IBM Bluemix - A Paragidm Shift in Cloud Computing
June 23, 2017

IBM Bluemix - A Paragidm Shift in Cloud Computing

Paul Levy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Cloud PaaS (formerly IBM Bluemix - PaaS)

We use Bluemix internally and for our clients across entire organizations. Bluemix enhances the connectivity between different cloud services, so that data and code can be aggregated in one central place: The Bluemix Dashboard. While similar services exist in AWS and Azure, Bluemix makes the integration highly automated and reliable. Coders can self service their section of the Bluemix infrastructure without relying on cloud networking experts to do so. Database administrators can easily share and control access to data through IBM Data Connect across more than 20 industry standard databases, and though multi-cloud vendors.
  • Sends data from IBM Data Connect to Data Analytics in one click.
  • Manages coding in the cloud IDE with continuous integration.
  • Has tool chains which aggregate different services together into a complete process.
  • Has a dashboard that is far more in-depth and intuitive than AWS or Azure.
  • Basics like DNS and routing can be challenging.
  • Uptime is not at the same level as AWS.
  • Phone support is not at the level of AWS.
  • Very cost effective and horizontally scalable serivces.
  • More predictable than spinning up new virtual servers for expansion (Charged by API).
  • Adaptation of all standards including Docker, MongoDB, Node-RED, allows leveraging of existing and Open Source code more reliably to reduce costs.
The underpinning of Cloud Foundry as the structure for Bluemix enabled IBM to stay compatible with other services. That was important to us. IBM to our knowledge is the biggest open source backer in the world based on the number of coders they have assigned to open source. They continue to innovate and embrace new technologies like Kubernetes.
AI is here now. It can be integrated easily into any legacy project. We have integrated over a half dozen Watson AI components into our clients' legacy systems.
We have entire third party platforms running in Docker within client Bluemix instances. Through connected Bluemix services, those Docker instances are much more integrated than they would be with the same Docker container in AWS or Azure. We are now testing Open Whisk which further reaches into Docker containers for event triggered coding in both directions... to and from Docker.
In testing phase now. Its highly integrated into our "API First" mentality, with another layer added by Open Whisk. Its reducing our need for SQL triggers and other code which would be buried in dense legacy systems. Open Whisk is allowing these triggers to be centralized and visible by all our coding staff for better integration and coding efficiency.
The IBM competitors have many of the features of Bluemix in isolation, but fail to integrate them easily. Bluemix enables our developers, and our clients' developers to be much more self sufficient and rapidly deploy code.
  • Absolutely for prototyping.
  • Ideal for inter-company data exchanges.
  • Great for shared managed coding by dispersed teams.
  • Excellent suite of starter code.
  • Excellent AI integration via Watson, Node-Red including for IOT.