IBM aims to boost partners' open-source use
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(InfoWorld) - IBM wants to encourage more of its business partners to use its open-source, low-end application server and free entry-level database by giving those companies access to IBM sales, marketing and technical expertise at no charge. Partners who use IBM'sÂ WebSphere Application Server Community EditionÂ (WAS CE) or the vendor's DB2 Express-C database will be able to directly tap IBM staff for advice on integration, scalability, testing, and support issues and won't have to pay for the privilege, IBM said Wednesday. Such IBM feedback should help business partners bring their software based on WAS CE or DB2 Express-C more quickly to market, according to Rado Nikolov, director of strategy and emerging business, independent software vendor (ISV) and developer relations at IBM. The company will also help some partners create more buzz for their products in different geographies through free ongoing telemarketing campaigns and discounted advertising. Partners can also call on IBM sales staff for assistance in closing deals, he said. Such help can be accessed virtually or in person at IBM's 30-plus Innovation Centers worldwide where IBM provides training, testing and support for its hardware, software and services to partners and customers The new reach out to partners builds on the WAS CE partner initiative that IBM ran last year and offers wider benefits than the previous program, Nikolov said. The new initiative also includes DB2 Express-C. In 2006, through the help of the WAS CE program, more than 300 ISVs and systems integrators built applications based on the IBM application server, he added. Although IBM doesn't release specific figures, Nikolov claimed that WAS CE is being downloaded in as great a quantity as the more established rival application server from Red Hat's JBoss division. IBM acquired what became WAS CE through the May 2005 purchase of open-source startup Gluecode. WAS CE is based on the open-source Apache Geronimo project steered by the nonprofit Apache Software Foundation. DB2 Express-C first appeared just over a year ago, rubbing shoulders in an already crowded market with open-source offerings from MySQL and Ingres, as well asÂ free databases from OracleÂ and Microsoft. Would IBM consider releasing DB2 Express-C as open-source software? "At this point in time, it's not a consideration," Nikolov said. For the most part, users of the database don't appear to be interested in viewing the source code or having the ability to modify that code, he added. Both products provide low-end entry points to IBM's paid enterprise offerings, its WebSphere middleware and its DB2 enterprise database, respectively. The vendor is seeing partners and users start off with the free products and then ramp up to its paid software, Nikolov said. WAS CE continues to include IBM's embedded Cloudscape database. IBM positions Cloudscape as more of a repository than a database, while the larger size DB2 Express-C has much more functionality. However, it's up to users which database they choose to use, Nikolov said.
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IBM Corp. Monday introduced new services, dubbed Open Client, designed to make it easier for customers to run its Lotus collaboration software on a mixture of Windows and Linux desktop operating systems.
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InfoWorld - IBM is working on a project to enable agile development of Web 2.0 applications, but the effort has drawn criticism because it is not an open source endeavor.
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IBM is moving aggressively into the software space.
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IBM plans to announce Monday that it will contribute some of its speech-recognition software to two open-source software groups. The move is a tactical step by IBM to accelerate the development
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IBM Corp. is enhancing its software developer&#39;s support program by creating a software code exchange.
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Partners who use IBM's WebSphere Application Server Community Edition or the vendor's DB2 Express-C database will be able to directly tap IBM staff for advice on integration, scalability, testing and support issues and won't have to pay for the privilege.
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IBM is providing the open-source software community with access to 500 of its patents, promising more are to come.  Is this the beginning of the end of proprietary software? -washingtonpost.com
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IBM Corp.&#39;s Rational Software unit is considering putting parts of its Jazz collaboration framework into open source, according to an executive of the company.
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Harking to the belief that Linux is replacing Windows, Unix and other operating systems in small and medium-sized businesses, IBM unveiled a new server line optimized for the open source operating system.
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"Big Blue" may also earn the nickname "Big Linux Supporter" as IBM continues to embrace open-source efforts to hike its market share and challenge competitors, including Microsoft.
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IBM has announced virtual resources to help its business partners accelerate the building and deployment of on-demand business applications tailored to customer requirements across all vertical industries.
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(InfoWorld) - IBMÂ on Monday introduced new services, dubbed Open Client, designed to make it easier for customers to run its Lotus collaboration software on a mixture of Windows and Linux desktop operating systems. The Open Client services will include desktop management and application migration support and advice on best practices. Red Hat and its main Linux distribution rival, Novell, will provide operating system services. In coming up with the services, IBM applied lessons it learned during its own deployment of desktop operating systems, notably Red Hat's Enterprise Linux Workstation software, according to Jeff Smith, vice president, open source and Linux middleware for IBM. "It's about applying the right technology to the right user," he said. Roles-based computing is a concept most software vendors are touting, especially IBM's main groupware rival Microsoft. With Open Client and other initiatives, IBM's now seeking to differentiate itsÂ Lotus collaboration softwareÂ from Microsoft's Exchange offering by stressing its multiplatform capabilities. Microsoft doesn't provide support for Linux. IBM has also been slow to come out with versions of its Notes client and Sametime instant-messaging software that can run natively on the open-source operating system. The vendor onlyÂ announced native Linux support for NotesÂ and Sametime in July and August of last year respectively. Previously, users had to rely on Web clients or software emulation. It became easier for IBM to offer native Linux support once it moved to new base versions of its software, including Notes and Sametime. The new versions run on a middleware layer from the open-source Eclipse Foundation, which IBM calls the Eclipse Rich Client Platform, Smith said. Open Client covers Notes, Sametime, WebSphere Portal 6.0 for building portal applications and services accessible by a Web browser and Lotus Expeditor, an Eclipse-based client development platform for composite applications. IBM plans to add widen the scope of its Open Client services later this year to add in support for Apple's Macintosh operating system. The vendor also intends Open Client to include Lotus Notes 8, Lotus Connections and Lotus Quickr, when they ship later this year. In IBM's internal deployment, the company created a single software stack of its collaboration software so that staff could integrate their Lotus applications running on Windows or Linux into IBM's enterprise infrastructure. About 5 percent of IBM's 329,373 work force, some 16,468 staff, are running Lotus software on Linux, up from the 5,000 employees involved last year in beta testing the new versions of the vendor's collaboration software. The staff running Lotus on Linux include software and hardware developers, chip designers, Linux support and marketing staff and research groups. Linux doesn't yet make sense for IBM business consultants who use a mobile device as their main computer. "The capabilities are there to support just about every workload," Smith said. "The difference is what effort is required to pull it all together." Running applications on Linux on mobile devices is still more challenging than on desktops or servers. IBM's due to talk more about Open Client on Wednesday and Thursday at the LinuxWorld OpenSolutions Summit in New York, Smith said. Â
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InfoWorld - IBM&#160;hopes to bring BI to a wider audience of midmarket customers with a new software stack developed in partnership with Business Objects SA, industry sources said.
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IBM is hoping to provide commercial-level technical support to developers building applications using Eclipse open-source tools.
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IBM is expanding the number of third-part companies that can tap into its ISV partner support programs. An automated application system makes it easier for application software vendors to take
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Business intelligence software vendor Actuate is teaming up with the open-source movement in an effort to give its applications more exposure in the marketplace.