Last Tuesday, IBM put the finishing touches on its WebSphere Express campaign by releasing an official announcement letter for WebSphere Application Server Express Version 5. In the process, the computer giant made further revelations about the product and its middleware strategy for medium-size companies.
As I discussed in an article a few weeks ago, WebSphere Application Server Express (WAS Express) for iSeries is the entry-level edition of WAS Version 5 and the upgrade path for users of WAS Standard Edition at the Version 3.x level. It installs in just a few clicks, comes with a single-user version of the WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries (WDSc), and costs just $2,000 per CPU with subcapacity pricing available.
While last week's announcement included most of this information, it added details that should be of keen interest to WAS customers. Among them was the news that WAS Express will include "quick start samples"--applications that include code repositories and documentation on how to use and customize the applications. WAS Express will include quick start samples of the following applications.
- Custom home page--A customizable employee home page that can act as the interface to a corporate intranet
- Your company intranet--A code library with templates for a fictitious "YourCo" corporate intranet that illustrates how you can use HTML pages, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), tag libraries, and JavaServer Pages (JSPs) to provide a complete intranet for your real company
- Customer self-service--A Web site that permits customers to access their own SSL-protected user accounts with information about their activities, such as product orders
- Document management--A password-protected Web site that provides read-only access to documents
- Survey--Besides offering the ability to conduct employee surveys, this application features an internationalized intranet site and shows you how to internationalize your own site
All WAS Express editions--Windows, Linux, and iSeries--will include these quick start samples. In addition, the iSeries edition will include Telephone Directory for iSeries, an application that is based on the same "Blue Pages" directory that IBM's operators use to find contact information for the company's employees. Telephone Directory for iSeries is a "no charge" product for up to 1,000 employee listings. Customers and developers who want to support more than 1,000 listings will need to contact IBM Global Services, which will sell permissions for additional listings on a special bid basis.
While the quick start samples could be quite useful, what makes them really interesting is the fact that they are part of a broader IBM campaign to make other application samples available on WAS Express. As I explained in an article last month, IBM has launched a campaign to get independent software vendors (ISVs) to port their applications to WAS Express. As an incentive to ISVs, IBM intends to create a Web site where WAS Express users can download "mini versions" of ISV applications for free. Users could try out the mini versions and then contact the vendors to upgrade to the full versions. In a real sense, therefore, IBM's quick start samples could be just the opening round of a series of applications that come packaged with WAS Express.
Before you start thinking that a flood of new WAS applications could be coming to the iSeries, allow me to inject a cautionary note. While IBM considers the iSeries to be one of its strategic platforms for WAS Express, it has limited technical resources to help ISVs port their applications to the iSeries edition of the application server. It is true that the computer giant is making the expertise of its WebSphere Innovation Centers available to ISVs so that they can port their applications to WAS. However, while these centers work extensively with WAS on Windows and Linux servers, they have few individuals with experience porting applications to WAS on the iSeries. In addition, IBM will likely have to do extra work to convince many ISVs--especially those coming from a Windows background--that the iSeries market will make them enough of a profit to justify the development and support of iSeries releases.
In short, while many ISVs could sign up to put their applications on WAS Express for Windows and Linux servers, the number of iSeries applications will likely be smaller. That will put the burden on iSeries experts within IBM's Server Group to drum up ISV support for WAS Express on the iSeries. Fortunately, several of the Server Group's WebSphere Express managers have long histories of working for the iSeries organization, and they remain advocates for the server. This includes John Quarantello, the former manager of Java solutions on the iSeries, and Kelly Schmotzer, the former manager of the iSeries Domino program. Hopefully, iSeries proponents such as these will influence IBM's mid-market campaigns and the ISVs it brings into the WebSphere fold.
At the same time, ISV interest in the iSeries will depend on the Web modernization plans of every iSeries customer. If the iSeries community adopts WAS Express and other OS/400 middleware in large numbers, it will speak volumes to vendors who have their doubts about the server. If it does not, 2003 could be another year in which the iSeries gets ignored and misunderstood by the rest of the IT world. Let's hope that we avoid the latter option.
Lee Kroon is a Senior Industry Analyst for Andrews Consulting Group, a firm that helps mid-sized companies manage business transformation through technology. You can reach him at
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