Another Step Towards an Integrated IBM Cloud Experience

Share this post:

It’s no secret that we at IBM are constantly working to improve our IBM Cloud experience. Through IBM Design Thinking, we bring together designers, customers, developers, product managers, and sales to find what users need most out of our cloud. One continual confirmation is that customers want to bring the capabilities of both Bluemix and SoftLayer together, because the resulting solutions can become far more compelling than just using one or the other.

The problem? Bluemix and SoftLayer look and behave differently. That’s starting to change… and we’re so excited!

First Bluemix UI, and now SoftLayer UI

We have been listening to your feedback on the Bluemix UI and in February we introduced a brand new user experience (UX) that we believe will streamline many workflows. This new design allows you, the user, to focus on what you are building – great apps and infrastructure – along with a better experience of adding services to the solutions you are building so you can focus on your workflow (see the blog post The new Bluemix Look for more details).

Now in April, we take the next step: enhancing the SoftLayer customer portal with a complementary style. With this enhancement, users can start interacting with their infrastructure resources and their platform services and both consoles will start to look similar.

This first change only affects how the SoftLayer customer portal looks. We understand how many users depend on the customer portal every day, and we want to make changes wisely. Right now we are focusing on the main customer portal pages, and over the next few months you’ll see style enhancements appear in other configuration pages.

Notice that the navigation and links are all the same, but the styles are more in line with IBM Bluemix style.

Of course we are just getting warmed up! As stated earlier, our goal is to provide our cloud customers with an integrated experience across all of IBM Cloud Platform. As we practice cloud-native development techniques, we will be continuously rolling out enhancements that will bring Bluemix and SoftLayer closer and closer.

Authored by:
Amod Bhise, Senior Offering Manager for Bluemix (@amodbhise)
Greg Hintermeister, STSM – IBM Cloud Offering Manager – IBM Master Inventor (@greghint)