Editor's Letter

Impact 2011: Thinking of Eight and Four

Dear WebSpherian,

A trip to Las Vegas always seems one way or another, to focus on numbers. The two big takeaway numbers for me this year are eight and four.

Eight is for WebSphere Application Server (WAS) 8, IBM’s new software application server designed to speed the development of applications and services.  This new version, scheduled for release in June includes increased client security and control, and delivers automated enhancements for the installation, maintenance, testing and problem resolution of business applications.

What struck me about the new functionality in this version is how much of it directly addresses IBM’s customers’ needs for new ways to access to their information and applications.  IBM walks the walk by extending WAS application support to include iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.  

I have high hopes for WAS 8 – this version should extend key business applications beyond their traditional networks to mobile, social, cloud and other new market opportunities. To be sure, WebSphere is listening.

Four is for the four IBM WebSphere customers who have earned Customer Recognition Awards from the Global WebSphere Community.

The Global WebSphere Community (GWC) in conjunction with IBM WebSphere Business Partners recognized four enterprises that over the past year have deployed WebSphere technology to make measurable, demonstrable improvements in Business Process Management, Private Cloud Implementation, SOA Integration and Connectivity. Legacy Modernization and Service Enablement., and/or Empowering Line of Business with Business and Event Rules Management.

We have profiled the accomplishments of these four customers — Premier Inc., KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, cars.com, and TELUS — in this issue of The Sphere Journal Online.

The Leading Edge of WebSphere

Focus on Mobile Applications Standards and Technologies

By Dustin Amrhein, Technical Evangelist, WebSphere Emerging Technologies

Each year in the spring, I look forward to our IBM Impact conference as a great time to learn more about our solutions through informative sessions, hands-on labs, and networking with my peers and IBM customers. It is also a great time to get an answer to one simple question: What are our users talking about and doing?

This year there was a wide variety of items on the table for discussion: cloud computing, elastic caching, business analytics and processes, social media, and much more. However, for my money, there was one thing that surfaced in more discussions than any other topic: enterprise mobile strategy.

Now, this should really come as a surprise to no one. In today's world of increasing connectedness, mobile phones are quickly becoming the portal through which many of us see and interact with the world. Personally, I use my BlackBerry to stay current with email, check-in on flights, check bank balances, find my way around unfamiliar ground, to name but a few things. I'm anything but alone. In fact, Gartner says that by 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access device in the world! Yep, the mobile craze is in full force and knows no bounds.

At this point, you may be saying to yourself, “Okay, but what's new? This mobile revolution has been smoldering for years.” I will concede that, but there is a change that is making the mobile topic hotter than ever for enterprises today. That change is a steady shift from a mobile market dominated by one or two device types to a market that offers multiple viable device choices, thereby producing a larger, more diverse mobile user base. In turn, this means there are a larger number of devices to which companies need to deliver their applications. The luxuries of the past, namely being able to write native applications specific to a particular type of device, are largely gone. Naturally, companies writing mobile applications today want the programmer's nirvana: write once, run anywhere.

Given this growing need, I was glad to see a number of sessions at Impact that focused on technologies and open standards that enable the creation of device agnostic mobile applications. One of my favorite sessions was 'Mobile Application Development with WebSphere Middleware', led by Greg Truty and Roland Barcia. In particular, Greg and Roland emphasized the importance of open standards and open technologies like HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, dojox.mobile, and PhoneGap in the ongoing evolution of mobile application development. This mix of standards and technologies is interesting not just because of the openness, though that is worth pointing out. To me, the most interesting facet of these components is that they enable the creation of pure, web-based mobile applications that have the look and feel of native mobile applications. This is a win-win. Developers get to create mobile applications that run on a number of different device types, and users still get the feature-rich, usable mobile applications they have come to expect.

Clearly, the mobile application space is active, and it looks like activity will only increase. What can you do? Well, besides beefing up on the standards and technologies I called out above, I would suggest you take a look at our free WebSphere Application Server Feature Pack for Web 2.0 and Mobile. The feature pack delivers support for many of the technologies I mentioned, plus others like JAX-RS and Ajax, all of which play a big role in shaping mobile application development. Good luck!

