IBM Focuses On A Better WebSphere App Server
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IBM on Wednesday unveiled the next major upgrade of its WebSphere application server, which focuses on better performance and ease of use, instead of dramatically new functionality.
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The WS-Management spec is part of the effort to improve Sun-Microsoft system interoperability. But IBM is taking a different road.
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IBM on Friday unveiled new low-cost storage servers that the computer giant&#39;s using to undercut wares from rivals Hewlett-Packard and Dell/EMC in the small- and mid-sized markets.
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PeopleSoft will include free copies of IBM&#39;s WebSphere middleware products with every set of its applications sold. Both companies will market the joint products and will collaborate to improve future interoperability.
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IBM has announced Version 6 of its WebSphere Application Server software, which is designed to protect applications from server downtime and aid enterprise efforts to build a service-oriented architecture.
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BEA Systems said it will release a test version of its latest WebLogic Server software later this month, and the company also detailed product delivery plans for next year.
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Company looks to juice its application server business with a version tuned for smaller organizations.
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(InfoWorld) - IBMÂ unveiled a Web site and IT security software application Thursday as part of its effort to compete with Hewlett-PackardÂ and SunÂ for customers in the fast-growing SMB sector. New customers can share tips on how to migrate from servers to mainframes on the Web site, which acts as an online community for users, system integrators, software vendors, and academic institutions. Existing customers can use the enhanced z/VM virtualization software to support more virtualized memory or use the new Tivoli zSecure V1.8.1 suite to monitor threats and enforce compliance. IBM created the new version of zSecure with technology from itsÂ first-quarter acquisition of Consul Risk Management. That purchase is part of IBM's strategy to spend $100 million toÂ simplify its mainframe platformÂ by 2011, hoping to persuade businesses to buy its System z9 mainframe computers instead of high-end servers. IBM sells an enterprise-class version of its z9 for large corporations and a business-class version for SMBs. Compared to servers running on chips from Sun or Intel, customers can save money by using power-efficient mainframes, said Jim Stallings, general manager of System z for IBM's systems and technology group. "The biggest reason customers are drawn to the mainframe -- a trend we've seen for more than 10 years now -- is power," Stallings said. "Servers running on the faster chips and greater numbers of chips draw an enormous amount of power, and our smaller customers can't get that power. I'm talking about basic electricity." The streamlined architecture of the mainframe makes it attractive to customers who need to process large amounts of information, such as financial services firms and hedge funds, he said. That group is quickly growing to include midrange banks, including the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus and Nexar, an Internet banking company in Belgium. "SMB customers are realizing that they cannot afford to change their infrastructure every two years because it's too expensive. The cost comes not so much in the hardware as in training people to administer it," Stallings said. "Our customers came to us and said, 'We want to migrate more work to the mainframe because of the economics. We're way over the religious debates about which processor is faster -- we don't care -- we need better economics.'" IBM is making a big bet on its mainframe business with the $100 million investment, but the gambit may pay off. In theÂ first quarter of 2007, the company credited strong growth in its software and system z sectors for an 8 percent increase in net income to $1.8 billion and a 6.6 percent increase in revenue to $22 billion, compared to the same period in 2006.
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The Express version of the new WebSphere server is targeted at the small and midsized business market. &quot;The SMB market has become much more pivotal and crucial to everyone,&quot; according to Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio.
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IBM&#39;s affections for service-oriented architectures deepened today when Big Blue offered details on the impending version 6 release of WebSphere Application Server.
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(InfoWorld) - It may be too early to talk plug-and-play but IBMÂ believes it can help businesses of all sizes easily cluster their servers to handle intensive computing workloads. Leveraging its expertise in high-end computing and vertical industry applications, IBM has launched several initiatives to allow small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) and the departments of large enterprises to integrate their servers -- from as few as two to many thousands -- into computing clusters designed for high-performance computing tasks, the company said Wednesday. Initially targeted at the businesses in the life sciences, computer-aided engineering, and finance sectors, IBM will offer preconfigured "snap-together" cluster systems for customers using the company's computers and storage devices. The systems are designed to run on Linux and Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 operating systems and will include networking technology from companies such as Cisco Systems. The collaboration with Microsoft will allow businesses to use parallel processing on clusters to free up client machines from long-running applications. ISVs (independent software vendors) and business partners will receive tools to help them introduce IBM's cluster systems. These include sizing guides with predefined cluster configurations for simple ordering and installation. IBM business partners have access to the company's Cluster Enablement Team for technical questions and advice. For customers, software vendors and business partners running Microsoft cluster servers, IBM has four new benchmarking facilities in Poughkeepsie, New York, Raleigh, North Carolina, Beaverton, Oregon and Montpelier, France. These centers join a network of global Linux benchmark centers. To attract businesses interested in computing clusters, IBM's Deep Computing Capacity on Demand centers will give them access to more than 20,000 processors to test the technology for themselves. IBM offers a range of products that support computing clusters, including its System x, System p and BladeCenter servers, as well as the IBM System Storage and IBM System Cluster 1350.
