<s>
IBM	O
Cloud	O
,	O
(	O
formerly	O
known	O
as	O
Bluemix	O
)	O
is	O
a	O
set	O
of	O
cloud	B-Architecture
computing	I-Architecture
services	O
for	O
business	O
offered	O
by	O
the	O
information	O
technology	O
company	O
IBM	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
of	O
2021	O
,	O
IBM	O
Cloud	O
contains	O
more	O
than	O
170	O
services	O
including	O
compute	O
,	O
storage	B-Application
,	O
networking	B-Architecture
,	O
database	O
,	O
analytics	O
,	O
machine	O
learning	O
,	O
and	O
developer	O
tools	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
Technologies	O
,	O
Inc	O
.	O
(	O
now	O
IBM	O
Cloud	O
)	O
was	O
a	O
dedicated	O
server	O
,	O
managed	O
hosting	O
,	O
and	O
cloud	B-Architecture
computing	I-Architecture
provider	O
,	O
founded	O
in	O
2005	O
and	O
acquired	O
by	O
IBM	O
in	O
2013	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
initially	O
specialized	O
in	O
hosting	O
workloads	O
for	O
gaming	O
companies	O
and	O
startups	O
,	O
but	O
shifted	O
focus	O
to	O
enterprise	O
workloads	O
after	O
its	O
acquisition	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
had	O
bare-metal	B-General_Concept
compute	O
offerings	O
before	O
other	O
large	O
cloud	O
providers	O
such	O
as	O
Amazon	B-Application
Web	I-Application
Services	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
has	O
hosted	O
workloads	O
for	O
companies	O
such	O
as	O
The	O
Hartford	O
,	O
WhatsApp	B-Application
,	O
Whirlpool	O
,	O
Daimler	O
,	O
and	O
Macy	O
's	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Year	O
2005	O
:	O
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
was	O
established	O
in	O
2005	O
by	O
Lance	O
Crosby	O
and	O
several	O
of	O
his	O
ex-coworkers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Year	O
2010	O
-	O
August	O
:	O
GI	O
Partners	O
acquired	O
a	O
majority	O
equity	O
stake	O
in	O
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
in	O
August	O
2010	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Year	O
2010	O
-	O
November	O
:	O
In	O
November	O
of	O
that	O
year	O
it	O
merged	O
the	O
company	O
with	O
The	O
Planet	O
Internet	O
Services	O
,	O
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
's	O
biggest	O
competitor	O
,	O
and	O
consolidated	O
the	O
customer	O
base	O
under	O
the	O
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
brand	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Year	O
2013	O
June	O
4	O
:	O
On	O
June	O
4	O
,	O
2013	O
,	O
IBM	O
announced	O
its	O
acquisition	O
of	O
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
under	O
undisclosed	O
financial	O
terms	O
,	O
in	O
a	O
deal	O
that	O
according	O
to	O
Reuters	O
could	O
have	O
fetched	O
more	O
than	O
$2	O
billion	O
,	O
to	O
form	O
an	O
IBM	B-General_Concept
Cloud	I-General_Concept
Services	I-General_Concept
Division	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
At	O
the	O
time	O
of	O
acquisition	O
,	O
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
was	O
described	O
as	O
the	O
biggest	O
privately	O
held	O
cloud	O
infrastructure	O
provider	O
(	O
IaaS	B-General_Concept
)	O
in	O
the	O
world	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Year	O
2018	O
:	O
By	O
2018	O
,	O
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
was	O
renamed	O
to	O
IBM	O
Cloud	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
June	O
2013	O
,	O
IBM	O
acquired	O
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
,	O
a	O
public	O
cloud	O
platform	O
,	O
to	O
serve	O
as	O
the	O
foundation	O
for	O
its	O
IaaS	B-General_Concept
offering	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Bluemix	O
was	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
open	O
source	O
Cloud	B-General_Concept
Foundry	I-General_Concept
project	O
and	O
ran	O
on	O
SoftLayer	B-General_Concept
infrastructure	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
IBM	O
announced	O
the	O
