Come learn about IBM’s new cloud development platform: IBM Bluemix
IBM Bluemix is an open-standards, cloud-based platform for building, managing and running apps and services of all types (web, mobile, big data, new smart devices). Capabilities include Java, mobile backend development, application monitoring, as well as capabilities from ecosystem partners and open source â all through an as-a-service model in the cloud.
The 200 IBM Bluemix Days include Meetups, Bluemix Advantage sessions, and Hands-On Bluemix Workshops.
Events highlights
Bluemix Advantage: Developers and business leaders alike will benefit from hearing how Bluemix and SoftLayer offer a low-risk, secure, cost sensitive environment – using new capabilities and technologies geared towards the cloud. Take advantage of the opportunity to learn how to differentiate and leap-frog your competition with IBM Bluemix and SoftLayer.
Bluemix Hands-On Workshops:Â Â Take the opportunity to build and deploy applications and services like DevOps and Data in a matter of hours on Bluemix (built on SoftLayer)!Â
As part of this workshop you will be able to:
Learn the fundamentals of building and deploying your application in the Cloud (Bluemix DevOps Services)
Work with Bluemix experts on how to use the product and migrate your application
Help shape Bluemix with your input and feedback
Data Management Services hands-on lab
Bring your own simple application or use our sample labs and learn how to build and deploy on Bluemix.
Bluemix Meetups:Â Â Participants can relax, network and listen to IBM experts provide an overview and live demo of Bluemix.
IBM Bluemix Academic Hackathon: Ready to put your IBM Bluemix skills to the test? Take part in an IBM Bluemix hackathon! The Bluemix hackathon introduces participants to IBM Bluemix and IBM DevOps Services. Participants use this unique opportunity to showcase their innovative skills and build their dream app.
This hackathon is designed to teach you fundamentals of building and deploying your application in the Cloud and critical cloud services like Security, Mobile, Big Data, Analytics.
Hackathons are available for our academic faculty and students as well as partners eager to build their cloud skills.
Free at 200 Bluemix Days!  *** Power 8 SDK****Â
Space is limited! Sign up today for a 200 Bluemix Days session near you!!
“Today marks the general availability of IBM Bluemix, our open cloud platform intended to facilitate rapid development of applications in the cloud. With more than 50 services and flexible, pay-as-you-go pricing, the GA adds a lot of new functions since our last beta refresh at the end of May.
Below, Iâll give you a glimpse of all of the cool features that are live and available right now.
Pricing and Free Accounts
Ok, letâs get the business part of this out of the way right up front â basic accounts remain free. If you donât already have an account, you can just go to www.bluemix.net, register, and get free instant access to a 30-day trial without a credit card. After registration, youâll start with a trial that allows you to build apps and add services at no charge. When the trial is over, youâll continue to have access to freebies and youâll pay only for what you use above and beyond that. Youâll have a lot of flexibility to choose the runtime usage levels and service plans that best meet your needs as shown on the new Bluemix Pricing page.
Solutions & New Services
Bluemix is about helping you quickly compose building blocks to solve your problems. With that in mind, weâre providing Solutions Pages to inform you about the extensive number of services in these major categories:
The list of services in these areas keeps growing. Today, 7 new services have been made available to aid with business analytics, devops, internet of things, and security:
AppScan Dynamic Analyzer Brings the power of AppScanâs proven Dynamic Application Security Testing to the Cloud, identifying security issues in web applications to help you ensure that they are secure.
AppScan Mobile Analyzer Brings the power of AppScan to Android mobile applications, identifying security issues in your mobile apps, to help you ensure that they are not vulnerable to malware.
App User Registry Provides a basic app security framework, enabling you to create a user registry with authentication and authorization for their apps.
Continuous Delivery Pipeline Automates builds and test execution, configures build scripts, and automates execution of unit tests. Automatically build and deploy your application to Bluemix.
Embeddable Reporting Provides a mechanism to connect to relational sources, create reports/dashboard, and embed within applications by using RESTful APIs.
Gamification Adds gaming technology to your application to increase user engagement and improve business outcomes.
Geospatial Analytics Expands the boundaries of your application. Leverage real-time geospatial analytics to track events and understand when devices enter defined regions.
Service Migration
If you made use of services during the beta period, there have been some changes you should know about. For some services, you may need to take action to migrate to the GA-level version.
Catalog
The Bluemix Catalog is the place you go to start building apps and creating services/add-ons. Weâve made several enhancements to the catalog to give you more information and to help you find things faster:
Ability to explore the rich set of app starters, services, and add-ons even without an account
Construction of separate âdetailsâ pages for all starters and services which provide links to documentation, terms of use, and full plan/pricing information
Enhanced search/filtering capabilities, such as being able to limit the catalog to show only Starters, Services, or Add-onsÂ
General layout and styling improvements
Special indicators for beta and experimental services/add-ons
Dashboard
The Dashboard allows you to manage the apps and services youâve created. For GA, there are some important improvements in this key area of the Bluemix UI:
Addition of list views to make it easier to work with long lists of apps and services â one of my personal favorites!
Enhanced action bar to make it easier to find actions. For example, the circled buttons in the screenshot below allow toggling between card and list views.
Restyling of app and service cards to make it easier to quickly understand the info thatâs shown
Other UI Updates
In addition to the significant Catalog and Dashboard additions, there are some other miscellaneous improvements to note:
Updated account page which allows you to see detailed usage information across all of your apps and services on an organization-by-organization basis.
Display of important system notifications & announcements upon login.
Ability to find deep diagnostic info for apps created with certain runtimes. For example, if you have apps using Liberty for Java, then you will have access to Java traces and dumps.
Enhanced Mobile Support
Mobile is a huge part of Bluemix, and the GA brings a lot of cool enhancements for mobile developers. These include updates to the Mobile SDK and added functionality to mobile services. And, to help those who were in the beta, a migration guide is available.
Documentation
We want to make it as easy as possible for you to find samples and other information so you can focus on writing code. With that in mind, our Bluemix Documentation site now has a completely new look and feel. In addition, weâve added a bunch of new content.
New Domain Name
Apps developed by our users now use mybluemix.net as their default domain (as announced previously). And, of course, you still have the option of using custom domains.
Eclipse Tools for Bluemix
For the large community of developers who use Eclipse or the WebSphere Application Server Developer Tools (WDT), our Eclipse Tools for Bluemix is now generally available. This Eclipse plugin allows you to seamlessly deploy your JavaScript, WAR files, EAR files, and Liberty Profile packaged servers to Bluemix. And, you can download it right now for free! In addition, detailed instructions for using the tools are available in the Bluemix documentation.
Whatâs Next?
We hope you enjoy the GA updates. Weâre always striving to improve Bluemix to give you the best experience possible. So, if you have questions or other feedback, please let us know on the Bluemix Dev-to-Dev Community or tweet us at @IBMBluemix.  Finally, if you want to talk to other Bluemix developers in person, check out one of the local Bluemix meetups in your area.”