IBM launches enterprise cloud marketplace, talks of “next major step” in portfolio

IBM has announced the launch of the IBM Cloud Marketplace, with Big Blue putting all its cloudy apps and software in one place in what the company calls “the next major step in IBM’s cloud leadership.”

The usual suspects are all there, from 100 SaaS apps, to the newly-launched PaaS developer offering BlueMix, to IaaS package SoftLayer. IBM has categorised each part of the marketplace appropriately – Biz, described as “enterprise-grade business apps to accelerate innovation” (SaaS), to Dev (PaaS) and Ops (IaaS).

Some might argue IBM is a little late to the party here, with Salesforce.com already established in the app store front, and other hyper-vendors such as HP more recently getting on board.

Yet this offering is an enterprise app store, but with a little extra on top. As Dominique Vernier, global IT architect for IBM cloud, explains in a blog post: “It is a real, single …