IBM stresses support for Web services, databases and Linux
Two areas of the new IBM have received the most widespread adulation: the reinvention of its Global Services consulting unit, and its wide-ranging software business. Of this pair, the former has gained most attention, but IBM Software has also enjoyed a return to health.
Lotus and Tivoli are widely regarded as rare examples of successful IT acquisitions, while WebSphere has emerged as a powerful umbrella brand for IBM's e-business server software. The DB2 database has also grown at a remarkable speed to become an effective challenger to Oracle.
August's IBM Technical Developer Conference in San Francisco was a demonstration of strength, where IBM updated IT chiefs and programmers on its plans for key areas. These included the resurgent DB2, the much hyped but rarely understood area of Web services, and IBM's deepening support for the Linux operating system.
IBM's acquisition of Informix was completed in early July, so a great deal of attention at the San Francisco conference was focused on DB2. The long-running database software brand has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of IBM's late conversion to cross-platform development--it now runs in 24 environments--as well as a $1 billion investment that IBM made in its database business four years ago.
Informix integration
If being savaged by Oracle's loquacious chief executive Larry Ellison and his marketing machine is a form of backhanded compliment, then IBM is glowing with praise. Oracle has turned its words and advertising guns on IBM recently, in recognition of the rapid sales growth of DB2. In response, Janet Perna, IBM general manager of data management, compared Oracle's addition of Real Application Clusters to its 9i database to "lipstick on a pig."
But beyond all the name-calling, Perna outlined the company's intention to oust Oracle from its position as the most popular database supplier. Central to IBM's plan is the integration of technology from Informix. One more version of the Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) is due to ship, but the medium-term undertaking will be to integrate selected Informix features--such as partitioning capabilities and Datablade plug-ins--in order to bolster DB2 data analysis and other functions over the next three or so DB2 releases.
Perna added that IBM is still evaluating the potential role of Informix's Cloudscape embedded Java database technology in relation to DB2 Everyplace, IBM's software for accessing databases from handheld devices. "It gives us a mid-sized footprint," she added. "We now have small, a little bit larger, and then the DB2 servers."
Perna described the acquisition of Informix as a blessing for all concerned, given the weak position the firm had found itself in: "Customers said, 'We really like Informix but we're worried about the future of the company.' SAP wanted us to do it, Siebel wanted us to do it."
However, with Oracle offering discount transition paths to its software, IBM still has plenty of convincing to do if it wants to hold on to Informix users. Two conferences for DB2 and Informix users respectively should help to clarify its plans.
Beyond Informix objectives, the plan is to improve the manageability of data assets through middleware, management software and extended DB2 capabilities. That programme will see DB2 become a native XML server, so XML data can be stored in its native format. A language called XQL, which is currently under development, will be used to query data.
"Customers want the flexibility of deploying a wide range of applications where the data is located," Perna suggested. "It's not practical to move all their data into just one database. They want federated access to data that can be managed as if it was in one database." She added that this type of access will meet business requirements, such as the increased demand for real-time analysis of buyer behavior on Web sites in order to plan marketing campaigns.
A recurring theme at IBM Software is the importance of Web services, a shorthand term that is being used to describe the integration and automation of software, so more tasks can be handled online without the need for manual intervention.
In San Francisco, IBM laid out plans to make Web services infrastructure pervasive through by adding support for standards, such as the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and the UDDI registry of interests and trading criteria, to servers, applications and tools.
Steve Mills, senior vice president of IBM Software, said, "The next step in software is how you get machine-to-machine integration when data is not formatted in the same way. That's what XML gives us: business commerce in a free flow, without proprietary [code being required], so you know who companies are, how they ship and how their systems work. Business is faster and everyone makes more money."
Increased productivity
John Swainson, general manager for IBM's Software's application and integration middleware division, added, "IBM views Web services very pragmatically as an extension to robust middleware services, to connect inside and outside the enterprise. It's a way to surface existing applications to integrate employees, business partners and suppliers. It's all about productivity. This is the next evolution of the business Internet: Web services will be part of everything we do."
IBM denied that Web services were being overhyped by suppliers. The company noted that 2,300 companies are registered on the UDDI database, and cited research from California-based Evans Data that suggests 58 percent of professional developers are interested in Web services, and 40 percent of developers are using XML.
"Many firms are dipping their their toes into XML," Swainson said. "Most are point-to-point, wiring legacy to legacy, or legacy to something new. In a very small cross-section, they are starting to think about process flow where applications are plugged in to provide a clean, recoverable and persistent flow. The companies testing Web services are the lead adopters at some of the largest businesses in the world, particularly in automotive, aerospace and finance."
However, although there is undoubted interest in Web services, most observers believe the full impact will not be felt for a few years, as suppliers are only now adding the most basic levels of support to software, and key standards are yet to be cemented.
If anybody doubted the depth of IBM's commitment to Linux, a visit to the Technical Developer Conference should have convinced them. Advertisements juxtaposing IBM's logo with that of the Linux penguin and the symbol for peace were everywhere. Open-source guru Jon "Maddog" Hall was also a keynote speaker at the conference.
However, while IBM is clearly putting great heft behind Linux in adding software, hardware and service support, its migration path for customers remains vague. IBM's theme is that the strength of Linux is as a potential rallying point for Unix, allowing Unix to operate on a wide variety of hardware platforms. However, IBM was frank enough to admit Linux still lacks the robustness and scalability of some Unix versions that are tied to proprietary hardware.
"There's an opportunity to drive Linux as a more consistent Unix for businesses to build across chipsets," said IBM's Swainson. "It's clear the common Unix operating system is not going to be [IBM's] AIX, [Hewlett Packard's] HP-UX or [Sun's] Solaris. What is not clear is whether it's going to be Linux. Linux has not yet grown up to what these systems are today, and AIX is not going to die. Linux can be the successor to AIX and other Unixes, but it clearly doesn't deliver all the features and scalability today."
This article appears in the October 1st 2001 issue of IT Week.