IBM Cloud Bluemix – Platform as a Service (PaaS) for beginners!

In this blog, I will take you through the basics of Platforma as a Service (PaaS), and explain some key features of IBM Bluemix which is a Platform as a Service offering from IBM.

This blog can be considered as ‘Bluemix for beginners’. The idea is to explain basic of Bluemix to beginners or layman.

Before entering into Bluemix, I would like to distinguish what is the difference between Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and PaaS.

What is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

When you go to Cloud service provider such as Softlayer, Amazon Web Service, Windows Azure, Google Cloud etc, you would order a Server, say with 4 Cores, 16GB RAM, and 250 GB Storage on SAN. The same gets provisioned for you to start using this. This is a classic example of IaaS, where you are getting the Infrastruture such as the Server, Storage, Firewalls, Load Balancer, Network etc. Once they are provisioned and setup for you, you would install the necessary softwares on top of it, and then deploy your application.

Click here, to learn in detail about IaaS.

What is Platform as a Service (PaaS)?

In Platform as a Service, you would get the Platforms such as the Application Servers, Databases Server, Mobile Backend as a Service. Which means (IaaS + Required Software) both.

In sort PaaS, you would have the Platform to deploy your application, and you need not to worry about the OS version, the security fix packs, download and install the Software, or any type of Software configuration. You only focus on application development (Coding) and Infrasture and Software will be taken care by PaaS provider.

Click here, to learn in detail about PaaS.

Enter IBM Bluemix

IBM Bluemix is a cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) developed by IBM. Bluemix supports several platforms and services. IBM Bluemix provides end-to-end solution for an enterprise application Development, Testing, and Deployment in Production.

Bluemix is based on Cloud Foundry open technology and runs on SoftLayer infrastructure. Bluemix supports several programming languages including Java, Node.js, Go, PHP, Swift, Python, Ruby Sinatra, Ruby on Rails and can be extended to support other languages such as Scala through the use of buildpacks.

Bluemix offers a wide range of cloud services. You can create and deploy your app in the cloud using the runtime of your choice and choosing from 130+ services, across IBM Watson, Blockchain, IoT, Mobile, Data and Analyticsb> and many more.

Bluemix provides solution to build, migrate, and extend your app. In subsequent blogs and articles, we will see how Bluemix helps to build, migrate, and extend your app.
On Bluemix, you can deploy a demo app of your choice in less then 2 minutes.

Apps

The Bluemix Apps dashboard provides everything you need to get your apps up and running, and to manage those apps while they are running. Bluemix provides various boilerplates and runtimes.

– A boilerplate is a template for an application and its associated runtime environment and predefined services for a specific domain.

– A runtime is the set of resources that is used to run an app.

Services

The Bluemix Services dashboard provides access to the Bluemix Services including IBM and third-party providers. For example Watson, Internet of Things, Analytics, Mobile, and DevOps sevices etc.

IBM enables you to do more with rich, integrated cloud databases and Data & Analytics services.

IBM Bluemix provides a wide range of services including experimental services that you can try out. To learn about service types and availability, see Bluemix services.

Infrastructure

The IBM Bluemix Infrastructure dashboard provides services to fit your cloud infrastructure needs.

Bluemix infrastructure provides the highest performing cloud infrastructure available. Bluemix infrastructure is one platform, which takes data centers around the world that are full of the widest range of cloud computing options, then integrates and automates everything. IBM Cloud Data Centers are filled with first class computing, storage, and networking gear.

Bluemix infrastructure offers powerful bare metal servers and flexible virtual servers in a single seamless platform. All are provided on demand and billed on monthly or hourly terms.

With Bluemix, you no longer have to make large investments in hardware to test out or run a new app. Instead, Bluemix manage it all for you and only charge for what you use.

Bluemix offers 3 types of integrated deployment models.

1. IBM Bluemix Public
Bluemix Public is an environment for you to develop apps and use services that provide ready-to-use functions. In this environment, the app can use pre-built services (including third-party services) to make app assembly easy. IBM manages all service instances.

To learn about IBM Bluemix Plublic model, see Launch on Bluemix Public.

2. IBM Bluemix Dedicated
Bluemix Dedicated is a private cloud with physically isolated hardware in an IBM SoftLayer data center. Bluemix Dedicated is securely connected to both the Bluemix Public environment and your own network. Single-tenant, and provisioned on a combination of bare metal and virtual servers.

All dedicated deployments of Bluemix include the following benefits: VPN, private virtual local area network (VLAN), firewall, connectivity with your LDAP, ability to use existing on-premises databases and apps, 24/7 on-site security, dedicated hardware, and standard support.

To learn about IBM Bluemix Dedicated offering, see Bluemix Dedicated.

3. IBM Bluemix Local
Bluemix Local is a private cloud that you host within your data center. With Bluemix Local, you get the benefits of a cloud, but you can use your existing mainframes, service-oriented architecture, processes, permissions, and data.

Bluemix Local allows you to protect your most sensitive workloads behind your company firewall, while staying securely connected and in sync with Bluemix Public. IBM uses cloud operations as a service to monitor and maintain your environment and also handles platform updates, so that you can focus on building apps and services that run on top of the environment.

To learn about IBM Bluemix Local model, see Bluemix Local.

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