IBM Cloud
| Company type | Division of IBM |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cloud computing |
| Predecessor | SoftLayer Technologies, Inc. |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Founder | Lance Crosby (SoftLayer) |
| Headquarters | Armonk , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Cloud computing services including IaaS, PaaS, Kubernetes, managed OpenShift, AI, blockchain, analytics |
| Owner | IBM |
| Parent | IBM |
| Website | www |
IBM Cloud (previously known as Bluemix) represents a collection of cloud computing solutions tailored for enterprises and delivered by IBM.
Services
As of 2021, IBM Cloud encompasses more than 170 distinct offerings, including services related to computing, storage, network, database management, analytics, machine learning, along with tools designed for developers.
SoftLayer
SoftLayer Technologies, Inc.—now integrated into IBM Cloud—was established in 2005 as a provider of dedicated servers, managed hosting, and cloud computing services. IBM acquired the company in 2013. Initially targeting gaming firms and startups, SoftLayer shifted its focus toward enterprise-level workloads following the acquisition.
SoftLayer was among the first to introduce bare-metal computing solutions, preceding major competitors such as Amazon Web Services.
Its clientele included notable organizations like The Hartford, WhatsApp, Whirlpool, Daimler, and Macy's.
Timeline
- 2005: Lance Crosby, along with former associates, founded SoftLayer.
- August 2010: Majority ownership of SoftLayer was purchased by GI Partners.
- November 2010: SoftLayer merged with rival firm The Planet Internet Services, unifying their customer bases under the SoftLayer name.
- Q1 2011: The company reported managing over 81,000 servers for upwards of 26,000 clients throughout the United States.
- July 2011: Announced plans for global growth by opening data centers in Amsterdam and Singapore, complementing existing facilities in North America located in Dallas, San Jose, Seattle, Houston, and Washington, D.C.. Most facilities were leased through Digital Realty.
- June 4, 2013: IBM completed the acquisition of SoftLayer for an estimated sum exceeding $2 billion, incorporating it into the newly created IBM Cloud Services Division. At this point, SoftLayer stood as the largest privately owned cloud infrastructure (IaaS) provider worldwide.
- May 2015: Maintained operations across 23 data centers situated in 11 countries.
- 2018: The SoftLayer brand was retired and fully rebranded under IBM Cloud.
Initial Bluemix Launch (2013–2016)
Following IBM’s June 2013 acquisition of SoftLayer, a public cloud platform formed the foundation for its Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering. Development of Bluemix began that year, culminating in a public beta announcement in February 2014. Built on the open source Cloud Foundry framework and hosted on SoftLayer’s infrastructure, Bluemix officially debuted as a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) in July 2014.
By April 2015, Bluemix had expanded to include more than 100 cloud development services spanning social media integration, mobile applications, security features, analytics, databases, and Internet of Things (IoT). The platform’s user base in India grew to approximately 83,000 users with an average monthly increase near 10,000.
Despite these advancements, Bluemix trailed behind leading cloud providers like Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS in terms of adoption by 2015. Market penetration remained modest through August 2016. In February 2016, IBM launched Bluemix OpenWhisk—a Function as a Service (FaaS) offering derived from the Apache OpenWhisk project initiated by IBM. This serverless computing platform competes with services such as AWS Lambda and Microsoft Azure Functions by allowing event-triggered function executions without necessitating direct management of developer resources.
Transition to IBM Cloud (from 2017 onward)
In May 2017, IBM launched Kubernetes capabilities under the name IBM Bluemix Container Service, which was subsequently rebranded as IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service (IKS). This service, based on the open-source Kubernetes framework, rivals Amazon EKS, Microsoft Azure AKS, and Google Cloud GKE by streamlining the deployment, scaling, and management of application containers across multiple host clusters. By October 2017, IBM unified its cloud portfolio under the IBM Cloud umbrella, phasing out both Bluemix and SoftLayer brands.
March 2018 marked the debut of IBM’s pioneering managed Kubernetes offering on bare metal infrastructure. After acquiring Red Hat in mid-2019, IBM introduced a managed Red Hat OpenShift service within IBM Cloud in August 2019.
In November 2019, IBM launched the first public cloud tailored specifically for financial services, securing Bank of America as its inaugural anchor client. BNP Paribas became the first European anchor customer in 2020. By April 2021, IBM Cloud for Financial Services was broadly available, supporting Red Hat OpenShift alongside other cloud-native technologies. In July 2021, SAP integrated two finance and data management applications into this environment. CaixaBank followed in September 2021 by advancing its digital transformation efforts and adopting a newly established IBM Cloud Multizone Region located in Spain.
Clientele
In 2019, IBM collaborated with the USTA to implement AI-driven solutions for the US Open tournament.
By May 2020, IBM had secured partnerships with six European enterprises, including Osram and Crédit Mutuel, utilizing IBM Cloud to harness AI, blockchain, and analytics capabilities.
Evaluations
Throughout 2020, IBM Cloud maintained a leading position in bare-metal hosting services, offering more than 11 million customizable configurations featuring the latest Power, Intel, AMD CPUs, and Nvidia GPUs.
Sustainability efforts
In 2021, IBM pledged to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030.