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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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(InfoWorld) - IBMÂ is embarking on a five-year campaign to promote mainframe computers by making the systems easier to configure and operate, and to promote them as an alternative to server network computing. IBM is investing $100 million to enable information technology administrators to manage mainframes in enterprises and help programmers to more easily automate the process of developing and deploying software to run on mainframes, the company said Wednesday. "This is the first step in a five-year journey to make the mainframe easier to use," said Bob Hoey, worldwide vice president of sales for IBM's System z mainframes. Some large enterprises with networks of 30-50 servers are potential candidates for migration to an entry-level mainframe system, Hoey said, although enterprises with fewer than 30 servers may not be. Still, a lot of IT managers may be intimidated by the complexity of operating a mainframe even though it has advantages over server network architecture, he said. Among the features IBM will add to its mainframe capabilities: Automated configuration checking for system administrators to predict and avoid technical problems; improved software asset management; and a simplified user interface for network configuration and management designed with "existing IT staff and the new generation of IT workers in mind," IBM said. Making the mainframe more approachable to a new generation of programmers makes sense to Vernon Turner, an IDC analyst. "Kids today coming out of college who grew up enjoying a different look and feel when they are programming and when they are trying to get their systems up. At least this look and feel is something they are familiar with," Turner said of the user interface IBM is adding to its mainframe capabilities. A mainframe could be a more efficient use of computing power than a server network, said IBM's Hoey. Some Intel-powered servers may have utilization levels of as little as 5 percent to 15 percent and Unix-based servers just 15 percent to 25 percent, Hoey said, because some servers may be dedicated to running only one software application. But a mainframe that combines all of an enterprise's applications onto one computer can operate at 80 percent to 100 percent utilization. "From a return-on-assets perspective, a mainframe does a better job of managing workload," he said. Market research confirms mainframes remain a corporate staple. According to Gartner Inc., large mainframe users have been increasing their mainframe environments -- measured in MIPS (millions of instructions per second) -- steadily over the past four years. Most of these users will continue to increase their installed MIPS at a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent to 20 percent through 2009, Gartner estimates. IDC reports the mainframe continues to hold its ground against competing platforms. Support for new Linux and Java workloads, for instance, will help drive MIPS shipments up 14.2 percent in 2006 and 9.2 percent next year, the research firm reports. In the big picture, however, IDC expects mainframe spending to drop to 6.2 percent ($3.9 billion) of overall server spending in 2010, from 8.9 percent ($4.9 billion) in 2005.
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IBM has released the latest version of the core middleware product of WebSphere, its application server platform, promising new autonomic, or self-healing, features.
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(InfoWorld) - IBM is filling holes in its SOA (service-oriented architecture) product line-up, notably in the areas of business process management and industry-specific services. "Any holes are a recognition of what customers are trying to do," Steve Mills, senior vice president of IBM's software group, said. "Early SOA adopters may have found gaps and had to do some handcrafting. They can avoid doing that now." IBM Tuesday made what it billed as its most extensive rollout of SOA offerings to date, including four new products, 23 enhanced versions of existing software and 11 new services offerings. IBM positioned the news as demonstrating that the entire company is focusing its attentions squarely on the SOA space as a revenue driver. So far, IBM has helped close to 3,000 customers put in place SOA, Mills said. However, only a "relatively modest percentage" of those users have been using the SOA approach for a number of years, he added. Mills stressed IBM's need to be seen by customers as "the" industry provider of end-to-end SOA capabilities. While there are plenty of small niche SOA players, IBM mostly competes with Hewlett-Packard when pitching an SOA portfolio.Â IBM is investingÂ more than $1 billion in SOA-related areas this year, he said. One of the four new products IBM unwrapped Tuesday is WebSphere Business Services Fabric. The software is based on the technology IBM acquired when itÂ purchased niche SOA player WebifyÂ in August and also draws on services from IBM business partners. The product includes prebuilt accelerators, tools and frameworks to help ensure that SOA applications comply with specific industry regulations. Another new offering is WebSphere Registry and Repository (WSRR) to help customers manage their Web services and shared business processes. The software enables users to publish and find SOA services and can also hook into third-party registries and repositories. The two other new tools are Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database and Tivoli Dynamic Workload Broker. IBM also has made SOA-related improvements in members of its WebSphere middleware, Rational development tools, Lotus collaboration and Tivoli systems management families. The new SOA services focus on three key areas -- security, service management and virtualization. Tracy LeGrand, chief architect and vice president of technology, strategy and architecture at Ameriprise Financial Inc., was particularly interested in the two new WebSphere products. The financial planning and banking brokerage company based in Minneapolis dates its move into what would later be termed SOA as beginning in 1999 and chose IBM as the IT vendor to help it adopt that new approach. Over the years, the customer has noted some gaps in IBM's offerings, which have required Ameriprise to act as a systems integrator. "This announcement has closed some major gaps for us," LeGrand said. "I'm not sure if there are more." IBM's WebSphere Business Services Fabric could help Ameriprise avoid duplicating work Webify and IBM have already done in providing industry-specific services relating to standards like ACORD in the insurance industry, LeGrand said. He's also interested in the vendor's WSRR since Ameriprise previously had to build its own registry.
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Looking to outdo rival Microsoft, IBM plans to ship a new bundle of development tools that can simplify how software gets built.
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In a move likely to obstruct Oracle?s hostile take-over bid, PeopleSoft last week announced it will adopt IBM?s WebSphere as its preferred middleware platform.