IBM is bringing Apple’s Swift programming language to the cloud

Swift 2 new features

Swift, Apple’s new programming language for iOS and OS X development, was recently released to the community on an open-source basis and today computer giant IBM announced that it is bringing Swift to the cloud. As a result, people who write enterprise applications for the Mac, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad can now leverage the power of Apple’s modern programming language in writing server-side apps in Swift which support IBM’s cloud services.

The move is important as it breaks down barriers between front-end and back-end development. Now programmers can write both device and server-side code in Swift, which should help accelerate the adoption of Swift as a programming language of choice for business and enterprise apps. The news makes IBM the first cloud provider to enable the development of business applications in native Swift code.

“As one of the largest users of Swift for mobile app development, IBM has a deep understanding of the advantages of Swift and the knowledge to assist enterprises in maximizing the true potential that server-side Swift will provide,” reads the press release.

Developers can access IBM’s new Swift Sandbox in a browser to test their code.

Apps can be deployed using IBM’s Bluemix service or packaged for enterprise distribution to access IBM Cloud services using the Swift Package Catalog.

In just two months since Apple open-sourced the Swift language, more than 100,000 developers from around the world have used IBM’s Swift Sandbox and more than half a million code runs have been executed in the Swift Sandbox to date, said IBM.

More information can be found on IBM.com/Bluemix/Swift.

IBM also unveiled Kitura, a new open source web server written in Swift and available on both OS X and Linux, which makes building end-to-end applications on Bluemix and quickly deploying them in enterprise a reality.

Source: IBM