IBM Acquires UrbanCode For Software Delivery Automation
IBM has beefed up its Rational toolset for software developers after the acquisition of UrbanCode
Moreover, “There was 54 percent of the companies who said they believe software is critical and 32 percent who called it moderately important – so that’s 86 percent of the respondents saying software is either critical or moderately important and that points to the need for better tooling for software development and delivery,” said Randy Newell, director of capabilities marketing for IBM Software Group with a focus on the Rational brand. 
“UrbanCode’s primary solution is its application release automation (ARA) software which speeds the delivery of software updates, fixes, etc.,” Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, told eWEEK. “That makes it a good fit for IBM’s SmartCloud and Worklight platforms, where the company says UrbanCode will first be used. But the enhanced speed and automation of UrbanCode could improve a variety of IBM’s commercial offerings, like its Rational DevOps solutions. Plus, it should also beneficially impact the company’s internal processes. People tend to forget that IBM employs tens of thousands of developers – last time I heard, a couple of years ago, the total was north of 40,000. So the value of a deal like UrbanCode can extend beyond its direct impact on the bottom line to how it will enhance the performance and efficiency of IBM’s own product development processes.” IBM plans to continue to support UrbanCode clients and enhance their technologies while allowing these organizations to take advantage of the broader IBM portfolio.
Application Deployment
UrbanCode makes uDeploy, an application deployment automation tool, and announced uBuild, an enterprise class build automation tool. The company’s other products include uRelease, uProvision, Terraform and AnthillPro. In January, UrbanCode announced it had reached record numbers in 2012, with over 100 percent growth in sales, and over 55 percent growth in the number of employees. As a result, the company increased sales projections for 2013. Zawadzki said companies who frequently build, deploy, and release applications have recognised the cost-effectiveness of taking a DevOps approach to application lifecycle management (ALM), and are realising the need for tools that help them achieve maximum benefits. “Clearly the whole release cycle of mobile and cloud software is different than ‘traditional’ systems,” said Jonathan Yarmis, principal analyst at the Yarmis Group. “We used to have plenty of time to plan rollouts over the course of weeks and even months, and did it only once a year if that. With cloud and mobile release cycles often being measured in weeks, it’s imperative that testing and deployment cycles be radically streamlined. While this may be thought of as leading edge today, it will be the norm by the end of the year. Things are changing that fast.” Meanwhile, “UrbanCode took a leadership position in 2012 by offering a comprehensive DevOps tool chain,” Zawadzki said in a statement. “The plan for 2013 is for continued product leadership with significant enhancements to uDeploy, uBuild, uRelease, and the introduction of uProvision in order to round-out our family of DevOps tools.” UrbanCode’s DevOps tool chain enables organisations to deliver to production faster, more often, and with fewer errors. For complex and mission-critical application development, UrbanCode’s solutions provide scalability, decreased time to market, and accelerated pace of innovation.
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Originally published on eWeek.
