IBM today announced it has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS), with plans to offer a broad array of its software catalog as software-as-a-service (SaaS) on AWS.
Building on IBM software available as-a-Service (aaS) on IBM Cloud, IBM and AWS say this first-of-its-kind agreement between them will provide clients with quick and easy access to IBM software that spans automation, data and AI, security, and sustainability capabilities that is built on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA), and runs cloud-native on AWS.
“Companies like ours are looking for faster time-to-value, and to get up and running quickly. Becoming an AWS cloud-first organization has set us on the path of a digital innovator, using technology to better serve our clients,” said Guilherme Ximenes, chief technology officer at Banco Inter, a Brazilian fintech that is 100 per cent cloud on AWS. “The availability of IBM SaaS offerings on AWS will allow businesses like ours to focus on delivering our clients value without worrying about IT infrastructure management, helping us innovate at a faster clip.”
The two companies are also committing to a broad range of joint investments to make it easier for clients to consume IBM software on AWS, including integrated go-to-market activities across sales and marketing, channel incentives, developer enablement and training, and solution development for key verticals and industries such as oil and gas, travel and transportation, and others.
Over the course of the next 18 months, we will see close to 19 IBM key software offerings being available as SaaS on AWS running on ROSA, Manu Parbhakar, hstrategic partnerships at AWS, announced during the IBM Think 2022 event today.
Some of these offerings include IBM API Connect, IBM Db2, IBM Observability by Instana APM, IBM Maximo Application Suite, IBM Security ReaQta, IBM Security Trusteer, IBM Security Verify, and IBM Watson Orchestrate, with others to follow later this year.
IBM said this will enable clients to procure the IBM SaaS products in AWS Marketplace, and then set up and integrate with AWS services, allowing them to get started with just a few clicks without deploying, updating or managing any of the infrastructure. IBM SaaS products on AWS are designed to provide high availability and elastic scaling on demand to meet unpredictable throughput needs, and will offer a native AWS experience with deep integration of AWS services out of the box and support for CloudFormation and Terraform templates to enable automation of end-to-end workflows.
For example, using IBM Maximo Application Suite as-a-Service, a manufacturer will be able to take a flexible, demand-based approach to AI-driven asset management to help it monitor and maintain equipment more efficiently, or predict potential mechanical failures to fix them before they create interruptions. By taking advantage of a scalable consumption model for these applications, it can free up capital for innovation, prototyping, tooling, and production, and easily expand their usage over time based on evolving market trends and production demands, IBM explained.
Additionally, with more than 10,000 AWS certifications and 13 AWS competencies, IBM said IBM Consulting and IBM Security Services can help customers build and deploy modern, secure and more intelligent workflows with IBM Software on AWS.
The availability of these SaaS products complements the company’s portfolio of over 30 software products that currently can be deployed manually in AWS Marketplace, and offers the ability to Bring Your Own License (BYOL) for users that already have their own license so they can deploy software faster. Together, this gives organizations a comprehensive set of options to build and run software in the way that best meets the unique needs of their business.
“As hybrid cloud continues to become the reality for our clients, IBM is ready and willing to meet them with a flexible and cloud-native software portfolio wherever they are in the cloud or in data centers,” said Tom Rosamilia, senior vice president, IBM Software. “By deepening our collaboration with AWS, we’re taking another major step in giving organizations the ability to choose the hybrid cloud model that works best for their own needs and workloads, freeing them up to instead focus on solving their most pressing business challenges.”
“Our collaboration with IBM allows joint customers to accelerate their modernization to the cloud and consume IBM services in a cloud native manner on AWS,” said Matt Garman, senior vice president of Sales and Marketing at AWS. “Through our multiyear agreement, AWS will work with IBM to offer a broad array of IBM Software as SaaS on AWS. In addition, we’ll be working together on stronger joint marketing and co-selling programs for customers.”