general	O
availability	O
of	O
the	O
Bluemix	O
Platform-as-a-Service	B-Application
(	O
PaaS	B-Application
)	O
offering	O
in	O
July	O
2014	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
By	O
April	O
2015	O
,	O
Bluemix	O
included	O
a	O
suite	O
of	O
over	O
100	O
cloud-based	B-Architecture
development	B-Application
tools	I-Application
"	O
including	O
social	O
,	O
mobile	O
,	O
security	O
,	O
analytics	O
,	O
database	O
,	O
and	O
IoT	B-Operating_System
(	O
internet	B-Operating_System
of	I-Operating_System
things	I-Operating_System
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
year	O
after	O
announcement	O
,	O
Bluemix	O
had	O
made	O
little	O
headway	O
in	O
the	O
cloud-computing	O
platform	O
space	O
relative	O
to	O
its	O
competition	O
,	O
and	O
remained	O
substantially	O
behind	O
market	O
leaders	O
Microsoft	B-Application
Azure	I-Application
and	O
Amazon	B-Application
AWS	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
February	O
2016	O
,	O
IBM	O
Bluemix	O
includes	O
IBM	O
's	O
Function	B-Application
as	I-Application
a	I-Application
Service	I-Application
(	O
FaaS	B-Application
)	O
system	O
,	O
or	O
Serverless	B-General_Concept
computing	I-General_Concept
offering	O
,	O
that	O
is	O
built	O
using	O
open	O
source	O
from	O
the	O
Apache	O
OpenWhisk	O
incubator	O
project	O
largely	O
credited	O
to	O
IBM	O
for	O
seeding	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
system	O
,	O
equivalent	O
to	O
Amazon	B-Application
Lambda	I-Application
,	O
Microsoft	B-Application
Azure	I-Application
Functions	O
,	O
Oracle	B-General_Concept
Cloud	I-General_Concept
Fn	O
or	O
Google	B-General_Concept
Cloud	I-General_Concept
Functions	I-General_Concept
,	O
allows	O
calling	O
of	O
a	O
specific	O
function	O
in	O
response	O
to	O
an	O
event	O
without	O
requiring	O
any	O
resource	O
management	O
from	O
the	O
developer	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
May	O
2017	O
IBM	O
released	O
Kubernetes	B-General_Concept
support	O
as	O
the	O
IBM	O
Bluemix	O
Container	O
Service	O
,	O
later	O
renamed	O
to	O
the	O
IBM	O
Cloud	O
Kubernetes	B-General_Concept
Service	O
(	O
IKS	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
IKS	O
was	O
built	O
using	O
the	O
open	O
source	O
Kubernetes	B-General_Concept
project	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
system	O
,	O
equivalent	O
to	O
Amazon	B-Application
Web	I-Application
Services	I-Application
EKS	O
,	O
Microsoft	B-Application
Azure	I-Application
AKS	O
,	O
or	O
Google	B-General_Concept
Cloud	I-General_Concept
GKE	O
,	O
aims	O
to	O
provide	O
a	O
platform	O
for	O
automating	O
deployment	O
,	O
scaling	O
,	O
and	O
operations	O
of	O
application	O
containers	O
across	O
clusters	O
of	O
hosts	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
October	O
2017	O
,	O
IBM	O
announced	O
that	O
they	O
would	O
rebrand	O
their	O
cloud	O
as	O
IBM	O
Cloud	O
brand	O
,	O
merging	O
all	O
components	O
,	O
thus	O
retiring	O
the	O
Bluemix	O
and	O
Softlayer	B-General_Concept
brands	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
March	O
2018	O
,	O
IBM	O
launched	O
an	O
industry	O
first	O
managed	O
Kubernetes	B-General_Concept
service	O
on	O
bare	O
metal	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
July	O
2021	O
,	O
it	O
was	O
announced	O
that	O
SAP	B-Application
is	O
onboarding	O
two	O
of	O
its	O
finance	O
and	O
data	O
management	O
solutions	O
to	O
IBM	O
Cloud	O
for	O
Financial	O
Services	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
IBM	O
Cloud	O
continued	O
to	O
be	O
considered	O
a	O
leader	O
in	O
bare-metal	B-General_Concept
in	O
2020	O
,	O
and	O
distinguished	O
itself	O
by	O
providing	O
over	O
11	O
million	O
possible	O
custom	O
configurations	O
with	O
the	O
latest	O
Power	B-Device
,	O
Intel	O
,	O
and	O
AMD	O
CPUs	B-General_Concept
and	O
Nvidia	O
GPUs	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
