Hoping to get more software developers to use its cloud services, IBM Corp. today announced more than 100 packages of software code that can be used to create chatbots, application containers, blockchain applications and more.

IBM noted that the proliferation of open-source software has made it more complex for developers to figure out which code to use and how to wade through all the documentation. The so-called Code Patterns are intended to help developers hit the ground running with free code, easily accessible repositories on GitHub and documentation for a wide variety of use cases such as AI, cloud, big data and blockchain.

One, for example (demonstrated below), can analyze Twitter handles and hashtags for sentiment and content. Another helps developers host a graph database, a hot new way to store and access data, in the cloud. They also cover areas such as orchestration of application containers, data science, analytics, microservices and serverless applications that free developers from the dirty work of provisioning servers and storage. They can be searched by industry, keyword, popularity and other criteria.

IBM needs the support of more developers for its cloud, which trails far behind leader Amazon Web Services Inc. as well as Microsoft Corp.’s Azure and Google Cloud Platform. As more companies move their computing workloads from their own data centers to those run by the cloud providers, IBM stands to lose ground as a technology leader –unless it can both persuade existing customers not to stray and capture new, fast-growing startups that start their business in the cloud.

Most of these Code Patterns can run on other cloud platforms as well, but IBM clearly hopes to make it easy for them to be used on its cloud.

“We don’t do this for peace, love and happiness,” Angel Diaz (pictured), IBM’s vice president of developer advocacy. “We want to create ecosystems of skill bases that then run on our platform.”

IBM came up with these packages in the process of working directly with its own customers and then codifying the software and processes so they’re more widely applicable beyond a single company.

“These are the things people are trying to do over and over and over again,” Diaz said. “We’ve worked with hundreds of developers and clients to tease out common patterns.”

Diaz added that IBM is constantly updating the code with new open source software as it emerges, so the code won’t be stale. Developers can do whatever they want with the code, such as “forking” or customizing it to their companies’ requirements.

Talking chatbots

The company has focused a lot of energy in particular on bots, which increasingly are used to provide customer service and other services in applications. To that end, IBM is introducing a Bot Asset Exchange for software bot builders to make the bots easier to use in other apps and services, especially in large enterprises.

“Imagine I’m a developer who works at insurance company, and I want to create conversation around insurance quotes,” Diaz explained. “I can look at top five in the Bot Asset Exchange and choose the best one” for a the specific kind of customer conversation the company needs in the application.

In particular, the developer doesn’t need to know how to take text or conversation and convert it to something a computer can understand, because IBM has a service that does that. Then they can deploy the bots, which use IBM Watson Conversation, its system for creating bots and virtual assistants.

Finally, IBM today said it’s launching the Coder Community, a program to help developers learn about IBM technologies and connect with company developers and open-source communities worldwide.

Photo: IBM