IBM has made improvements to a set of services available through its cloud platform Bluemix, with the aim of enabling developers to integrate Java-based resources into their cloud-based applications.

With the new IBM Cloud tools, developers will be able to broaden the capabilities of their applications by utilising additional security and flexibility, providing users with a more robust cloud experience.

As part of the improvements, the IBM Eclipse Tools for Bluemix has been upgraded to include JavaScript Debug, support for Node.js applications, Java 8 Liberty for Java integration, and Eclipse Mars support along with improved trust self-signed certificates capability.

The runtime has been updated in the Liberty Buildpack to preview the latest Java EE 7 Liberty features.

Developers will be able to test and run applications in Bluemix with Java 8, while BM JRE 7.1 will remain the default. The beta of jsp-2.3, el-3.0, and jdbc-4.1 features has now been made production-ready.

Developers will also be able to introduce and market feature-rich, responsive, and secure applications through XPages on IBM Bluemix.

IBM highlighted that the Bluemix catalogue includes over 100 tools and services with prominent open-source technologies that can be combined with IBM and third party services to help developers build, run and manage cloud applications with more flexibility.

Bluemix is quickly becoming the largest Cloud Foundry deployment in the world, according to IBM.