IBM Joins Ionic For Mobile Business App Development

IBM is strengthening its push into the mobile workplace with a partnership with Ionic mobile app development tool will be combined with Big Blue’s MobileFirst platform.

The partners claim Ionic’s drag-and-drop and open-source approach to app design is so easy to use that even business users with little to no software development skill will be able to create prototype apps in just minutes.

The thinking is that this tool will give businesses potentially valuable opportunities to expand their mobility solutions. IBM apparently values Ionic’s open source front-end SDK for developing hybrid mobile apps with HTML5.

App Development

“Ionic offers a library of standards-based tools including Ionic Creator to build and publish highly interactive apps in an intuitive, visual environment that runs across multiple mobile platforms,” said IBM.

The idea is that when the above is combined with the IBM MobileFirst Platform, businesses will instantly gain a mobile app development solution.

“Teaming with IBM benefits our customers by expanding engagement with enterprise business users who don’t need a technical background to access the integration and quality assurance capabilities necessary to develop high quality apps,” said Max Lynch, co-founder and CEO, Ionic. “With close to one million developers using Ionic, we have a rapidly expanding base of users who understand the value of open standards to increase velocity around mobile innovation.”

For businesses, this approach is attractive especially as it potentially closes any skills gaps they have in their organisation. It also allows them to quickly build apps in response to business demand.

“IBM and Ionic are helping organisations increase revenues and employee productivity by enabling them to overcome challenges that could hamstring their mobile strategies – such as large mobile app backlogs and lack of skill sets,” said Angel Diaz, VP, cloud architecture and technology at IBM. “This agreement empowers organisations to quickly expand their app portfolios and benefit from open standards to enable developers to complete the last enterprise mile – making apps secure, integrated and easy to manage.”

Mobility Focus

IBM is increasingly focused on the enterprise mobility market, having first revealed the MobileFirst Platform back in early 2013.

In July 2014, it signed a notable deal with iPad maker Apple to bring its cloud, analytics and mobile management services to iOS. It also agreed to supply customers with iPhones and iPads running industry-specific applications.

Five months later in December 2014, the first applications developed as part of IBM and Apple’s partnership became available to customers in the transport, finance and retail sectors, along with software designed for government organisations.

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