IBM Software Hub v5.2 brings a strong set of technical updates that make it easier to deploy, manage, and monitor IBM’s Data and AI software on Red Hat OpenShift. It offers a single, streamlined interface for handling a wide variety of IBM services. Since it’s decoupled from IBM Cloud Pak for Data, users have the flexibility to install and run services like watsonx on their own terms. With support for customized deployments, users can pick the services they need from a central catalog and deploy them on the infrastructure that best fits their setup—whether that’s on-premises, in the cloud, or across a hybrid environment.
The premium features are available through Resource Units (RUs), making it easy to scale based on what your environment needs. One of the key additions is the Control Center, which brings multi-cluster and multi-instance support into a single, unified view. With it, administrators can register and manage multiple OpenShift clusters from one place, making it much easier to handle distributed environments without jumping between tools.
Another key feature of IBM Software Hub Premium is the Remote Data Plane (RDP), which allows a single Software Hub instance to span multiple physical OpenShift clusters. This includes support for GPU bursting and SPOT instance integration, enabling more dynamic and efficient resource utilization.
The IBM Software Hub AI Assistant, now generally available, is also part of the IBM Software Hub Premium feature set. It integrates IBM’s Granite LLMs to provide a GenAI-powered chatbot within the Software Hub console. The assistant delivers real-time insights, system diagnostics, and contextual recommendations, helping administrators maintain platform performance with greater precision.
The platform has been upgrade with a range of improvements designed to enhance serviceability, monitoring, and security, making management more streamlined and efficient.
The improved Elasticity and Scalability UI makes it easier than ever to monitor and manage instance and service resources directly from the administration console. Whether adjusting capacity or responding to demand, the Manual Scaling option allows for seamless switching between T-Shirt sizes, giving teams more flexibility. Additionally, services can now be restarted or shut down with a single click, allowing administrators to conserve CPU and memory resources efficiently and ensure optimal performance.
On the monitoring side, the platform now includes pre-defined network and storage event and alerts, offering a clearer picture of system health. Event-based alerts for certificate renewals and expirations help prevent last-minute disruptions, while project quota alerts ensure teams stay ahead of their resource usage. Meanwhile, the Software Hub Kubernetes Explorer brings an interactive visual catalog, showcasing Software Hubs kubernetes architecture of over 60 services. This explorer provides visibility to administrators into all kubernetes objects and their interdependencies within Software Hub deployments.
Security has also taken a big step forward. The new Certificate Management UI provides a streamlined, efficient experience for handling internal TLS certificates, making security processes smoother and more transparent, all within administration console. In addition to the events and alerts for certificates, administrators can now monitor and manage certificates, including renewals, without leaving the Software Hub console.
Together, these features make IBM Software Hub v5.2 a technically advanced platform for managing IBM’s Data and AI services in hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
To learn more about the new features and functionality check out the What's New section in the documentation.
Check out the announcements on ibm.com:
Introducing IBM Software Hub and Software Hub Premium
Making data work smarter: What’s new in IBM Cloud Pak for Data 5.2