Signing up for a personal Cloud Pak for Data as a Service account

An IBMid for an IBM Cloud account is required to sign up for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service. To sign up for an account, you enter your email address, personal information, and credit card information. You are charged only if you upgrade to a billable plan and then consume billable services. Lite plans do not incur charges.

The free version of Cloud Pak for Data as a Service includes free plans of the core services. The core services are IBM watsonx.ai Studio, watsonx.ai Runtime, IBM Knowledge Catalog, DataStage, Watson OpenScale, and an instance of Cloud Object Storage.

To sign up for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service:

1. Go to Try Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.
2. Select the IBM Cloud service region closest to where you work, or the region that your administrator told you to choose.
3. Enter your IBM Cloud account username and password. 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. If you belong to an account with existing services, you can select it instead of your account. The Select account screen does not display if you have only one account and resource group.
5. Click Continue. The account activation process begins.

After the activation process completes, your Cloud Pak for Data as a Service home page appears.

Watch this video to see how to sign up for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.

This video provides a visual method to learn the concepts and tasks in this documentation.

• Transcript
  Synchronize transcript with video

  Video transcript

  Time	Transcript
  00:00	This video shows you how to try out IBM Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.
  00:06	Cloud Pak for Data as a Service is a set of platform services that are fully managed on IBM Cloud, including: watsonx.ai Studio (Watson Studio), IBM Knowledge Catalog, and watsonx.ai Runtime (Watson Machine Learning).
  00:20	At dataplatform.cloud.ibm.com, you can sign up for an account.
  00:27	First, select the region closest to where you plan on hosting your data and services.
  00:35	When you sign up for a Cloud Pak for Data account, you are automatically signed up for an IBM Cloud account.
  00:43	If you already have an IBM Cloud account, then use your IBM ID to sign up for Cloud Pak for Data.
  00:52	Otherwise, type your email address, which will be used to create an IBM Cloud account for you.
  00:59	First, provide a secure password that meets the criteria.
  01:05	Next, you will receive an email with a seven-digit verification code.
  01:11	Copy the code from the email and paste it on the registration form.
  01:17	Provide your information.
  01:22	Review the terms and conditions and then create the account.
  01:29	Then, review and agree to the privacy policy.
  01:35	Then, you will see the process create the IBM Cloud Pak for Data user account using your IBM Cloud credentials.
  01:43	And finally, you'll see that your account was successfully created.
  01:51	This account has only one associated IBM Cloud account and one resource group.
  01:58	If you have more than one associated account, or one account with multiple resource groups, then during the Cloud Pak for Data account set up, you'll see this screen giving you the option to select an account and resource group to use.
  02:15	IBM Cloud uses resource groups as a way for you to organize your account resources in customizable groupings, so that you can quickly assign users access to more than one resource at a time.
  02:29	If you are a member of more than one Cloud account, be sure to select the correct account when working in Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.
  02:38	The services that are available to you, and your access roles for features, are determined by the current Cloud account.
  02:47	Now you're ready to start working in IBM Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.
  02:52	To help you get started, take the tutorial.
  02:57	Find more videos in the Cloud Pak for Data as a Service documentation.

Bookmark your home page so that you can go directly to the Cloud Pak for Data as a Service site for your region to log in with your personal credentials:

• Dallas (US South)
• London (United Kingdom)
• Frankfurt (Germany)
• Tokyo (AP-North)

If you're in your own account, you have the necessary permissions for complete access to add services, projects, and catalogs. You can access another account by switching to that account.

To set up an account for your organization, so that other users can share services and resources, see Set up an account for your organization.

Signing up for your organization's Cloud Pak for Data as a Service account

Before you can join Cloud Pak for Data as a Service, you must be a member of your organization's IBM Cloud account. Account administrators can invite users to join their organization's Cloud account. Users receive an email invitation and complete a sign-up process.

The administrator provides the following information:

• The IBM Cloud account name for Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.
• The resource group name for the Cloud Pak for Data as a Service account.
• The IBM Cloud service region.

You receive an email from IBM Cloud with the title "You are invited to join an account in IBM Cloud." with the name of the account.

1. Click the Join now link. The expiry is 30 days.

2. You are asked to log in with your IBMid. IBMids are assigned to IBM Cloud account members. If you don't have an IBMid, one is created for you when you join.

3. Continue to the next screen and confirm that your information is correct, then accept the invite.

4. Login in from the Welcome screen. You are now logged in to the IBM Cloud account.

5. Click Catalog and search for Cloud Pak for Data. Choose Get started as a service to open Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.

6. Choose the correct account in the dropdown menu by your avatar to begin working.

You can see the name of the account you are currently working in on the menu bar.

Switching to your organization's account

You can switch to your organization's existing IBM Cloud account (or any other account for which you are a member) to share Cloud Pak for Data as a Service services and resources that are provisioned for that account.

If you are not already an account member, the account administrator must invite you to the IBM Cloud account. You receive an email invitation to join the account. After you accept the invitation, you can access the account and Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.

To switch to your organization's account:

1. Log in to Cloud Pak for Data as a Service with your personal credentials.
2. Click the Account Switcher in the home page header.
3. Select your organization's account name from the account list.
4. Optional: For wider browsers, select the account from the dropdown menu.

To switch regions:

1. Click the Region Switcher in the home page header.
2. Select the region that contains your services and projects.
3. Optional: For wider browsers, select the region from the dropdown menu.

Logging in to Cloud Pak for Data as a Service through IBM Cloud App ID (beta)

IBM Cloud App ID integrates user authentication on IBM Cloud with user registries that are hosted on other identity providers. If App ID is configured for your IBM Cloud account, your administrator provides an alias to log in to Cloud Pak for Data as a Service. With App ID, you do not need to sign in to IBM Cloud. Instead, you log in to Cloud Pak for Data as a Service with the App ID alias.

You cannot switch accounts when logging in through App ID.

To log in with App ID:

1. Click https://dataplatform.cloud.ibm.com to open Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.
2. Choose to log in with App ID (Beta).
3. Enter the alias that was provided to you by your administrator. You are redirected to your company's login page.
4. Enter your company credentials on your company's login page. You are redirected back to Cloud Pak for Data as a Service.

Select the Remember App ID checkbox to save the App ID alias for future logins.

Next steps

Go back to Get started and choose the right path for you.

Learn more

• Get help
• Browser support
• Setting up IBM Cloud App ID (beta)

Parent topic: Getting started