ATG Builds On Application Servers From IBM, BEA Systems

ATG this week announced beta support for the IBM WebSphere Application Server. Now, ATG says its applications suites and online CRM software will be available to more than 75 percent of all application server users.

"This represents an evolution of our strategy to support leading application servers," says Jim Marino, lead product manager at ATG. "IBM gives us the ability to target large corporations and many of its long time enterprise customers."

After acknowledging tough economic conditions and consolidation in the application server market, ATG changed direction this summer by deciding to deploy its e-business applications on leading J2EE Internet application servers instead of just its own ATG Dynamo Application Server. The company also revamped its channel strategy and is now focused on driving more product through solution provider partners as well as vendor partners.

BEA's market-leading WebLogic was the first application server supported by ATG, which ported its Dynamo suite version 5.6, ATG Enterprise Portal and Enterprise Commerce Suites to WebLogic. ATG also announced plans to work with application servers from Hewlett-Packard Bluestone and iPlanet.

BEA and IBM are currently locked in a fierce battle for the top spot in the application server market, with IBM trailing by single digit percentage points, according to most analyst firms. ATG insists that both companies will have equal standing as application server partners.

"We'll remain agnostic," Marino says. "What we're seeing in the system integrator community is that even in this economy, BEA and IBM application servers are big parts of many new IT projects."