OREANDA-NEWS. IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced that it has been named a market leader in three separate Ovum Decision Matrix (ODM) reports in areas critical to the fast and competitive development of software for hybrid cloud environments. These segments include DevOps Release Management, Application Lifecycle Management and Agile Project Management. The reports highlight IBM’s success delivering essential solutions to companies building advanced hybrid cloud applications, while acknowledging the company as a leader in execution, technology and market impact.

IBM won high scores for its ability to provide organizations with a superior application development environment (such as within IBM’s Cloud Platform, Bluemix), as well as a complete portfolio of solutions that provide speed and quality of application delivery (including IBM’s UrbanCode and Collaborative Lifecycle Management). IBM’s development toolbox includes more than 140 APIs and services to take advantage of the most competitive technologies today, including cognitive, DevOps, Blockchain, IoT, security, data analytics and more.

IBM’s success in winning over developers and IT organizations – evident in the fact that Bluemix has become the world’s largest public deployment of Cloud Foundry – is helping the company move established enterprises into the cloud without the need to “rip and replace” IT infrastructure, while simultaneously recruiting born-on-the-Web organizations looking to build cloud-native applications.

“We see IBM taking great strides to give companies the platform and tools they need to manage a variety of business challenges,” says Michael Azoff, Principal Analyst at Ovum. “Very few vendors we evaluated offer the broad range of capabilities, support and global reach that IBM provides. By bringing to bear advanced tools and seamless integration with existing data and systems, IBM is definitely winning over the hearts and minds of developers. IBM’s decade-long leadership in application lifecycle management has made it uniquely qualified to solve multi-speed IT and product challenges in the enterprise.”

All three Ovum Decision Matrix reports evaluated about a dozen vendors on various criteria including technology features, ability to execute (sales, product fulfillment and support), and overall market impact. Ovum acknowledged that digital transformation is taking place across all industries, with software at the root of added value and product differentiation, and DevOps transforming the way software is created. Ovum favored single holistic solutions that perform release management, orchestration, and automation, including continuous delivery and out-of-the-box integrations.

Below is a quick summary of IBM in each report and how it is helping increase DevOps productivity to win in the hybrid cloud market.

  • DevOps Release Management: The report indicates IBM made a wise choice in acquiring UrbanCode in 2011, and the resulting IBM DevOps products achieved among the highest scores in this report. IBM is able to deliver DevOps services on-premises or via SaaS on Bluemix. Bluemix provides developers with a rich cloud environment to deploy to both cloud and on-premises targets. The report gave IBM kudos for enterprise integrations, noting UrbanCode has an exceptional range of external integrations so that the tool can be made a part of any platform from mobile to mainframe, and from physical hardware to cloud services including Bluemix. Ovum called Bluemix Garage Method a standout framework for getting up to speed with DevOps.
  • Application Lifecycle Management: The report noted IBM breadth and depth in product and systems engineering, including IoT, and its support of Scaled Agile Framework® for enterprise agile development at large scale. Further, the report noted IBM Bluemix PaaS provides a first-class application development environment on the cloud.
  • Agile Project Management: The report indicates that IBM offers the most complete ALM portfolio. Further, that tools that are simple to use, enhance collaboration, and integrate well with open source solutions will win here – noting IBM Bluemix caters well to this market.

“Tens of thousands of developers join Bluemix each week, and they are using our Cloud platform and growing catalog of cognitive services and enterprise APIs to build more than 120,000 apps each month,” says Marie Wieck, Genral Manager of Cloud Integration for IBM. “Ovum’s ranking of IBM as a leader for cloud developers further validates this momentum and highlights the agile, hybrid cloud environment that innovators are looking for.”

Other report findings gave IBM high praise for enabling enterprises to establish disciplined processes in regulated environments. This includes providing solutions that are suitable for delivering software in multi-speed IT environments across traditional, custom or hybrid cloud environments. 

About Ovum

Ovum is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. Through its 180 analysts worldwide it offers expert analysis and strategic insight across the IT, telecoms, and media industries. Founded in 1985, Ovum has one of the most experienced analyst teams in the industry and is a respected source of guidance for technology business leaders, CIOs, vendors, service providers, and regulators looking for comprehensive, accurate, and insightful market data, research, and consulting. With 23 offices across six continents, Ovum offers a truly global perspective on technology and media markets and provides thousands of clients with insight including workflow tools, forecasts, surveys, market assessments, technology audits, and opinion. In 2012, Ovum was jointly named Global Analyst Firm of the Year by the IIAR.

Ovum is a division of Informa plc, one of the leading business and academic publishing and event organizers globally, headquartered in London. Informa is quoted on the London Stock Exchange.