About IBM Cloud
IBM Cloud is an enterprise cloud platform from IBM for building, running and managing applications across hybrid and multicloud environments. It combines infrastructure, platform services, AI and automation with security and compliance controls, and IBM positions it for regulated industries and mission-critical workloads.
Key capabilities named by the vendor include hybrid and multicloud deployment across on-premises systems and several cloud providers, built-in security and encryption, and a wide range of compute and storage services. Management as code and deployable architectures support governance, and automation covers integration, deployment and compliance.
IBM Cloud is a commercial, hosted service with a pricing section and a free sign-up path. Its audience is large organizations in sectors such as finance, healthcare and government that need compliance support and the ability to modernize at their own pace instead of moving everything at once.
Key features
- Hybrid and multicloud application deployment
- Compute and storage services
- Built-in security, encryption and compliance controls
- Deployable architectures managed as code
- AI and automation services
Good fit for
- →Running regulated workloads in finance or healthcare
- →Modernizing enterprise applications gradually
- Tags
- cloud
- iaas
- paas
- hybrid-cloud
- multicloud
- enterprise
- ibm
IBM Cloud: questions and answers
- What is IBM Cloud used for?
- IBM Cloud is IBM's public cloud, combining compute, storage, AI and hybrid cloud services for enterprise and regulated workloads. It is a good fit for running regulated workloads in finance or healthcare and modernizing enterprise applications gradually.
- Is IBM Cloud free?
- Yes. IBM Cloud has a free plan.
- Is IBM Cloud open source?
- No. IBM Cloud is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to IBM Cloud include Ubicloud.
- What are some alternatives to IBM Cloud?
- IBM Cloud competes with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source IBM Cloud alternatives.
Open-source alternatives to IBM Cloud
See all
Ubicloud
Hosting & PaaS
Ubicloud is an open source cloud that can run anywhere. Our cloud services include elastic
AGPL-3.0vs Amazon Web Services★ 12k
Coolify
Hosting & PaaS
Self-hosting platform with superpowers. Deploy apps, databases & 280+ services to your
Apache-2.0vs Heroku★ 62k
Dokploy
Hosting & PaaS
Open-source self-hostable Platform as a Service (PaaS) that simplifies the deployment and
OSSvs Heroku★ 38k
Dokku
Hosting & PaaS
A docker-powered PaaS that helps you build and manage the lifecycle of applications
MITvs Heroku★ 32k
Sealos
Hosting & PaaS
Deploy real projects from GitHub or your AI coding agent, then keep them running with AI-p
OSSvs Heroku★ 18k
CapRover
Hosting & PaaS
Scalable PaaS (automated Docker+nginx) - aka Heroku on Steroids
OSSvs Heroku★ 15k
SaaS alternatives to IBM Cloud
See all
Amazon Web Services
Hosting & PaaS
Cloud platform with compute, storage, databases and hundreds of managed services
SaaS
Microsoft Azure
Hosting & PaaS
Microsoft cloud platform for virtual machines, app hosting, data and AI services
SaaS
Google Cloud Platform
Hosting & PaaS
Google cloud platform for compute, storage, data analytics and machine learning
SaaS
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Hosting & PaaS
Oracle cloud for compute, databases and enterprise workloads
SaaS
Alibaba Cloud
Hosting & PaaS
Cloud computing platform with compute, storage, databases and AI services
SaaS
Rackspace Technology
Hosting & PaaS
Managed multicloud services and hosting provider
SaaS