Your WebSphere Deep Diving Instructor

By Andy Piper, WebSphere Messaging Community Lead, IBM

Column 4 June 2011

Wow. Just wow. IMPACT was huge — if you made it to Las Vegas for the event, you will know what I’m talking about. Now it’s time to take the event on the road, with a series of IMPACT local events in different geographies including Europe and the Far East. Even if you weren’t able to attend, I hope you were able to catch some of the event online on our IMPACT TV channel on Livestream (you can still see the recordings at http://www.livestream.com/ibmimpact). It was a lot of fun, and there were some big announcements, too.

One of the flagship announcements of the event — as you might expect from the premier IBM conference related to our WebSphere solutions — was a new version of WebSphere Application Server, version 8. This followed on from WebSphere being named as one of the IBM 100 Icons of Progress, celebrating the IBM Centennial. See http://www.ibm.com/ibm100/us/en/icons/websphere/ for more on that and a great video looking back at the beginnings of the platform.

So what’s coming in WAS 8 for all you administrators and developers to start learning about? There are way too many features to list in detail, so in keeping with this column, I’ll try to highlight the key points of interest to get you going more quickly.

First and foremost, it’s going to offer Java Enterprise Editon (JEE) 6 compliance, which brings in EJB 3.1, JPA 2.0, Servlet 3.0 and a Java 6 runtime. All goodness for developers. The whole thing is significantly streamlined and simplified, following down the path of simplification and improved user experience that we’ve been pursuing over the past couple of releases. The most popular Feature Packs that were available on the web for version 7, have been integrated into the core of version 8 — so the XML, SCA, Communications Enabled Applications (CEA), Java Batch, and Web 2.0 stuff is all included.

Another important trend and technology that we’ve been supporting and working on for a while has been OSGi, and in particular the the Enterprise OSGi specification. The enables enterprise applications to be broken down into bundles (components), some of which may be specific to a particular application, and others which may be common to applications — all in a structured, versioned manner. So your applications can be smaller, and you have a common way of deploying and accessing shared libraries, with a reduced memory footprint. If you’re yet to look at OSGi then I strongly suggest digging into the topic, as WAS 8 provides strong support for this programming and deployment model, and I think it will be something that both developers and administrators may want to be more familiar with.

We know that technologies can sometimes take a while to get out into the wild, but now that you’re forewarned, you can start to prepare. You can get a head-start with updating your skills ready for WAS 8 by grabbing a copy of the open beta — it is available here right now.

Footnote — a few weeks before IMPACT, I got to go along to a WebSphere User Group event here in the UK... and we had cakes celebrating the 10th anniversary of the group. Here’s a fun picture from the afterparty — if you’ve been in the space long enough, you might just recognise the “before” and “after” logos” from the different versions of the app server!

The Josa's Report

A WAS 8 Preview for Application Developers

By Joseph Amarith “Josa” Raj

IBM has recently announced much waited WebSphere Application Server 8 (WAS 8), will be released on June 17, 2011. This is the first edition of the WebSphere Application Server technology to fully support Java EE 6. In comparison to the WAS 7, it looks like much for finely-tuned and better-crafted version after working on different beta releases.

After WAS 7, which focused on the centralized administration and security enhancements,  this release looks to be themed on accelerated delivery of innovative applications and unmatched operational efficiency, reliability, administration, security, and control.

From the business point of view, they always need its IT to be aligned with the business requirements and needs solutions to be flexible, efficient, strong foundation for the future expansion and cost effective.  WebSphere Application Server offers a broad range of application foundation and programming model choice to support businesses of every size and includes advanced management to help decrease costs and grow your business. Also WAS 8 can help business help offer richer user interface through rapid delivery of innovative applications.

