IBM announced a unique new development environment and capabilities-as-a-service to help clients and developers speed the adoption of “hybrid” clouds, which have the potential to usher in a new era of innovation across the enterprise.

As part of its initiative, IBM has invested more than $1 billion for software cloud development and is launching new capabilities running on SoftLayer.

IBM is addressing three fundamental issues to help speed the adoption of hybrid clouds:

1. Enabling enterprise developers for the cloud
2. Integrating across enterprise environments
3. An open ecosystem and platform for development that accelerates innovation and fosters growth

BlueMix: IBM’s software portfolio in the cloud

IBM is opening its extensive enterprise software portfolio to the cloud and launching an open beta codenamed BlueMix™, a new platform-as-service (PaaS) that combines the strength of IBM software, third-party and open technologies.

DevOps

BlueMix provides DevOps in the cloud — an open, integrated development experience that scales. DevOps services help developers, independent firms and enterprise teams get started to build enterprise applications more quickly and effectively. DevOps services enable developers to focus on continuously delivering new functions by learning from their users.

Cloudant

IBM will also acquire Boston, MA-based Cloudant, Inc., a privately held database-as-a-service (DBaaS) provider that enables developers to easily and quickly create next generation mobile and web apps. Cloudant will extend IBM’s Big Data and Analytics, Cloud Computing and Mobile offerings and become an essential component of BlueMix.

Join BlueMix today

Softlayer gets infused with Power

Taking advantage of IBM’s Power Systems line of servers built for Big Data demands, SoftLayer can help clients seeking cutting-edge technologies and tools to help them better capture, understand and leverage increasing volumes of data.

Power brings SoftLayer to Watson

SoftLayer’s first service built on Power Systems will be IBM Watson solutions followed by additional offerings leveraging Power Systems’ advantages of optimization for data and analytics performance. The preliminary set of planned offerings includes:

Watson solutions — includes Watson Discovery Advisor, Watson Engagement Advisor and The Watson Development Cloud, a platform as a service that contains the technology, tools, SDKs and APIs that enable third parties to design, develop and deploy cognitive applications;

Software as a Service — includes a wide range of data services optimized on Power Systems including IBM’s DB2 BLU with Acceleration and IBM Cognos analytics solutions; and

Infrastructure as a Service — bare metal Power Systems will be offered to clients as an on-demand infrastructure platform.

IBM Launches Pay-As-You-Go Model to Quickly Get Clients on Cloud Storage

To help organizations more easily and efficiently manage their swelling data volumes and adopt cloud storage solutions quickly, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new pricing program that offers high-performance storage systems without the heavy up-front costs.

Advanced System Placement

The new IBM Advanced System Placement program for clients is a pay-as-you-go program that lets organizations purchase IBM XIV storage systems for only a fraction of the price upon installation. Only when the system reaches a predetermined capacity threshold will the client be charged for the full balance of the system. At that time, a second unit will be delivered for only $1. The cycle continues and clients only pay for the full balance of subsequent systems when they reach the threshold, and an additional system is delivered for an additional $1.