IBM Lets Regulated Enterprises Run Bob Coding Agent Behind the Firewall
IBM has announced that its Bob coding agent can now run on-premises, in private clouds, and in fully air-gapped environments. This move is aimed at addressing concerns about data sovereignty and security among regulated enterprises.
Bob is an agentic software development platform that was first made generally available as a SaaS offering in April. At the time, IBM said on-premises deployment would be available in a future release, which has now arrived.
The company pitches Bob as a partner across the software development lifecycle, from planning and design through coding, testing, deployment, and modernization. It coordinates specialized agents for code, tests, documentation, and pipelines, and includes approval checkpoints and security controls.
IBM has been its own biggest test case, with over 80,000 employees using Bob since internal use began in June 2025. Surveyed users report an average productivity gain of 45%.