IBM boosted the accessibility of its software offerings running on top of Amazon Web Services (AWS), tapping into its Red Hat subsidiary to offer customers direct via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model that have been available to IBM Cloud customers.

The officially titled “strategic collaboration agreement” will see IBM and AWS jointly invest in making it easier for enterprises to sign up for and run IBM software. This will include access to IBM’s automation, data, artificial intelligence (AI), and security services running on top of the largest public cloud provider.

Michael Gilfix, VP for data and AI at IBM, explained that the initial services will include IBM Db2, API Connect, and Watson Orchestrate, with more services set to be added on a quarterly basis. Those services will run as cloud-native applications on AWS.

Gilfix said the two would collaborate on the design and feel of the services “so that they feel as native and as integrated in the AWS ecosystem as our customers would expect.” He explained that users just need to pay for the service and IBM will handle managing that service end-to-end.

“Before, they would have had to have manage the software themselves, either bringing their own license or buying it through the marketplace,” he said. “Our customers were demanding that we deliver them SaaS because many of them want to jettison the effort required to manage software, and they want to take advantage of the scalability and elasticity of cloud."

Users can also tap into IBM Consulting and Security Services teams for support.

The access is built on Red Hat’s OpenShift on AWS (ROSA) platform, which allows ROSA customers to have the same software work consistently across different environments. Gilfix described this as IBM’s “secret sauce” to accelerate bringing that technology to AWS with the “enterprise-grade SLAs and operations.”

That ROSA connection also makes the IBM services running natively on AWS available to other independent software vendors (ISVs) that want to develop applications that can run on the cloud using container technology.

“They can run in private clouds, they can run in the hyperscalers – there's an equivalent service that's available in different hyperscalers,” Gilfix said. “So it's a great opportunity for those ISVs to embrace that technology, and it's a great way for them to create stuff that then can run in the AWS ecosystem.”

IBM and AWS as part of the deal will also collaborate on integrated go-to-market activities across sales and marketing, channel incentives, developer enablement and training, and solution development for verticals and industries. These include oil and gas, travel, and transportation.