IBM launches self-hosted option for bob, enabling secure agentic software development

IBM has expanded its agentic software development platform, Bob, by introducing a self-hosted deployment option available to enterprise customers as of October 3, 2026. This option allows organizations to run Bob on-premises, in private or sovereign clouds, and in air-gapped environments, ensuring code and development context remain within the customer’s infrastructure. IBM emphasizes that the self-hosted version does not include a pre-bundled model, requiring customers to source and license a supported model from IBM’s list, which is categorized by deployment method. The platform enables consistent developer experiences while allowing platform and security teams to maintain control over the architecture. IBM also plans to expand its model portfolio and introduce multi-model routing, though these features are currently part of the roadmap rather than shipped capabilities. The move targets modernization of legacy systems, particularly Java, IBM i, and mainframe code, in environments that cannot access the public internet.