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IBM Bringing Swift to the Cloud for Simpler Development of Enterprise Apps

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swift.pngIBM has announced that it is bringing Apple's Swift development language to the cloud to simplify end-to-end development of enterprise apps. Swift will be available as a server-side language on IBM Cloud, and today's phase of the rollout includes a preview of a Swift runtime and a Swift Package Catalog.

Developers can start exploring the benefits of Swift on the IBM Cloud in three ways:

- Experiment in the Swift Sandbox: Quickly experiment with open sourced Swift, ramp up your skill set and learn what Swift can do for your enterprise by checking out new enhancements to the Swift Sandbox.
- Develop and Deploy: Start building end-to-end applications on Bluemix and quickly deploy them with Kitura, a new open source web server released by IBM, on both OSX and Linux.
- Share Swift Resources: Leverage code across projects by creating packages and submitting them to the Swift Package Catalog on Bluemix to encourage sharing of new Swift resources with the global developer community.

Apple and IBM announced an enterprise partnership in July 2014, released the first ten MobileFirst for iOS apps by year end and have launched new apps periodically since. MobileFirst for iOS apps are designed in a secure environment, and can easily be deployed, managed and upgraded through IBM cloud services.

Apple and IBM list all of the MobileFirst for iOS apps on their websites.

Tags: IBM, Swift

Top Rated Comments

J
jozero
135 months ago
Lol I don't know why but this sounds exactly like something a big old corporation would do when they want to look cool but just don't get it. :)

I can see it now. Kinda chubby salt and pepper haired white guy in a suit at the press release: "we're not just going to use swift, we're going to use swift in the cloud!"
Uh ? This is great news. Swift is just a language, it doesn't have to only used for native iOS or OSX apps.

If you got really good at swift it would let you write native apps, and then write any required backend in the same language. That really helps at being an expert at something.

Also having the cloud service backed by IBM, which also uses the same backend for their enterprise apps, lets you put your trust into it - less likely to have a situation like Parse.

This is all positive news.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macduke Avatar
macduke
135 months ago
Lol I don't know why but this sounds exactly like something a big old corporation would do when they want to look cool but just don't get it. :)

I can see it now. Kinda chubby salt and pepper haired white guy in a suit at the press release: "we're not just going to use swift, we're going to use swift in the cloud!"
It might seem that way on the surface, but for those of us who design and develop for the web and iOS, this is really interesting. It's not so much about it being the "mystical cloud" but running important services that are vital to our apps using common code bases. As many iOS apps are developed first before their Android counterpart (iOS is better at monetizing, but the spread isn't as significant as it used to be) you end up with developers building their infrastructure on Swift which puts Apple in a more dominant position. It's a smart move but implementation and promotion of this (making it worth it to architect new back-ends with compelling benefits and a marketing team promoting adoption) is key. Apple has traditionally not done well with services in general, but this is kind of different. I hope it goes smoothly for them as it could be really useful and help streamline development.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
B
blackcrayon
135 months ago
The same can be said of Apple since Swift is obsolete from the start, nothing to write home about amidst the functional languages already in existent. Just Apple catching up, and then still it isn't...
Swift seems to be well-received and no one other than foamy-mouthed Apple haters seem to think it's "obsolete from the start". The fact that it's open source and coming to other platforms seems pretty exciting. Even if it were for Apple developers only it's a big step forward.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
shansoft
135 months ago
Well, I'm no Apple hater and still don't feel the love for Swift (nor the hate). But to be honest, I have been doing C/C++ professionally for 20 years and Objective-C for 5 years. I just looove Objective-C.

That said, when I feel the push, I will learn and master it, as I have with Java (eek) and Objective-C.
You are definitely not alone on this one. Many others including me really dislike the way Swift works. The syntax is much more complex and hard to read/organize in first place. Then many major features like KVO, scope static variable...etc still missing. Performance is still lag behind, and I doubt it will ever catch up.

The ? and ! is simply dumbest thing I have ever come across so far. They either somehow come up with that at the last minute or trying to make it idiot proof than using memory management. Those who think Swift is cleaner and write less code, you must have come from either Web Development or interpreter type of language.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
F
frabber
135 months ago
I kii'd. I can totally see this. :D
The same can be said of Apple since Swift is obsolete from the start, nothing to write home about amidst the functional languages already in existent. Just Apple catching up, and then still it isn't...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GFLPraxis Avatar
GFLPraxis
135 months ago
Ah, if only Parse wasn't shutting down...I could see this being implemented there :(

This is really interesting. I'd kind of assumed that regardless of open source, Swift wouldn't have many use cases outside of iOS. Am quite happy to see that potentially not being true.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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