Realizing the value proposition of Java Virtual Machine (JVM), IBM is trying to bring JVM to the cloud environment for the benefit of that platform in mobile and cloud devices. For those who are not aware about Java Virtual Machine, it is an open source program developed by Sun that allows you to load and run Java applications that run on any software or hardware with a JVM version installed.

Apparently, IBM is conducting a research to realize its intentions revealed by Jan Rellermeyer researcher at IBM Research, who spoke at Design Automation Conference in Austin, Texas.

“If the research project works out, it might be considered the operating system of the future for both embedded systems and the cloud. JVM is the well-known open software created at Sun that facilitates write-once, run-anywhere applications. The idea behind trying to establish JVM as a software stack in the cloud is to facilitate a continuous platform experience between JVM-based applications running in the cloud and mobile devices.

The question is how we can turn JVM into more of a cloud-type platform. IBM is considering what architectural changes it can make with JVM to make it more scalable and amenable to the foundation of PaaS as well as more lightweight in general,” Rellermeyer noted.

Java itself as a language is common in the industry because it’s useful for cross-platform programming and had its heyday as the language of mobile for a while. It also provides an object-oriented paradigm that many developers are familiar with. As a result, a cloud-based JVM can leverage already-existing developer knowledge for companies who don’t want to retrain or hire new staff to write for different platforms.

“Java has a long history of being designed to work across a multitude of devices and adding the cloud just gives it more area to branch into,” adds Kyt Dotson, DevOps editor. “In my stint as a developer, Java was useful because it was possible to exchange objects as computational as well as data resources for execution and the cloud is exactly that–building the need for computation locally and offloading the actual heavy lifting.”

In essence, Java programs on devices could be run on local devices (slower, but still effective offline) or even offload themselves into a cloud JVM given a strong network connection and run much faster. IBM may be onto something extremely useful for when it comes to device or even environment agnosticism.