IBM Corp. is reaching out to software coders with a new application development environment called Microclimate that supports multiple cloud platforms.

IBM reckons that Microclimate has everything a developer needs to simplify and speed up application creation and deployment. Microclimate is an “end-to-end framework” that can be used in every stage of the development process, from writing the first line of code to monitoring an app’s performance after it goes into production.

The main idea with Microclimate is that developers can build their apps inside the framework and then run them on any cloud or information technology infrastructure. To do this, it uses Docker containers, which isolate the apps so they can easily be switched to different environments, including public and private clouds, or even an individual laptop.

In a blog post, Andy Hoyt, vice president of the Developer Experience for IBM Hybrid Cloud, said one of the main distinctions of Microclimate is it supports app development based on microservices architectures. It enables microservices, which are components of container-based applications, to work with each other regardless of where they were first built. Microclimate also integrates with IBM Cloud Private, which is IBM’s container-based platform for developing software on-premises or in private clouds.

Another key feature of Microclimate is that it supports multiple frameworks, runtimes, integrated development environments, toolchains and pipelines. This means developers can build apps on the platform using the tools and services they’re already familiar with.

“Our goal in creating Microclimate was to streamline the development process, so you can spend more time writing code and less time trying to cobble together all the services you need to create great apps,” Hoyt said.

Other features of Microclimate include integrated diagnostic services to help fix any problems that may crop up during the development process, plus an integrated DevOps pipeline that helps developers to get their creations out of the door faster.

The free community version of Microclimate can be downloaded today.

Image: IBM