Administration > Account and billing > Account upgrade from the main menu.
  2. On the Account upgrade page, click Enter credit card information in the Pay-As-You-Go section.
  3. Enter the information about your account, including your payment information.
  4. Click Create account to submit your information.

After your payment information is processed, your account is upgraded and you can access the full IBM Cloud catalog, including Cloud Pak for Data as a Service services. For billable services that you use beyond any free allowances, you receive a monthly invoice.

Step 3: (Optional) Configure restrictions for the account

Complete these optional tasks to secure your account:

Next steps