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IBM's acquisition of UrbanCode, a provider of software deployment automation technology, should provide a boost to IBM ISV partners and solution providers involved in so-called DevOps and software life-cycle management.
IBM partners working with the vendor's cloud computing, business analytics, social collaboration and mobile products also will benefit, given that frequent software updates have become a market necessity in those areas.
"It's really all about being able to deliver software faster and more cheaply," said Randy Newell, director of capabilities marketing for the IBM Software Group, in an interview with CRN. "Faster, more predictable, and on a higher-quality basis is crucial."
[Related: IBM Partners Cheer Potential Sale Of x86 Server Business]
"This looks like a very insightful acquisition by IBM. The ability of software vendors to deliver new technology quickly and efficiently has never been more important," said Allan Campbell, CEO of Maxava, an IBM partner that provides disaster recovery services. "I can also see a lot of parallels with IBM's Pure Systems 'patterns' that enable out-of-the-box preconfigured systems, and this looks to have the potential to take that to a new level."
DevOps is a methodology that emphasizes collaboration and communication among developers and IT production managers during the software development process. While Agile methodology specifically refers to the development phase of the software life-cycle process, DevOps refers to managing the stage of releasing new software and software updates for testing and deployment.
While Agile speeds up software development, "then you create a bottleneck in the next stage of the process," Newell said. That creates problems for businesses managing their internal software deployment efforts and for cloud software providers whose customers expect frequent application updates.
The UrbanCode technology will be integrated with a range of IBM products including Rational development tools, Tivoli management software and IBM SmartCloud technology. Newell said UrbanCode will be linked with Green Hat, the supplier of test automation and service virtualization tools IBM acquired last year. Another candidate for UrbanCode integration is the Worklight mobile application platform IBM also bought last year.
NEXT: UrbanCode Technology Benefits In-House Developers, ISVs
