IBM makes broad SOA rollout

Building on its SOA emphasis, IBM unveiled on Monday a slew of WebSphere software and professional services intended to overcome “barriers” to SOA success.

These barriers were listed by IBM as making determinations on doing an SOA, avoiding additional costs and ensuring that investments are allocated toward a business strategy that will withstand market fluctuations and company changes.

IBM’s SOA strategy focuses on process integration. “We believe that we’re in a world now that is much more process-led, not technology-led,” said Steve Mills, IBM senior vice president and software group executive. Counting more than 1,000 customer engagements in SOA, IBM is the market leader in SOA, Mills said.

“IBM has a very broad software and services portfolio that few companies can match up with,” said analyst Dennis Gaughan of AMR Research. “Other software vendors map to similar product footprints, other services firms are also focused on SOA. IBM is bringing both together under one strategy.”

The SOA rollout involves 11 new products, 20 product enhancements and eight service enhancements. Products will be available in various timeframes ranging from now and the next six months.

Chief among the products being introduced include:

* WebSphere Portal Version 6.0, which integrates IBM Workplace and collaborative technologies to make it easier to build composite applications for specific industries, roles or tasks. The product utilizes AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) to provide a more responsive user environment, IBM said. Also featured is a workflow builder that uses the process engine from WebSphere Process Server, which is powered by WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus.

 IBM’s acquisition of portal software Bowstreet is leveraged in the new product.

* WebSphere Business Monitor Version 6.0, helping to proactively identify potential issues before they could impact productivity. New in this version are business alerts, links to third-party reports on performance and historical analysis and scorecards to track projects.

* WebSphere Application Server Version 6.1, featuring SIP (session initiation protocol) servlets to reduce the complexity of an SOA as it grows, and instant messaging. Security also has been improved to include default configurations and a default user registry for identity management. The product also adheres to the government’s Common Criteria Assurance Level 4 Certification for authentication and data protection. A tool called IBM Installation Factory is featured to streamline installation.

* WebSphere Commerce Version 6.0, providing a consistent view of a customer across sales channels and featuring tools to allow merchants to replicate the online experience in their store for more personalized service. Transaction development and management also is featured.

Both the application server and commerce package focus on reuse and easier SOA management, IBM said. Other new products being introduced include new releases of the WebSphere ESB and WebSphere Message Broker, to boost service connectivity. The IBM WebSphere Service Registry and Repository, meanwhile, is being featured for managing metadata around services.

Gaughan was not completely sold on IBM’s emphasis on WebSphere for SOA.

“I haven’t seen enough proof points to definitively say that WebSphere is flexible enough to support all SOA scenarios. It does exist in many different heterogeneous IT deployments so it does interoperate,” Gaughan said.

IBM featured two SOA customers, from Pep Boys and Harley-Davidson, on its conference call to unveil the products. At Pep Boys, the company wanted to replace an SCO-Sybase platform with an SOA to run its 593 auto parts stores. An integration layer utilizing IBM’s MQ infrastructure is key to Pep Boys’ SOA installation.

“We didn’t want to go in with a big bang theory and replace all the applications,” said Bob Berckman, assistant vice president at Pep Boys.

“Rather, we wanted to implement the applications in pieces,” Berckman said.

The SOA has allowed for reuse. Berckman cited a tax module as an example of a service being used in multiple applications.

At Harley-Davidson, the company focuses on loose coupling, said Jim Haney, CIO at the company.

“The way we look at this is we don’t want IT to be in the critical path, if you will, of supporting where the business wants to go,” Haney said. Rather, the company wants IT to enable the quick changing of systems to accommodate the business, Haney said

Also as part of its SOA rollout, IBM is producing industry-specific models for SOA initiatives. These include an enhanced IBM Banking Information Framework and IBM Insurance Application Architecture. Processes, workflows and activities for re-engineering business processes are featured.

IBM Global Services is offering new services intended to provide for the lifecycle of SOA, including modeling, assembling, deployment and management phases. Featured is IBM’s Infrastructure Services Readiness Engagement for SOA, to assess a customer’s infrastructure prior to moving to an SOA.

Also being provided are additional IBM Design and Implementation Services for SOA, including support for SOA middleware, DataPower appliances and Tivoli management and security for SOA.

IBM also is offering IT Service Management Design for SOA, IBM Performance Management Testing for SOA, SOA Business Dashboard and new maintenance services.

In an unsolicited statement, IBM rival Sun Microsystems frowned on IBM’s SOA endeavor.

“IBM’s announcement signals its need invest significantly to get its own product line to interoperate and integrate for customers,” Sun said.

“IBM has a long way to go to reach the level of open, integrated, economical offering that Sun already offers today,” according to Sun.