IBM Impact 2012: IBM unveils Mobile Foundation software and services line-up

IBM has taken the wraps of a portfolio of software and services designed to help businesses take advantage of new mobile device and app opportunities.

An ever-increasing amount of a company's IT spend is shifting into having to deal with mobile to be competitive. The money is shifting as opposed to it being new money.

Dubbed the Mobile Foundation, the latest member of IBM's software and services family takes advantage of the company's recent Worklight acquisition. It addresses key mobile concerns such as connectivity, app development and security and will enable businesses to extend and enhance their mobile strategies, including BYOD, in a cost-effective way, according to Big Blue.

"Core applications are changing. They're moving from the back office to the front office. Over $5 trillion of application investments are run on IBM systems," Marie Wieck, general manager of IBM's application and integration middleware group told delegates at the company's Impact 2012 conference today in Las Vegas.

"This is driving new connections to over a billion devices. This [number is] expected to grow further to 20 billion by 2015."

In addition to the number of devices growing, the addressable mobile market value is also on the up. At present, IBM is hoping to snaffle a large share of the $22 billion market. By 2015, this market is expected to top $36 billion.

The nature of development, who developers are and who they're developing for has changed, Wieck said, before asking the audience: "Are you able to tap into the new sources of talent and leverage those skills for your business?"

Mobile Foundation will support the creation and connection of mobile applications across the spectrum of platforms available from Android to iOS and everything in between.

IBM customer TBC, which provides tyres to the automotive repair market, also took to the stage during a press conference to explain the benefits it hopes to gain by using this new platform.

"We approach our mobile application suite from the human perspective first. This recognises that everyone leaves their house with a set of keys and their mobile phone," said John Capriotti, vice president of web and ecommerce at TBC.