A hybrid cloud is considered as the integration of multiple clouds that are aligned to the unique characteristics of different system types. IBM® defines a hybrid cloud as a secure cloud computing environment that uses services from two or more sources, such as a private cloud, public cloud, or traditional IT sources. A hybrid cloud transforms roles throughout the organization and allows business leaders and developers to innovate efficiently and faster. Applications that are built around a hybrid cloud infrastructure typically revolve around at least one of the following pillars of hybrid integration: API-centric applications Data-centric applications Event-centric applications This IBM Redbooks® Solution Guide describes Bluemix® integration services and how to use them to connect Bluemix applications to on-premise systems.

IBM® Hybrid Integration Services is a set of hybrid cloud capabilities in IBM BluemixTM that allows businesses to innovate rapidly while, at the same time, providing IT control and visibility. It allows customers to quickly and easily build and operate systems that mix data and application programming interfaces (APIs) from a wide variety of sources, whether they reside on-premises or in the cloud. In many cases, you want to expose your IT assets from your private cloud as APIs and at the same time have best overall manageability and control of who uses your assets and how. Bluemix provides a set of services such as Secure Gateway, API Management, Connect and Compose, DataWorks, and API Catalog, which enable Hybrid Cloud Integration capabilities. This IBM Redbooks® publication provides preferred practices around developing cloud solutions using these Hybrid Integration Services that help you maintain data consistency, manageability, and security for critical transactions.

The event-centric hybrid cloud integration revolves around applications running based on events or messages. The new event-centric approach to hybrid cloud aims to simplify the task of managing these messages while increasing the overall reliability of the system. Event-centric applications work well in the cloud due to the varying intensity and frequency of events. These fluctuations fit well into a cloud infrastructure that can dynamically scale to fit those needs. An event-centric approach cuts down on communication overhead for an application, thus helping to speed up the development process. IBM® Hybrid Integration Services is a set of hybrid cloud capabilities in IBM Bluemix® that allows businesses to create hybrid clouds by connecting their Bluemix environment to on-premises systems at the application programming interface (API), data, or event level. In November 2015, the IBM International Technical Support Organization (ITSO) IBM Redbooks® team published a Redbooks publication that covers hybrid cloud scenarios with Bluemix for API and data integrations, Hybrid Cloud Data and API Integration: Integrate Your Enterprise and Cloud with Bluemix Integration Services, SG24-8277, and can be found at the following website: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg248277.html?Open Hybrid Cloud Event Integration: Integrate Your Enterprise and Cloud with Bluemix Integration Services, SG24-8281 is a companion book to SG24-8277 and focuses on event-centric hybrid cloud integrations with Bluemix.

This IBM® Redbooks® publication takes you on a hybrid cloud journey with IBM PureApplication® System and PureApplication Service: from the what, over the why, and to the how. We outline the needs for a hybrid PureApplication cloud and we describe how to build a strategy. We provide advice about the components, including security. Through use cases, we define the need and the strategy for a hybrid cloud implementation with IBM PureApplication System, Software, or Service. The target audience for this book varies from anyone who is interested in learning more about a true hybrid cloud solution from IBM to strategists, IT architects, and IT specialists who want an overview of what is required to build a hybrid cloud with IBM PureApplication family members.

The Building Cognitive Applications with IBM Watson Services series is a seven-volume collection that introduces IBM® WatsonTM cognitive computing services. The series includes an overview of specific IBM Watson® services with their associated architectures and simple code examples. Each volume describes how you can use and implement these services in your applications through practical use cases. The series includes the following volumes: Volume 1 Getting Started, SG24-8387 Volume 2 Conversation, SG24-8394 Volume 3 Visual Recognition, SG24-8393 Volume 4 Natural Language Classifier, SG24-8391 Volume 5 Language Translator, SG24-8392 Volume 6 Speech to Text and Text to Speech, SG24-8388 Volume 7 Natural Language Understanding, SG24-8398 Whether you are a beginner or an experienced developer, this collection provides the information you need to start your research on Watson services. If your goal is to become more familiar with Watson in relation to your current environment, or if you are evaluating cognitive computing, this collection can serve as a powerful learning tool. This IBM Redbooks® publication, Volume 2, describes how the Watson Conversation service can be used to create chatbots and user agents that understand natural-language input and communicate with your users simulating a real human conversation. It introduces the concepts that you need to understand in order to use the Watson Conversation service. It provides examples of applications that integrate the Watson Conversation service with other IBM Bluemix® services, such as the IBM IoT Platform, Text to Speech, Speech to Text, and Weather Company® Data, to implement practical use cases. You can develop and deploy the sample applications by following along in a step-by-step approach and using provided code snippets. Alternatively, you can download an existing Git project to more quickly deploy the application.

This IBM® RedpaperTM publication takes you on a journey that surveys cloud computing to answer several fundamental questions about storage cloud technology. What are storage clouds? How can a storage cloud help solve your current and future data storage business requirements? What can IBM do to help you implement a storage cloud solution that addresses these needs? This paper shows how IBM storage clouds use the extensive cloud computing experience, services, proven technologies, and products of IBM to support a smart storage cloud solution designed for your storage optimization efforts. Clients face many common storage challenges and some have variations that make them unique. It describes various successful client storage cloud implementations and the options that are available to meet your current needs and position you to avoid storage issues in the future. IBM CloudTM Services (IBM Cloud Managed Services® and IBM SoftLayer®) are highlighted as well as the contributions of IBM to OpenStack cloud storage. This paper is intended for anyone who wants to learn about storage clouds and how IBM addresses data storage challenges with smart storage cloud solutions. It is suitable for IBM clients, storage solution integrators, and IBM specialist sales representatives.

Demystify application development on cloud platform by leveraging the power of IBM Bluemix About This Book The first book in the market that discusses the power of IBM Bluemix Shows developers how to develop and deploy applications on the cloud platform using IBM Bluemix A comprehensive guide to help you get started with IBM Bluemix also featuring samples applications Who This Book Is For This book is aimed at developers seeking to learn application development and deployment methods on IBM Bluemix. A basic knowledge of Java and Node.js is assumed. What You Will Learn Discover IBM Bluemix as a PaaS platform and learn about its three delivery models Develop and deploy a "Hello World" application on IBM Bluemix using the Cloud Foundry command line utility and the Bluemix console Extend your application by using the API or services provided by IBM Bluemix Understand microservices architecture and learn how to develop a sample application based on microservices architecture, using IBM Bluemix Learn how to leverage on-premise software and build an application on IBM Bluemix Scale and monitor an application on IBM Bluemix Explore the compute options on IBM Bluemix and work with each of them Build a mobile client application using Mobile services on IBM Bluemix In Detail IBM Bluemix is an open standard platform for building, running, and managing applications on the cloud. With Bluemix, developers can build innovative applications using various compute options and value added services , developers can also manage the application lifecycle using the platform provided DevOps services. Learning IBM Bluemix will take you on a journey from the basics of IBM Bluemix to working with the platform to developing and deploying of modern applications. The sample application use cases employed in the book will introduce you to the transformative nexus of cloud, mobile, and security, all enabled through capabilities provided out-of-the-box by IBM Bluemix. By the end of the book, you will have understood the benefits and use cases for IBM Bluemix, and will possess the skills to further explore the platform and thus develop, deploy, and secure your own innovative, new-age applications. Style and approach This comprehensive, step-by-step guide to learning IBM Bluemix will cover everything that is required to build, deploy, manage, and secure an application on the cloud.