If you are a web applications developer, here are the some of the new features.  WAS 8 supports integrated telephony and collaborative web services which will help to extend the interactivity of enterprise and web commerce applications. Now you'll be able to create non-persistent EJB timers. The new embeddable EJB container can be used to unit test EJBs outside of the application server to improve iterative development cycles. CDI frees developers from having to write logic to maintain objects within a context and provides new integration between web application expression language beans and EJBs. OSGi Applications programming model: Rapidly build, deploy, manage, and maintain modular applications using Java EE and OSGi technologies through versioned, isolated, and reusable OSGi bundles. Web 2.0 Mobile and programming model lets you deliver richer user experiences and extend the reach of enterprise applications to desktop web and mobile web applications.  Service component model will increase the reuse. A comprehensive list of the new features for developers can be found here from administrator's point of interest; Installations will be carried out using Installation Manager unlike the ISMP which was used by previous versions. You will be able to collect java dumps and core dumps using administrative console. WAS 8 supports websphere MQ multi-instance queue managers. If you are not using MQ functionality, you can save some processing time and increase performance by disabling WebSphere MQ functionality in WAS 8. OSGi application support lets different or same applications to use same or different versions of the same third party libraries without interference. The alternative High Performance Extensible Logging provides a convenient mechanism for storing and accessing log, trace, System.err, and System.out information produced by the application server or your applications by letting you configure how much disk space to dedicate to logs or trace, or how long to retain log and trace records, and leave the management of log and trace content up to the server.  The security configuration report now includes information about session security, web Attributes, and the HttpOnly setting to enable you to get a more complete view of your server security settings. There are new customizable options available when specifying default audit log wrapping behavior. Support for Java Servlet 3.0 security. By default, Session security integration will be enabled and SSL is required on Common Security Interoperability Version 2 transport. HttpOnly attribute is enabled on LTPA cookie. You can configure a unique instance of a federated repository at the domain level in a multiple security domain environment.

The Message Queue

News and Notes on What’s Happening Today with WebSphere and Business

What's New in WebSphere Application Server 8
IBM reports that the new version of WAS increases users' security and control, and delivers automated enhancements for the installation, maintenance, testing and problem resolution of business applications. Complementing these capabilities are new features that extend the reach of WAS to support applications from the desktop to mobile devices, including popular smartphones and tablets such as Apple’s iPad and iPhone, products running Google’s Android OS, and RIM’s BlackBerry portfolio. Support for these devices is critical to businesses as mobile applications constitute one of today’s largest growth areas. One recent report from research firm MarketsandMarkets estimates that the global market for mobile applications should grow to $25 billion by 2015 (up from $6.8 billion in 2010).

There are more than 50 new products and services added to the WAS 8 portfolio including:

• IBM Workload Deployer: Enables enterprises build customized cloud services using templates
• IBM WebSphere Virtual Enterprise: Enables the consolidation of servers
• IBM WebSphere DataPower XC10 Appliance: Lowers the risk of data loss and improves response times
• IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS: Offers an environment for high volume business transactions

If we say that some of this looks familiar, we do so in light of the recent release of IBM’s SmartCloud platform that is designed to take businesses into the cloud and to take IBM’s cloud development out of the laboratory and place it at the heart of the enterprise.

This release of WebSphere complements the SmartCloud by offering enterprises more control of their own cloud deployments.

Source: eWeek

IBM Rolls Out BPM Express for Midmarket Organizations
BPM Express is a midmarket version of its Business Process Manager solution, which integrated its WebSphere Process Server and IBM WebSphere Lombardi Edition into a new offering. BPM Express is the same product as the enterprise solution, but has a limit of 200 users and 4 CPUs (and can of course be easily upgraded to the enterprise version if a company's needs change.)

BPM Express is a more robust offering than BlueWorks Live, an IBM BPM offering aimed at smaller business, although the real differentiator between these two offerings is more about the complexity of the business processes rather than the size of the company.

"It depends on the process you are working with," said Ron Kline, director of marketing for IBM's midmarket business. "BlueWorks Live, a web-based BPM offering, is much simpler and would work well with a smaller organization or a simple process. BPM Express is more robust, has more functionality, and you can integrate it into any backend system. But a small organization that uses a more complex business process could find value in it, while a midmarket company might use BlueWorks Live for a very simple process."

BPM automates routine business process, such as billing, shipping and expense reports. IBM says BPM Express can reduce process cycle time from 30 days to seven days, leading to a reduction of up to 80% of manual work. By increasing effectiveness, smaller wholesalers, manufacturers and retail stores can increase the rescue rate of distressed shipments and reduce invalid and incorrect billing disputes. One of their midsize reference clients Lincoln Trust, reported a saving of over $3 million in increased efficiencies, and an ongoing annual savings of $325,000.

