IBM's Rational Buy To Extend Toolset

Because Rational is firmly ensconced in both the J2EE camp that IBM espouses and the Microsoft .Net camp, it could open up new opportunities for IBM partners, some said.

"There are a lot of competitive accounts not using IBM software that use Rational tools, so this might bring IBM and its partners new business," said Doug Pelletier, president of Trifecta Technologies, an Allentown, Pa.-based IBM partner.

The deal makes sense, since Rational's offerings are already tightly integrated with IBM's WebSphere Studio Application Developer toolset and are Eclipse-compatible as well, Pelletier said. Eclipse is an IBM-backed open-source tool effort launched in November 2001.

Lou Johnson, president of Siwel Consulting, an IBM partner in New York, concurred. "IBM already has the best set of tools in its WebSphere brand," he said. "Anything they can add to the arsenal helps."