IBM has announced that it has partnered with 21Vianet Group, Inc., a leading Chinese carrier-neutral internet data center services provider, in order to make its cloud computing platform ‘Bluemix’ available in China.

As part of the agreement, IBM will provide access to Bluemix technologies, while 21Vianet will provide the infrastructure and be responsible for the end-to-end operation of Bluemix in China. In addition, both companies will work towards building and expanding a strong Bluemix ecosystem in China, in order to drive other developers and large enterprises to adopt similar models of hybrid cloud-based development to efficiently build new apps and technologies. 

"Cloud computing is the cornerstone for helping organizations drive innovation and entrepreneurship in China. We believe that the launch of Bluemix will help China’s burgeoning community of developers create apps that have the power to impact and change industries throughout the country,” said Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president, IBM Cloud. “The collaboration with 21Vianet Group builds on the growing global adoption of Bluemix, and we are excited to bring it to the rapidly expanding developer population of China." 

Launched in 2014 with a $1 billion investment, IBM Bluemix has grown rapidly to become the largest Cloud Foundry deployment in the world. The open-standards-based Bluemix catalog includes over 120 tools and services spanning categories of big data, mobile, Watson, analytics, integration, DevOps, security and Internet of Things (IoT).

Earlier in May, IBM announced that its IBM Blockchain service on Bluemix is now available in beta. The beta version, with several new and exciting features, will enable users to build blockchain applications in the cloud.

The collaboration between IBM and 21Vianet will usher in a new era of hybrid cloud-driven innovation and next-generation cognitive, analytics and IOT app development for developers and enterprises in China, the official release said.

“IBM is a global, leading enterprise-level cloud computing provider.  Today's news is the extension of IBM’s collaboration with 21Vianet in 2014 on Cloud Managed Services. 21Vianet will now also work with IBM to promote the development of enterprise cloud computing in China”, Josh Chen, Chairman and CEO of 21Vianet Group, Inc., said. “Using Bluemix, we’ll provide more open enterprise cloud computing development environments, and build a complete enterprise cloud computing ecosystem with other domestic and foreign services providers throughout the country.”