IBM unveils new cloud software development offerings 8 November, 2009 By Mark Cox

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IBM Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud is a free public cloud beta for software development that provides compute and storage as a service, as well as Rational Software Delivery Services to help application developers and testers speed the development and delivery of software applications.

The second solution is IBM Rational Software Delivery Services for Cloud Computing. It includes a set of ready-to-use application lifecycle management tools for developing and testing in the IBM Cloud. They also use infrastructure management capabilities to help organizations build software applications in the cloud. IBM says that using these new services, organizations can reduce the time it takes to provision a test environment from weeks to hours, and in some cases even minutes.

"What you are seeing here is strategy to start offering certain workloads on a public cloud," said Dave Mitchell, director of strategy and emerging business, IBM. "IBM is picking certain enterprise workloads where we see the most benefit and activity around cloud computing and launching in those areas. The first was collaboration, which lends itself to the public cloud model. And the biggest workload in the cloud is development and test -- so that's what we are tackling here."

IBM Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud is designed to enhance software development and delivery capabilities, particularly in large enterprises where IT departments handle hundreds of development projects every year. Unlike traditional development environments, developers can log on to IBM Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud and get access to customizable virtual machines in minutes.

"This is a true public cloud being offered in a beta model, which includes a compute environment," Mitchell said. "Providing the cloud, the tools, on top, and the support we provide through our developerWorks program -- bringing these three things together -- that's really unparalleled and will allow developers a new way to build enterprise applications in the cloud."

This new environment provides compute and storage as a service, IBM Rational Software Delivery Services, WebSphere and Information Management software. To help customers leverage existing investments, these new services support development across heterogeneous environments, including Java, Open Source, and .NET. In addition, pre-configured integrations of some of these Rational services are available based on the Jazz framework, which dynamically integrates and synchronizes people, processes and assets associated with software development projects.

IBM is also extending its IBM Rational Software Delivery Services for Cloud Computing to a private cloud infrastructure for enterprise customers. Behind a client's own firewall, these services can provide users with additional development options and customization needed to deploy applications in a private cloud. IBM Rational Software Delivery Services for private cloud environments can be experienced by a limited number of participants.

"This is exciting because it will give enterprise developers tools and the access to a cloud based development environment to test their applications," Mitchell said."This can take a long time in enterprises because they would have to source a development environment within the company, and there could be hundreds of developments in an enterprise. This gives them a public place to go, where they can use our software development tools."

This opens up an opportunity for IBM's channel partners as well, Mitchell said.

"It will give system integrators and software vendors the ability to build applications for their clients in a much faster way," he said. "Anyone that is looking to build an asset-based application for a client can build it very quickly."

IBM is also making it easier for software developers to gain cloud computing skills with no-charge access to online workshops, skills tutorials, and social networking tools through My developerWorks, which enables users to build online relationships, share content and grow a worldwide network of peers to drive innovation. For more information, visit www.ibm.com/developerworks/spaces/cloud.

To access the open beta for the IBM Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud, visit www.ibm.com/cloud/developer.