IBM Teams Up with AWS to Deliver SaaS Products in the Cloud

IBM will work with its new partner to expand product reach to more AWS users.

In the world of cloud computing, IBM has been unable to gain ground on industry leaders such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google and Microsoft. So Big Blue has taken a different approach: if you can’t beat them, join them.

Image courtesy of IBM and AWS.

Image courtesy of IBM and AWS.

In fact, IBM recently signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Amazon to deliver its software portfolio in the AWS cloud. IBM’s software as a service (SaaS) products encompass automation, data and artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and sustainability. Through this agreement, IBM products built on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) will run cloud native on AWS—providing clients with rapid and easy access.

In addition, the companies have committed to joint investments that facilitate client use of IBM software on AWS. These initiatives include integrated go-to-market sales and marketing, channel incentives, developer training and support. They will also include solutions for key verticals such as transportation and oil and gas.

IBM already has more than 30 software products on AWS Marketplace that can be deployed in a self-serve manual manner—and these products will be able to run as cloud-native services. The roster of software solutions includes:

  • IBM API Connect
  • IBM Db2
  • IBM Observability by Instana APM
  • IBM Maximo Application Suite
  • IBM Security ReaQta
  • IBM Security Trusteer
  • IBM Security Verify
  • IBM Watson Orchestrate

More products are anticipated to follow later in 2022.

Clients will be able to procure IBM’s SaaS products through AWS Marketplace, then set up and integrate them with AWS without having to deploy, update or manage infrastructure. The products themselves will be able to scale elastically on demand to handle unpredictable throughput changes and will offer a native AWS experience out of the box. Through integration of AWS and its support for API, CloudFormation and Terraform templates will enable clients to automate end-to-end workflows.

IBM offered the following example of how the partnership would work. A manufacturer using IBM’s cloud-based Maximo Application Suite to manage its enterprise assets would usually access the software via IBM Cloud. Maximo will now be available on AWS Marketplace as a one-click download, with the IBM code packaged in AWS CloudFormation and independent Terraform templates to run inside of containers. As a result, the manufacturer would be able to use Maximo to deploy a flexible and demand-based AI-driven asset management approach to monitor and maintain its equipment and anticipate potential component breakdowns. Deploying a scalable consumption model for IBM’s products would allow the manufacturer to free up resources and invest in innovation, prototyping, tooling and production. The company would also be able to expand its application usage in response to market trends and changes in production demand.

The IBM and AWS agreement also boosts workflow development with IBM software on AWS. With access to more than 10,000 AWS certifications and 13 AWS competencies, IBM Consulting and IBM Security Services will be able to help customers build and deploy efficient, secure and more intelligent workflows.

“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 of 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.”

Up until now, IBM has focused on specializing in the hybrid cloud market, allowing AWS and Microsoft to duke it out in the cloud computing arena. According to Statista, in 2021 AWS was the top company in the cloud infrastructure services market with a 33 percent share, while Microsoft Azure came in second place controlling 21 percent of the market. IBM trailed a distant fifth with a market share in the low single digits.

The Cloud Market Share. (Image courtesy of Statista.)

The Cloud Market Share. (Image courtesy of Statista.)

IBM has had ambitions to compete in the cloud market and made a splash when it bought early cloud leader SoftLayer and its 13 data centers in 2013, launching its own cloud service shortly after that. But some analysts say that IBM didn’t offer a comprehensive cloud strategy and hasn’t done enough to demonstrate how its product is any different than its bigger competitors.

While IBM and AWS have collaborated on other initiatives, this agreement further shifts their relationship from that of rivals to collaborators. The partnership promises to open doors for both companies in areas where they may have a smaller market foothold. IBM will be able to sell its products to the small and medium-sized businesses that AWS has built its success on, while AWS will benefit from access to the large corporate clients that IBM brings to the table.

This partnership presents an opportunity for managed services providers (MSPs) as well—not only those from IBM and AWS, but third-party MSPs that work with both vendors. “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.”

The agreement with AWS gives IBM a bigger foothold in the cloud—but the company isn’t about to renege on its commitment to the hybrid cloud. In fact, at IBM’s recent Think conference, the company’s CEO Arvind Krishna emphasized the opportunities in the hybrid cloud market.

The advantage of a hybrid cloud is that it integrates public cloud services, private cloud services and on-premises infrastructure. IBM’s products are designed to provide coordination, management and application portability across all three to create a unified, consistent and adaptable distributed computing environment. As a result, organizations have a single environment that allows them to run and scale its traditional and cloud-native workloads on the computing model that best suits them.

About 80 percent of companies have already adopted a hybrid cloud architecture—whether as multiple public clouds, multiple private ones or a combination of both. Either way, IBM customers will now be able to run the same software they deploy on premises with AWS Cloud as a service, enabling them to use the same skillsets in both environments—significantly extending IBM’s hybrid cloud capabilities.