The month of April has been an eventful one for both the Linux and middleware markets. The news coming from these quarters has ranged from a highly publicized acquisition to a low-key announcement that could reduce the cost of computing on IBM's System i. This week's article covers both of these news items as well some ground between them, so let's get started.
Red Hat to Acquire JBoss
Last week, Linux distributor Red Hat announced that it is acquiring open source middleware vendor JBoss in a cash and stock transaction worth at least $350 million. The combination creates a company that can deliver most of the major components of an operating system, middleware, and development tool stack. As such, the JBoss acquisition will enable Red Hat to take a big step toward its goal of becoming the Microsoft of the open source software market.
While Red Hat's enhanced position will undoubtedly help it, it could hurt it as well. On the benefit side of the coin, the acquisition will give the vendor more clout with open source software developers and hardware resellers. Many of these companies will decide that Red Hat now has the edge over its rival Novell when it comes to the completeness of its software stack, the depth of its support resources, and the size of its partner ecosystem. This could lead many of these companies to direct more of their energies toward developing and delivering solutions on the Red Hat stack.
On the other hand, the Red Hat-JBoss linkup could have a chilling effect on both firms' relationships with bigger vendors, as some of them will see the move as a competitive threat. Chief among these could be Microsoft, which announced last September that it would work with JBoss to improve interoperability between the latter vendor's middleware and Windows Server products. The software colossus might give that effort a lower priority or put it on hold now that its biggest Linux rival is buying JBoss. The merger could also dampen Red Hat's relationships with BEA and Oracle, two middleware vendors that have been long-term sponsors of the Linux distributor. Now that their protégé has its own middleware stack to promote, they may decide that they have more in common with Novell and strengthen their ties with that firm.
It is quite likely that IBM will have a mixed response to Red Hat's latest move. On the one hand, the IT giant's hardware and services groups may want to work more closely with Red Hat, as it will be in a better position to help them sell their offerings. On the other hand, IBM's Software Group could decide that Red Hat is now more of a competitor than a partner. If it makes that decision, it could put pressure on the hardware and service teams to limit their Red Hat partnerships to the Linux operating system. It will be interesting to see how the System i team deals with what will probably be an internally tense situation.
IBM Shows Some Linux Love
In a sense, IBM began responding to the Red Hat-JBoss announcement before it even took place. Two weeks ago, Big Blue joined Novell at LinuxWorld to unveil the Integrated Stack for Linux, a combination of IBM's open source middleware and xSeries servers with Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. The offering, which will be sold by Avnet through its reseller network, includes IBM's WebSphere Application Server Community Edition (WAS CE) and DB2 Express-C. The offering also comes with Centeris Likewise for Active Directory, a product that enables Windows system administrators to manage Linux servers as if they are Windows systems.
IBM also used LinuxWorld to improve its position as a provider of enterprise-class open source products and services. It announced a new version of WAS CE that features tighter integration with Apache Tomcat applications and enhanced support for Eclipse development environments. IBM Global Services also stated that it will begin offering three of its most popular Linux implementation services on a worldwide basis rather than just in North America. Taken together, the announcements indicate that IBM is ready to compete with Red Hat in the middleware and services space wherever it makes sense to do so.
A Low-Cost Way to Drop Those Interactive Inches
While some IBMers were grabbing the spotlight at LinuxWorld two weeks ago, others were announcing a middleware promotion that could help many iSeries customers modernize their applications. For the next six months, IBM is reducing the cost of its WebFacing Deployment Tool with HATS Technology (WDHT) offering by 60%. While customers can save between $3,000 and $10,800 per processor license on WDHT, they could realize greater savings by taking advantage of what the tool can do: eliminate the need for 5250 interactive performance.
To understand what I'm talking about, let's start with a one-minute tutorial on WDHT. Put simply, WDHT integrates IBM's WebFacing Tool and Host Access Transformation Server (HATS) into a single offering for modernizing 5250 screens. It uses the WebFacing Tool to convert 5250 data description specifications (DDS) into Web artifacts that do not require iSeries interactive capacity to execute. When WDHT encounters a 5250 screen that lacks DDS source code, it invokes HATS to create a browser-based interface for the screen on the fly. In short, WDHT lets WebFaced screens work seamlessly with HATS-based screens, something that is not possible for screens that are modernized by the tools separately.
The other neat feature of WDHT is that when it is running on i5/OS V5R4, the HATS screens that it generates do not require any 5250 interactive capacity. As a result, WDHT can turn just about any 5250 application into a batch job under V5R4. This presents numerous opportunities for cost savings on iSeries and System i5 servers. For instance, WDHT can help companies that are running out of interactive capacity to avoid purchases of such capacity or to forego server upgrades. In addition, WDHT can enable users to run their applications on System i Standard Edition models instead of more-expensive Enterprise Editions.
Clearly, WDHT could be well worth its license cost for companies that are ready to deploy interactive workloads on i5/OS V5R4. By the way, if your iSeries software vendors have not yet modernized their applications, you may want to encourage them to approach IBM about doing so. The company is mounting a campaign under which it will publicize the modernization efforts of vendors that use WDHT to reface their solutions. Between this campaign and the WDHT discount offer, chances are good that many interactive workloads will disappear from data centers this year.
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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