With IT vendors anticipating a revival of e-business spending among mid-sized companies, IBM plans to capture a significant share of the growing market. To do so, the computer giant will roll out a bevy of new WebSphere products for iSeries users and other mid-market customers in the coming months. It will also provide iSeries professionals with more educational offerings and guidance to help them migrate from legacy development tools to the WebSphere platform.
While IBM will target most of the new WebSphere products at customers that are in the early phases of e-business adoption, it will also ship more robust middleware for advanced users. Next month, for instance, Big Blue will kick off its announcement spree by shipping an iSeries version of WebSphere Application Server (WAS) Enterprise Version 5. WAS Enterprise includes everything found in the standard edition of WAS Version 5 but adds support for sophisticated transaction and workflow management, Web services orchestration, and connections to enterprise systems ranging from IBM's CICS to popular ERP systems. While the vast majority of iSeries shops don't need that much functionality, WAS Enterprise will appeal to some larger iSeries shops and iSeries software vendors.
In its iSeries implementation, WAS Enterprise will only run in Linux partitions on systems with OS/400 V5R1 or V5R2. The product should be available for electronic download in the early part of July; packaged CD licenses will go on sale later in the month.
In September, IBM will unveil its newest Express offering for the mid-market, WebSphere Commerce Express. According to my sources inside IBM, the new product will support Windows, Linux on Intel, and OS/400 and will run on a maximum of two processors at a cost of $20,000 per processor. Customers who need more horsepower than two processors will need to either run their e-commerce sites across multiple load-balanced servers or resort to the more expensive WebSphere Commerce Business Edition or Professional Edition. Speaking of these editions, my sources are indicating that over time, IBM intends to replace WebSphere Commerce Professional Entry Edition with the Express edition.
Within days of its WebSphere Commerce announcement, IBM also intends to unwrap a trio of WAS Express releases for the AIX, Solaris, and HP/UX operating systems. With WAS Express proving popular on the Windows, Linux on Intel, and OS/400 platforms, IBM intends to spread the product's franchise to UNIX servers. This will allow the computer giant to leverage a growing trend among UNIX customers to purchase entry-level models such as IBM's pSeries 615 and 630 as well as Sun's V Series. Many UNIX customers are considering such servers as alternatives to high-end Windows servers. To compete effectively against Windows, however, entry-level UNIX servers need cheaper middleware stacks. The new WAS Express releases should help reduce UNIX middleware costs.
In the fourth quarter of this year, IBM sources are indicating that iSeries customers will finally get an OS/400 version of WebSphere Portal Express. Limited since its announcement to Windows and Linux on Intel servers, WebSphere Portal Express runs on the standard (versus the Express) edition of WAS and comes in both intranet and extranet versions. While only a handful of iSeries software vendors have written portlets to integrate their solutions into WebSphere Portal Server, IBM has plans to encourage portlet development leading up to the announcement.
I have also learned from IBM sources that an OS/400 version of a WebSphere Business Integration product for business-to-business (B2B) connectivity could ship during the first half of next year. Last year, IBM announced WebSphere Business Connection Express Edition as a B2B solution for mid-size companies, but limited the product to Windows, AIX, and Solaris servers. In my opinion, that was a serious mistake, given the growing use of Internet-based EDI and other B2B technologies by iSeries users. At present, many of these customers are using IBM Business Partner products such as LANSA Integrator, an iSeries solution that supports the AS2 data-sharing protocol and the UCCnet Global Registry. If IBM moves forward with its own iSeries B2B product, chances are strong that it will support one or both of these standards.
To entice iSeries customers into embracing its new WebSphere products, IBM is also developing new education and support offerings to smooth the migration path to Java-based technologies. Earlier this month, the company quietly posted 16 hours of lectures and labs about WAS Express and its WebFacing Tool on the iSeries College Plus Web site. Visitors can take the distance-learning courses at no charge. In addition, IBM is starting to show early versions of what it has dubbed its "iSeries Roadmap to J2EE." The document, which will evolve through several iterations, will provide iSeries developers and decision-makers with detailed guidance on migration paths from legacy development tools to Java-based tools.
As you can see from this long list of upcoming events, IBM is renewing its efforts to seed mid-sized companies and iSeries shops with its WebSphere products. As you consider those products, I'll be the first person to admit that this brief article lacks many of the details you need to make decisions in the coming months. Rest assured that in future articles, I'll revisit IBM's WebSphere strategy and Java roadmap to examine its implications for you and your IT systems.
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
More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.
TRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now! Request Now.
Forms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.
Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:
Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.
IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn:
LATEST COMMENTS
MC Press Online