IBM aims to help developers build analytics-driven cloud apps

IBM today rolled out new services geared to helping developers create analytics-driven cloud applications.

Big Blue announced the new services for its Bluemix cloud development platform at Cloud Foundry Summit in Santa Clara, Calif.

“The key announcement is around our integration of API management into the platform,” says Damion Heredia, vice president of Platform Services, IBM Cloud. “That’s a big area for our clients and the solutions our clients are building.”

The Bluemix API Management service gives developers the capability to rapidly create, deploy and share large-scale APIs. It also provides an easy-to-use and consumable way of controlling critical APIs.

Heredia notes that in today’s application landscape, you’re going to have APIs you need to manage ̵ you need control around performance, throttling, versioning and security. You need to be able to move users from one version to another. Bluemix API Management features built-in documentation and a catalog of rich information on APIs for both internal and external developers. It also features a whole host of new technology connectors and domain-specific connectors.

Going mobile first

IBM also announced new mobile capabilities on Bluemix for the IBM MobileFirst Platform.

“Mobile was a big part of our platform from the beginning when we started Bluemix,” Heredia says.

The new capabilities focus on location-based mobile apps experiences to help developers connect insights from digital engagement and physical presence.

“What did they search on in their browser before they walked into the store?” Heredia asks. “When they get into the store and they check in, can you tie all that together?”

The Bluemix partner ecosystem is also expanding.

“We’ve publicly partnered with Microsoft on providing a .NET Buildpack, which is a way to run .NET applications on Bluemix,” Heredia says. “With their support, we codeveloped a Buildpack that allows you to run your .NET applications right next to other languages.”

Customers with heterogeneous environments can run all of them on the Bluemix platform and manage, monitor and interact with them as one.

Other ecosystem and third-party services announced Monday include the following:

• Cupenya Insights, which provides an analytics foundation that allows developers to connect and monitor business activities across several Bluemix applications, define key performance indicators and receive a performance overview of the entire business process or supply chain.
• Namara.io platform by Think Data Works, which collects, consolidates and organizes data from public data streams into a single portal developers can leverage for their apps.
• flowthings.io by Flow, which collects real-time data and provides complex event processing and data delivery to make it easier to integrate applications with software or devices in the Internet of Things space.
• Reappt from Push Technology, which delivers data at scale and speed over the Internet to give your apps a performance edge.

Finally, IBM announced it will establish the first IBM Cloud Foundry Dojo in Raleigh, N.C. as a physical location open to all developers where IBM will help accelerate skills on the Cloud Foundry Code base and mentor developers to increase the number of code committers to Cloud Foundry.

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