App Development for iOS is just plain easier on IBM Cloud

App Development for iOS is just plain easier on IBM Cloud

Digging through layers of cloud-integration documentation before even opening Xcode is precious time that you could spend building apps. In March 2018, Apple and IBM launched the IBM Cloud Developer Console for Apple to provide the fastest route to coding. It offers everything that you need to create a full-stack, production-ready cloud native application, no digging required.

To create an application with the IBM Cloud Developer Console for Apple, you can start from a pre-configured technology stack that is called a “starter kit“, or you can provision an IBM Cloud service to add to an existing application. Use the console to add incredible capabilities to your iOS project like extra security, faster artificial intelligence, or a backend application written in Swift.

1. Secure application data with Hyper Protect Services

Two major themes bookend the conversation around cloud adoption. You are being asked to move quickly to take advantage of scale and technologies offered through Cloud like AI, machine learning, IoT, and even quantum, but security and privacy concerns are in your mind if you move too quickly. Using IBM Hyper Protect Services, you can address both the innovation opportunity of AI and the need to strengthen security for the cloud. IBM Hyper Protect Services provide the following features:

• Encrypt your code and data that is stored in the IBM Cloud

• Protect all data in transit

• Keep all data safe in memory

With the IBM Cloud Developer Console for Apple, you can easily create an application that uses Hyper Protect Services with one of two available starter kits, or you can add a Hyper Protect Service to any other starter kit or existing application. For step-by-step instructions on how to create a secure application that uses Hyper Protect Services, follow our lab.

2. Speed up artificial intelligence by taking it offline with IBM Watson Visual Recognition (based on Core ML)

In March 2018, Apple and IBM also announced IBM Watson Visual Recognition with Core ML. Watson on the IBM Cloud allows you to integrate the world’s most powerful AI into your applications and store, train and manage your data in the most secure cloud. With Watson Visual Recognition, you can quickly and accurately tag, classify and train visual content using machine learning. Pairing IBM Watson Visual Recognition with Core ML allows you to run your vision models on your user’s iOS device, which provides three key benefits:

• speed

• offline access

• ability to capture user input for improving the model

To build an application that runs IBM Watson Visual Recognition locally on the iOS device, follow our lab.

3. Ease full-stack development by adding a Swift backend

IBM created the open source project Kitura, a web framework for Swift application development, which allows for backend application development in Swift. By using Kitura, you can easily transition your Swift skills to developing full-stack applications. If you’re already a server-side developer, you can take advantage of improved security with type safety and the smaller footprint of Swift. The IBM Cloud Developer Console for Apple offers two starter kits pre-configured for a backend for frontend (BFF) and microservice architecture pattern. To build an application with Kitura, start with one of those two starter kits then use the Swift Programming Guide to build out a backend application.

Create an IBM Cloud account and check out the IBM Cloud Developer Console for Apple to discover even more capabilities that can easily be added to your iOS applications.