Enterprises can now benefit from AI-powered software development and modernisation without moving sensitive code, data, or workflows outside their controlled infrastructure.

Oct 1, 2026

LONDON, U.K., October 1, 2026 – Today IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced self-hosted deployment for IBM Bob, allowing organisations to bring AI software development to on-premises, private-cloud, sovereign-cloud, and air-gapped environments where they have control. Bob is IBM’s agentic software development platform that helps teams move beyond code generation to apply AI to the work of software delivery and modernisation.

Enterprises are investing heavily in AI-powered software development, but organisations that manage sensitive source code, regulated data, or mission-critical infrastructure often face strict security and compliance requirements that can limit their ability to use public AI platforms. For many organisations, especially those in regulated industries, AI adoption requires control over where AI runs, what data AI can access, and how AI systems are governed.

According to a report from Futurum Research, hybrid and edge deployments are projected to capture 44% of the AI infrastructure market by 2030 as organisations seek sovereign control alongside ecosystem connectivity, while public cloud share is projected to decline to 46% in that same timeframe.

IBM Bob’s self-hosted deployment option brings AI to customer-managed infrastructure and is specifically designed for organisations that require greater control over data residency, security policies, AI governance, and software development workflows. Unlike many AI coding and software development tools that require organisations to move data to external services, the self-hosted version of IBM Bob allows enterprises to deploy AI software development and modernisation capabilities in environments where their code, application context, and data already reside.

“The future of enterprise AI will depend on security, governance and sovereignty,” said Neel Sundaresan, GM of AI and Automation, IBM. “Organisations need AI that operates inside environments they have control over, especially when working with sensitive code and regulated data. Bob’s self-hosted deployment provides a way for enterprises to bring agentic AI directly to those environments so they can benefit from the technology while maintaining security, compliance, and operational control.”

Most enterprises operate software environments that contain sensitive data like intellectual property, proprietary source code, and regulated customer information. According to The Calculus of AI Sovereignty, a report published in June 2026 by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, 68% of surveyed executives say meeting data residency and sovereignty requirements across geographies is challenging.

Now, IBM Bob’s deployment flexibility can help enterprises address those requirements by allowing them to bring AI to the data instead of moving their data for the AI. Enterprises can run supported models on premises, including in air-gapped environments, using supported models they’ve licensed or connect Bob to supported external model services through hybrid configurations.

While many AI development tools have been designed primarily for cloud-native environments, enterprise modernisation often involves applications and data distributed across on-premises systems, private clouds and other controlled environments. IBM Bob’s deployment flexibility allows organisations to use AI for software development and modernisation across infrastructure environments and models, helping them achieve true AI adoption.

For additional information about self-hosted options for IBM Bob, visit: ibm.biz/bob-for-self-hosted-environments

Sources:

• “Sovereign AI: What Nations Want (And What They’ll Actually Get)” Futurum Research, 2026
• “The Calculus of AI Sovereignty” IBM Institute for Business Value, 2026