IBM Corp. today announced a self-hosted deployment option for IBM Bob, its agentic software development platform, allowing enterprises to use artificial intelligence to build and modernize applications within their own infrastructure..

The offering supports on-premises, private-cloud, sovereign-cloud and air-gapped environments. It targets organizations whose sensitive source code, regulated data or critical systems limit their ability to use externally hosted AI development services.

Bob extends AI assistance beyond code generation into software delivery and modernization. IBM said the new deployment option gives customers greater control over data residency, security policies, governance and development workflows.

“Organizations need AI that operates inside environments they have control over, especially when working with sensitive code and regulated data,” said Neel Sundaresan, IBM’s general manager of AI and automation.

The announcement addresses a recurring obstacle to enterprise AI adoption: applying the technology to applications without moving sensitive information outside approved environments. IBM cited a June report from its Institute for Business Value in which 68% of surveyed executives said meeting data residency and sovereignty requirements across geographies is challenging.

Enterprises can run supported models locally or connect Bob to external model services through hybrid configurations, choosing where AI processing occurs according to each workload’s requirements.

In a background post, IBM said the self-hosted option is generally available and retains core Bob capabilities, including its BobShell integrated development environment, parallel tool calling, skills and operating modes. The platform helps developers understand applications, plan changes, carry out development work and validate results.

Customers must provide access to a supported model. For models installed and managed on customers’ infrastructure, IBM currently supports Nvidia Corp.’s Nemotron and Poolside Inc.’s Laguna. Hybrid configurations support connections to external model services, giving organizations another option for workloads with different security or operational needs.

IBM said a supported self-hosted model configuration allows source code, development context and build artifacts to remain within the customer-managed environment. Customers can also use eligible existing model investments through a bring-your-own-license arrangement.

The company offered a financial institution as an example, saying developers could use local model processing for core banking software while connecting to an approved external service for less restricted work. Using Bob would ensure that developers retain a consistent experience across those configurations.

Optional premium packages extend Bob to Java modernization and IBM i and IBM Z platforms, subject to licensing and deployment requirements. IBM is positioning the offering for financial services, government, healthcare and critical infrastructure organizations as well as businesses seeking to protect intellectual property.

Investors liked the news. They sent IBM shares up more than 3% in late trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Image: IBM