![IBM Pushing Tools for the Cloud](/binaries/content/gallery/dice/insights/2012/06/shutterstock_103386812-618x457.jpg)
IBM is having a busy week: on top of introducing a host of data-analytics products, the company has also announced new software for building software applications across multiple development environments, including cloud. This new version of its integrated software Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution is built using IBM’s Jazz open development platform. It combines IBM Rational Requirements Composer, IBM Rational Team Concern, and IBM Rational Quality Manager. Combined, those elements allow software engineers to integrate software design with the rest of the application development lifecycle. In terms of the cloud, IBM is offering several SmartCloud solutions, including one that allows developers to create and test applications in an agile Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) environment; the company is also launching an IBM SmartCloud Application Services pilot that allows organizations to coordinate application requirements, design, development, testing, and delivery. That’s not all; as opposed to many other companies in the cloud and data-analytics space, which seem content to launch a service or two at a time, IBM’s strategy apparently involves launching massive waves of new software (and hardware, in the case of its new data-analytics platforms). Other new IBM cloud services include IBM SmartCloud for Government and Test Platform as a service, which extends an elastic computing environment to federal agencies that also need FISMA-level security. IBM SmartCloud Continuous Delivery managed beta, a cloud-based hosted sandbox, will supposedly accelerate code-to-deploy through automation and coordination. IBM SmartCloud Application Performance Management gives developers monitoring and management capabilities over the development process, including the ability to hunt down issues. “Today’s business dilemma is how to address both the need for rapid delivery and sufficient control in the software development process,” Kristof Kloeckner, general manager for IBM Rational, wrote in a June 4 statement tethered to the announcement. “We must balance the need for speed and agility with better governance to manage cost and quality, achieve regulatory compliance, ensure security, and have some level of financial predictability.” Whether or not a particular company ends up with an IBM solution for its development needs, the fact remains that cloud, mobility and other technologies have indeed added new layers of complexity to the development environment. But in this sense, the cloud can also help, by allowing developers to collaborate and share data more easily, as well as push through uniform updates to software and platforms.
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