"Almost 70% of companies are looking at something around BPM in the next year and a half," Kline said. "BPM Express has the robust capabilities of our full blown tool but is geared and priced for the midmarket, and is very competitively priced." Kline said the cost is about $70,000 for up to 200 users — approximately half the cost of the enterprise version.

IBM does sell this direct, but like all IBM Express solutions, it's primarily a partner solution because it plays best in their markets.

"It's a partner-led play for us," Kline said. Business Partners who are part of the Software Value Plus program can sell BPM Express. They are required to be authorized for the WebSphere BPM product group in the SVP program.
 
Check out the full article here: http://www.echannelline.com/usa/story.cfm?item=26756

What Should Process Automation Be Doing for You?
Process Automation has become an integral part of any business module today. One cannot imagine its absence in any organization, big or small. The exceptional aids offered by the solution have made almost every industry inseparable from Process Automation.

It’s time we go level next.

Apart from helping your business choreograph processes across disparate applications, people; it’s about time the solution helps accelerate your process improvement efforts by offering robust modeling, simulation, and analysis capabilities. It should also assist the systems remove inefficiencies, optimize costs, ensure compliance, and boost productivity.

The recently launched, IBM WebSphere^® Business Modeler Advanced, has become an obvious choice across industries. It is an integral part of WebSphere Dynamic Process Edition, a foundational offering of the IBM BPM Suite.

The offering very efficiently bridges the gap between business and IT, provides best-in-class modeling, simulation and analysis, and improves communication through enhanced design features. It effectively helps business users understand and transform business processes through superior business modeling, simulation, analysis, and collaboration capabilities.

But that’s not it. Some of the other features of the offering also include enhanced integration capabilities, acceleration of time-to-value with pre-built assets, and much more.

To learn more, go to: http://www.websphereindia.com/enhance-you-process-automation-with-ibm-advanced-websphere-business-modeler/

WAS4D: A Free WebSphere Application Server for Developers
WAS4D is a standalone WebSphere Application Server development runtime which is a
free offering for projects that don't warrant the expense of a priced and supported runtime on the developer desktop.

This is the same as the WAS server type provided in Rational Application Developer for testing and debugging.

It is identical to the production runtime environment your applications will eventually run on.  Licensing is restricted to development use only.

To learn more, go to: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/ws/wasdevelopers/index.html

Next Generation Cloud Services and Technology Advances
In April, IBM announced a multitude of next generation cloud services and technology advances for clients moving key enterprise business processes into production cloud environments to innovate, reduce costs and increase agility.

IBM SmartCloud
The IBM SmartCloud offers a mix of private, public and hybrid clouds based on IBM hardware, software, services and best practices. The Enterprise implementation of SmartCloud allows a business to expand on internal development and test efforts with a reduction of application tasks from days to minutes via automation and rapid provisioning.  The Enterprise+ implementation adds the ability to provide a core set of multi-tenant services to manage virtual server, storage, network and security infrastructure components.

Client Adoption, New Software and Cloud Standards
IBM announced increased client adoption of its cloud computing software and services with more than 20 million end-user customers worldwide, making it one of the world’s largest providers of software-as-a-service (SaaS).  Client additions include American Airlines, CARFAX, Frito-Lay, IndiaFirst Life Insurance Co., Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd., and 7-Eleven.  To help accelerate adoption new software was introduced to help companies build their own cloud computing platforms to delivery business benefits in a wide range of industries such as banking, insurance, retail and communications.  IBM Workload Deployer provides a single platform to enable clients to provision all the middleware and application components they need to run Web workloads in the cloud across multiple systems in a simple and repeatable fashion. IBM also announced that they have joined more than 45 leading cloud organizations to form the new Cloud Standards Customer Council, which is managed by OMG.

Source: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/04/19/ibm-unveils-cloud-services-and-partnerships/

OneTree Solutions Showcases SaaS-Based Revenue Maximization Solution
OneTree Solutions S.A.demonstrated at Impact 2011 how they are working together with IBM on their new cloud platform, the IBM Workload Deployer (IWD), and how their solution enables businesses to take a scientific approach to revenue maximization, and realize the most profitable customized pricing for deal optimization.

