IBM Previews WebSphere 6.0 To ISVs

Big Blue has handed ISVs a technical preview version of WebSphere 6.0, the next major release of the runtime platform that is due out in final form, with corresponding Java tools, in the second half of the year. With this preview, IBM claims to be the first platform vendor other than Sun Microsystems to be fully certified on J2EE 1.4, the latest industry-standard specification for building Java-based applications. This release also harbors support for JCA 1.5 (Java Connector Architecture), another new standard that facilitates the integration between Java-based applications and back-end systems such as Siebel or SAP programs.

By giving ISVs a version of WebSphere endowed with such standard support, IBM is effectively providing them with a head-start in developing the most up-to-date Web services and Java-based applications, officials say. This appeals to ISVs because applications that go to market fully standards-compliant are much more attractive to customers than those that have to be retrofitted or updated later.

"The audience that cares about this is ISVs because they are the ones that build on top of WebSphere, and they're the ones who will benefit from a consistent programming model," says Bob Sutor, director of WebSphere software at IBM.

Being first out of the gate on standards is not a position IBM is known to hold. While Big Blue is very involved in developing and promoting Web services and Java standards and loudly voices support for them, historically it has been BEA, IBM's main rival in the J2EE app server space, that laid claim to actually delivering the standards inside of their products.

"[Lateness] was always a bit of a ding on [IBM] when we were building systems for clients and they had a choice for deployment platforms," says Brad Murphy, senior vice president at Valtech, an integrator and IBM partner. "The big objections to IBM have been complexity and their lagging BEA on support for new standards by about three to six months."

Murphy says IBM has done an admirable job wringing some of the sheer technical complexity out of its WebSphere portfolio. Now, with this expedient support for J2EE 1.4 and JCA 1.5, it seems to be tackling the other deficiency as well.

"To extent this become a pattern, it will have a huge influence on what folks like us do," Murphy adds.

That's welcome news to IBM Software's ears. The company has pegged 2004 as the year where it plans to ramp up its ISV and other partner alliances, relying on these applications-based relationships to fuel sales of its middleware. Earlier this week, the software group laid off 300 direct sales employees, with one executive attributing the move to IBM's new push around ISV partners as go-to-market allies.