IBM is introducing several new services on Bluemix., IBM’s cloud development platform, designed to help developers create analytics-driven cloud applications.
The services announced today, will make it easier for developers to create cloud applications for mobile, Internet of Things (IoT), supply chain analytics and intelligent infrastructure solutions. They will be added to over 100 services already available in the Bluemix catalog, which includes complementary analytics tools from IBM such as those found in the recently unveiled IoT Zone and Watson Zone.
Created on open technologies that allow developers to build, run and manage cloud applications and services with more flexibility, Bluemix enables developers to mix and match different services and tools that best fit their strategy. IBM launched Bluemix with a $1 billion investment in 2014; since then, it has become the largest Cloud Foundry deployment in the world and is growing at over 8,000 new users per week.
“Open by design is at the core of cloud innovation, not proprietary technologies or virtual silos; this is why we have long pushed for open standards alongside leading organizations like Cloud Foundry since their inception,” said Angel Diaz, vice president of IBM Cloud Architecture & Technology. “Collaboration across platforms and services is crucial in order to continue the tremendous growth of the overall cloud market.”
IBM added more of its own technology into Bluemix, including:
· Bluemix API Management allows developers to rapidly create, deploy, and share large scale APIs and provides a simple and consumable way of controlling critical APIs not possible with simpler connector services.
· New mobile capabilities available on Bluemix for the IBM MobileFirst Platform, which provide the ability to develop location-based mobile apps that connect insights from digital engagement and physical presence.
Among the ecosystem and third-party services being announced today are:
· Public availability of .NET Runtime and open sourcing of .NET Buildpack that grants developers in any Cloud Foundry based environment the ability to leverage Microsoft’s development capabilities, making it easier to integrate multiple cloud workloads.
· Cupenya Insights provides an analytics foundation that allows developers to connect and monitor business activities across several Bluemix applications, define key performance indicators and receive performance overview of the entire business process or supply chain.
· Namara.io platform by Think Data Works aggregates available open data in a single portal that organizes and catalogues it to provide access to high-value insight needed in public sector apps.
· flowthings.io by Flow Corporation collects real-time data and provides complex event processing, and data delivery that makes it easier to integrate applications with almost any software or device in the Internet of Things space.
· Reappt is an intelligent data streaming service by Push Technology, providing tools to quickly and easily distribute data to customers using cloud-based solutions.
Underscoring developer choice and skill development of open source technologies as key tenets of cloud innovation, IBM is supporting the expansion of independent Cloud Foundry Dojo’s by establishing the first IBM Cloud Foundry Dojo, located in Raleigh, NC. The IBM Cloud Foundry Dojo will be a physical place open to all developers where IBM will help accelerate skills on the Cloud Foundry Code base and mentor developers to dramatically increase the number of code committers to Cloud Foundry.
IBM already has 12 Dojo graduates on its team, and a dedicated team of 9 full time developers to work solely on Cloud Foundry as official committers from IBM on a number of key projects including Elastic Runtime, Diego, Services, BOSH, CLI and Eclipse Tools for Cloud Foundry.
IBM also recently announced IBM Containers, a Docker-based container service delivered on Bluemix that includes open Docker-native features and interfaces, including the new Docker orchestration services. The IBM Containers service will enable enterprises to launch Docker containers directly onto the IBM Cloud on bare metal servers from SoftLayer. With this technology, developers have an environment that is simpler to manage and offers increased utilization and performance in a more flexible execution model, expanding the types of applications that can be supported on the IBM Cloud.
IBM total cloud revenue—covering public, private and hybrid engagements—was $7.7 billion over the previous 12 months at the end of March 2015; it grew more than 60 percent in first quarter 2015. IBM’s cloud delivered as a service business, a subset of the total, includes PaaS.
