IBM Rational Unveils Programs To Spread Its Technology

Tuesday, the IBM tools division plans to unveil the IBM Academic Initiative, a program offering select universities software, hardware and services to develop programs around open-standards technologies such as Linux, XML and J2EE, said Buell Duncan, general manager of ISV and developer relations at IBM. The program also aims to train college students on specific IBM technologies and strategies such as WebSphere and DB2 to meet the needs of its e-business on-demand initiative, he said.

The IBM Academic Initiative hopes to achieve three main objectives: train an IT work force to fill jobs that are emerging at IBM and across the industry in e-business; provide skills to the next generation of IT workers so they are qualified for new computer-industry jobs; and ensure that universities have the most current curricula to map to the kinds of jobs that are expected in IT so schools can be attractive for enrollment, funding and growth.

"There is demand in the marketplace for skills businesses need and an opportunity for IBM to play a leadership role in helping with jobs and also in satisfying the need for these skills," Duncan said in a CRN interview Monday. "For example, it's expected that there will be 2.5 million Java programmers [coming out of college] in the next three years. That's not enough."

IBM hopes to educate several million students starting in 1,000 universities worldwide over the three-year initiative, Duncan said. Some universities that will initially benefit from the program include University of Texas at Austin; Neusoft University in China; Indiana State University; Kennesaw State University; University of Houston at Clear Lake; University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez; and the University of Wisconsin.

The IBM Academic Initiative also includes the IBM Scholars Portal, which provides access to software, hardware, training and course materials to instructors at no charge. More than 8,000 faculty members are already registered with the Scholars Portal, according to IBM.

Through the Scholars Portal, more than 40 IBM software technologies are already available at no charge for integration with universities in the program. IBM also will offer hardware products at special rates including the newest Power5 servers and blade servers featuring the latest Power Architecture.

IBM Rational this week also took the wraps off Ready for Rational, a program modeled after the existing WebSphere program that allows ISVs to validate their software with the Rational platform, Duncan said. Once validated, the ISVs "get a seal of approval from IBM whereby they can merchandise that software to the marketplace," he said.

All of these new efforts point to the fact that IBM is committed to partnering with ISVs across all of its software brands, even Rational, which before IBM's purchase did not have a culture of partnering with ISVs or solutions providers, Duncan said.

"Rational is coming from a heritage that it was not first on the partner list, but now we're beginning to see some tangible things take place to show that it's moving more and more in that direction," Duncan said.

Duncan cited some proof points to demonstrate how IBM's ISV efforts are working. He said since IBM unveiled its Partner Industry Networks, which line up its ISV communities by vertical industries, the vendor has signed up more than 900 partners, he said.

IBM currently identifies banking, financial markets, life science, health care, telecommunications, retail, government and insurance as its key vertical industries. It plans to announce three more by the end of the year, including the automotive industry, Duncan said.

IBM also has signed up more than 220 companies in its ISV Advantage program, which requires that ISVs commit at least 60 percent of their business to IBM, Duncan said.