IBM Updates Rational Line, Streamlines Partner Certification
IBM is releasing incremental updates to 12 products in the Rational line, bumping them all to version 7. The overhaul features workflow improvements and deeper support for languages, including Spanish, Japanese, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese.
Joining the portfolio is the IBM Rational BuildForge 7, based on technology that IBM picked up through its acquisition of ISV partner BuildForge last month. IBM has deepened the build management software's integration with the rest of its Rational portfolio so that build information flows automatically between Rational tools, said Roger Oberg, vice president of Rational marketing and strategy.
To draw more ISV partners, IBM also is tweaking its Ready For Rational partner program to ease product certification. Testing tools maker Akimbi Systems, for example, took advantage of IBM's new Web-based validation process to certify its flagship Slingshot Virtual Lab Automation System against IBM's Rational tools for the first time.
The entire certification process was done in a matter of weeks, according to Melinda Wilken, Akimbi's vice president of marketing. IBM reached out to draw Akimbi into its program and streamline the validation process, which Wilken sees as a sign of the company's increasing interest in teaming closely with ISVs.
"They're really trying to reach out," Wilken said. "I think what's driving that is their desire to deepen and broaden the capabilities they can provide to their customers."
Fifty partner products have been validated so far as part of IBM's Ready For Rational program. Those being shown at the IBM Rational conference, held this week in Orlando, Fla., include Black Duck Software's open-source licensing compliance tools, iRise's visual application design software and PTC's WindChill tools for coordinating heterogeneous product development operations.