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IBM has announced the rollout of new cloud-based DevOps services to enable enterprises to develop software faster, as well as launching a single-tenant version of its platform as a service (PaaS) Bluemix.
The aim with DevOps is to apply agile development principles to the larger, slower-moving enterprise market. With the cloud-based offering from IBM, organisations can now utilise collaborative lifecycle management either on-premise or as a managed service, as well as reduce time and cost when testing to the cloud.
“Software success is increasingly indistinguishable from business success,” said Kristof Kloeckner, IBM software group general manager. “IBM is helping clients harness the collaborative power of the cloud to deliver business outcomes that can compete on the highest levels of agility, speed and collaboration, regardless of the current size or complexity of the organisation.”
Big Blue also described two of its clients who were utilising DevOps techniques – and increasing their output and productivity as a result. Nationwide Mutual Insurance reduced critical software defects by 80% in 18 months, resulting in 20% efficiency gains, whilst exam setting firm Pearson VUE is able to continually improve its test-taking experience through predictive analytics.
“The true value of DevOps is not just in efficiency,” said Steve Farley, vice president of application development at Nationwide. “We also need to anticipate and adapt to market changes and demands with speed, incorporating feedback more frequently to improve value to customers.”
Communications provider CenturyLink is also using DevOps in its cloud team, with CTO of their cloud division Jared Wray telling CloudTech of the new office layout, including collaborative spaces and ‘fishbowl’ rooms, so developers and operations can liaise with one another, improving efficiency.
Bluemix, announced as a developer-friendly PaaS earlier this year, is now a dedicated service, a collaborative, cloud-based platform in a single tenant environment, with available features including data caching, runtimes, to give developers flexibility to run their apps in the language of their choice, and Cloudant’s database as a service.
Bluemix is also compatible with SoftLayer’s IaaS, again solidifying the partnership between the two, which IBM snapped up last year. SoftLayer CEO Lance Crosby was profiled in a Bloomberg piece asking whether he could speed up Big Blue’s transition to the cloud. “There’s more smart people than I’ve ever met, but not necessarily cloud smart,” Crosby says of his colleagues.
IBM is also opening up a Bluemix Garage in Level39 in London, a collaboration area for developers to talk about the cloud and complementing the current one in San Francisco.
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