New tools to increase workload portability and control include:
- IBM Enterprise Containers: Help developers rapidly build and deliver applications by extending native Linux containers with Docker APIs to provide enterprise –class visibility, control and security as well as an added level of automation. Solutions developed in a cloud environment could be brought to on-premises systems for execution, allowing many of the benefits of cloud computing to be realized for data that cannot be moved to cloud for processing for reasons of data sensitivity, size, or performance.
- IBM DataWorks: New, intuitive tooling and experience to find, refine, enrich and deliver trusted data. This allows developers to subdivide and manipulate data sets from the treasure trove of public and private data.
- Collaborative Operations: Enhanced visibility and control of clients’ hybrid environments with a single, end-to-end view.
- Orchestration: Available as a service enabling management across hybrid environments that is the largest federated orchestration library in the industry.
- Security: New features that protect the most vital data and applications using analytics across the enterprise, public and private clouds and mobile devices.
- Secure Passport Gateway: Allows self-service to developers to securely connect data and services to Bluemix in minutes through a simple Passport service that keeps IT in control.
- API Harmony: Find a perfect API match for a client’s application using the world’s largest knowledge base of APIs; easily expose and manage APIs.
- Bluemix Local: Extends Bluemix into a company’s data center with borderless visibility and management across Bluemix environments (public, dedicated, and local)
IBM said it is dedicating the talents of more than half its cloud development team to hybrid cloud innovations, including hundreds of developers working on open cloud standards.
“Today, we are launching a new class of hybrid cloud innovations that extend open standards capabilities for the enterprise. This will help break down the barriers between clouds and on premise IT systems, providing clients with control, visibility and security as they utilize the public and private clouds,” said Robert LeBlanc, Senior Vice President, IBM Cloud. “Data location across an ever growing number of clouds is an increasing concern for customers and we are unveiling new portability and developer services to make this easier to manage.”
IBM also unveiled the Watson Zone, a new resource center on Bluemix that brings together Watson APIs, sample code, training resources and use cases to help inspire and guide users to build a new class of hybrid cloud applications infused with cognitive computing capabilities. In addition, a new Watson Personality Insights service will allow developers to integrate new capabilities to analyze trends and patterns in diverse, high volume social media and other public data streams. The commercial launch follows the addition of five new betas Watson services to Bluemix including Speech to Text, Text to Speech, Visual Recognition, Concept Insights and Tradeoff Analytics.