IBM Innovate: That Was The Week That Was

So I missed IBM's Innovate developer conference last week, but this was through no fault of my own or any fault of IBM's. Instead you can blame BA strikes, Icelandic volcanoes and flight price hikes, all three of which conspired to keep me fully grounded. But thankfully, due to the magic of email and telephonic connection I was able to get an idea of the show, so here's a brief skip over the week that was.

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IBM used last week's event to go public on its newest research lab in Brazil. The company's ninth R&D lab will focus on natural resource discovery and exploration and sustainability. The 100 plus researchers will also focus on advances in semiconductors and smarter "human systems", which presumably refers to Human Computer Interaction HCI in all its forms, although IBM gave no clear definition.

IBM's Tivoli Software division probably got the main show announcement with a bunch of new developer offerings designed to try and make security "woven in to the fabric of the IT organisation".

Secure by design is Big Blue's mantra here. The products themselves are focused on Access Management (a big concern for cloud computing), Security Testing (with a side order of compliance testing too), Source Code Assessment Services (does what it says on the tin) and new Secure Engineering Framework technology (to provide secure software 'blueprints').

There's way too much here to cover in a blog so here's IBM's Security Portal if you are short of bedtime reading.

Also on the announcement smorgasbord last week was IBM Lotus Notes Traveler, free software for Lotus Notes users that provides "secure" enterprise mail for the Apple iPad. If you're a fan of Notes then two-way, over-the-air synchronisation of e-mail, calendar and contacts must be just peachy.

Personally, I used Notes for two years and spent the whole time trying to work out why it is better and more powerful than Outlook/Entourage. I know it really is supposed to be better, but I couldn't see it myself.

The week's automotive technology announcement taught me a new word: i.e telematics. "Although vehicles are becoming more complex they are also becoming smarter. The intersection of information and communications technology, also known as telematics, is expected to be a standard feature in vehicles by 2015 according to ABI Research." So add it to your Word (or other) dictionary now.

Finally, there was also news of IBM's work relating to the convergence of mechanical, electronic and digital technologies. "The convergence of physical assets and IT applications requires a new "systems of systems" approach for integrating products and services. Software-driven innovation across product lines is often challenging if not supported by effective planning, development and collaboration," said IBM.

So there were no new platforms, acquisitions or general flag-waving for the hell of it this year. Most of the news appeared to be centred around industry-specific developments and back end infrastructural concerns for the software application development community. I only wish I had been there, so damn you volcano.

Finally, for anyone too young or not English enough to get the reference in the title of this piece, here's what That Was The Week That Was was.