IMB Brings Apple’s Swift Programming Language to the Cloud

IBM has announced that they will be the first cloud computing provider to embrace the native development of Apple’s Swift programming language. They bring a preview of Swift runtime and a Swift Package Catalog to help enable developers to create apps for the enterprise. IBM is looking to simplify the development of end-to-end enterprise apps on the IBM Cloud.

There are three ways developers can now use Swift on the IBM Cloud:

• 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.

“Modern digital apps require a modern programming language. Swift is easy-to-learn, reliable, fast and interactive, the key traits that CIOs look for when building the next generation of enterprise mobile apps,” said Michael Gilfix, Vice President, IBM MobileFirst Offering Management. “Swift on the Cloud is an opportunity for enterprises to radically simplify the development of end-to-end applications and therefore reach new levels of productivity.”

IBM Swift engineers are also working with the growing Swift.org developer community and are most notably focused on contributing to concurrency on multicore hardware, which is critical for enterprise-scale workloads. IBM is excited to announce the release of a number of resources that will further enable the community to explore, build and share Swift assets.

IBM is maturing the use of Swift as a server-side language for enterprise development. Traditionally, different technologies are used to develop the application on the client and the business logic on the server. By bringing Swift beyond the client to the server, IBM is breaking down barriers between front-end and back-end development, which can provide enterprises a single language to build rich experiences and back-end business logic. Enterprises can benefit from increased speed and efficiency while simultaneously taking advantage of growing availability of Swift skills. Using Swift on the server also introduces a simpler, more secure tool chain for end-to-end application development.

Introduced in 2014, Swift is one of the fastest growing and most widely used programming languages. In just over two months since Apple open sourced the Swift language and IBM released its Swift Sandbox for early exploration of server-side programming in Swift, more than 100,000 developers from around the world have used the IBM Swift Sandbox and more than half a million code runs have been executed in the Sandbox to date.

Lean more about Swift here and check out our Mobile Application Development Platforms Buyer’s Guide to find out more about how to develop enterprise mobile apps.

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