IBM and Ionic to accelerate mobile app development

26 June 2015 Consultancy.uk

IT-giant IBM and app development framework Ionic have partnered up to help business users accelerate mobile app development. The deal will combine Ionic’s design capabilities with IBM’s mobile app creation platform, offering customers without software development skills a simple solution to develop and integrate new mobile apps.

Ionic is a hybrid app development SDK which offers a library of mobile-optimised HTML, CSS and JS components, gestures, and development tools for building highly interactive apps. The framework is entirely open-source so that developers can share their knowledge to help others build apps and continually improve.

IBM MobileFirst Platform
The IBM MobileFirst Platform helps clients create mobile apps that integrate data from enterprise systems that are contextual and personalised, continuously improving, and secure. The platform combines public and private cloud elements and can be used to integrate apps built with third party tools.

Ionic

To help business users without software development skills develop apps for mobile-first consumption, Ionic and IT-giant IBM have decided to partner up. The partnership will combine Ionic’s drag-and-drop app design capabilities, such as the Ionic Creator, with the IBM MobileFirst Platform.

Business managers can use the cloud-based Ionic Creator to prototype apps and collaborate with developer teams to integrate the app with existing systems and IT infrastructure, after which it can be deployed to end users with the IBM MobileFirst Platform. This offers them a mobile app development and enterprise integration solution that has the ability to reduce complexity while tapping into analytics, management and security capabilities.

IBM & Ionic to accelerate mobile app development

Commenting on the partnership, Max Lynch, Co-Founder and CEO of Ionic, says: “Teaming with IBM benefits our customers by expanding engagement with enterprise business users who don’t need a technical background to access the integration and quality assurance capabilities necessary to develop high quality apps.”

“IBM and Ionic are helping organisations increase revenues and employee productivity by enabling them to overcome challenges that could hamstring their mobile strategies – such as large mobile app backlogs and lack of skill sets,” adds Angel Diaz, Vice President, Cloud Architecture and Technology at IBM. “This agreement empowers organisations to quickly expand their app portfolios and benefit from open standards to enable developers to complete the last enterprise mile – making apps secure, integrated and easy to manage.”