IBM To Launch Localised App Development Platform

IBM is set to launch a Local version of its Bluemix cloud app development platform this year.
Announced at Interconnect 2015 in Las Vegas, Bluemix Local extends Bluemix into a company’s own data centre with “borderless visability and management across Bluemix environments”.

Bluemix was launched initially at the start of 2014, and is an app development service based on the open source architecture of Cloud Foundry. The Platform as a Service offering integrates with a plethora of IBM and third party APIs and services for the developer.

Super easy

The local version will be rolled out in the summer. Damian Heredia, VP of cloud platform services product management, said that it makes things “super easy” for developers to focus on the coding aspect of creating apps.

IBM said that by using the local service, in conjunction with IBM’s new enterprise containers, “solutions developed in a cloud environment could be brought to on-premises systems for executions, allowing many of the benefits of cloud computing to be realised for data that cannot be moved to cloud for processing for reasons of data sensitivity, size or performance.”

Essentially, the Bluemix Local platform allows firms to concentrate on developing locally, then deploy apps to the Bluemix cloud in true hybrid style.

Heredia said: “We got started trying to make it super easy for developers to focus on the code. If you wanted to build an app, you could do it on your laptop, bang out some code, and put it up to the IBM cloud.

“You focus on the code, we focus on running your app.”

Bluemix also exists as a dedicated service. Heredia added: “The enterprise needed different requirements based on performance, security, regulations, so that was when we launched dedicated.

“And now we’ve added Bluemix Local. It allows is to bring the cloud to the enterprise. Instead of giving you a piece of software to install, and saying ” good luck, you’ve got to run that on your own” we install it on top of your data centre, but we run it as a managed service with a service level agreement. You get to choose the services you want to. It’s all managed as one, and really brings the cloud to the enterprise.”

IBM is not disclosing the Bluemix Local pricing information.

How much do you know about apps? Take our quiz!