"OneTree Solutions continues to develop high added value business applications with IBM tools. The value of their business solutions combined with the power and flexibility of the IBM Workload Deployer, provide undisputed benefits to the end user, such as quick time-to-value and peace of mind," said Marcus Belvin, WebSphere Marketing Manager at IBM. "We are thrilled that OneTree Solutions showcased their solution and technical prowess at this year's event. Attendees got a first-hand look at how innovative pricing technologies work on the IBM cloud."

The solution, namely OT ReMax, combines advanced pricing analytics and optimization capabilities with the power of IBM's embedded technologies such as WebSphere, DB2 and IBM business and predictive analytics. OT ReMax works seamlessly as either a virtual appliance (software only), or as an appliance (hardware + software), or as SaaS via the cloud, to provide powerful pricing recommendations to sales agents; allowing them to make the right decisions when it comes to offering customized prices and negotiating deals.

"Our key relationship with IBM allows us to provide our revenue maximization solution as a SaaS-based offering, which is an example of OneTree's commitment to broadening the reach of our software solutions," commented Denis Avrilionis, Managing Director, OneTree Group. "OneTree continues to focus on business solutions of high added value, and with the power of IBM behind us, OT ReMax allows businesses to optimize the critical last mile of their sales processes, maximize their revenues and drive their profitability immediately and with measurable results. And most importantly, without the need for huge investments or changing the way they work today."

For more information: www.onetreesol.com

WorkCoverSA Develops New Systems to Support Employers and Injured Workers with the Help of IBM and Cúram Software
Cúram Software and IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today the successful implementation of a number of software solutions for WorkCoverSA to support their business. WorkCover selected IBM Global Business Services to implement the Cúram for Workers' Compensation Solution, a comprehensive and proven claims management solution that manages and automates the complete claim lifecycle from injury to outcome, as part of a comprehensive modernisation of their IT systems.

WorkCover administers the Workers’ Rehabilitation and Compensation Scheme in South Australia on behalf of approximately 50,000 registered employers and 430,000 employees. WorkCover collects and manages levies for employers while their claims agent manage approximately 20,000 new claims and process approximately AUD500 million worth of claims payments each year. After finding their customised legacy application difficult and expensive to maintain, it was apparent they needed a new enterprise IT infrastructure that was robust and scalable.

During the three year project IBM worked with WorkCover to integrate the Cúram for Workers’ Compensation solution with IBM Tivoli Access Manager for e-Business and IBM DB2 Universal Database Workgroup Server, operating on IBM WebSphere Application Server. The flexible, solution allows WorkCover to manage claims more efficiently, ensuring greater transparency and consistency in decision making. This greater consistency is driven by numerous automated calculations and processes, previously performed manually by case managers. Furthermore, the authority can now respond more easily to changes in legislation and business priorities by incorporating them into the Cúram solution, giving it greater control over its scheme.

Yvonne Deally, CIO, WorkCover, said, “Our legacy systems were increasingly customised to the point they were no longer efficient to maintain. The Cúram solution implemented by IBM allows our organisation to respond to business or legislative change much more effectively, while also providing greater case management transparency.”

“This has been one of the most extensive IBM implementations of Cúram in the world,” said Michael Kinnane, Adelaide Application Services Leader, IBM Global Business Services. “IBM integrated Cúram with Tivoli Access Manager and combined Cúram and Tivoli with WebSphere and the DB2 server on a Windows platform. We are delighted we have worked with Cúram Software to help WorkCover build a new platform that reduces the complexity of back-office systems, enabling the organisation to increase its focus on case management and client service.”

According to Deally, IBM was instrumental in delivering the solution. “IBM had both the expertise and proven track record to manage and deliver what was a complex, three-year project successfully, which included transferring more than 650 million records of client related data stretching back over 20 years. We were particularly impressed by dedication displayed by the IBM team to WorkCover and to the success of this project.”

“Cúram Software was happy to help WorkCover facilitate best practices for rehabilitation and return to work and to ensure more consistent decision making and claims management,” said Ernie Connon, president, Cúram Software. "Working with IBM, our Strategic Technology Partner, we developed an enterprise solution that enabled greater transparency and more consistent decision making, focusing on our ultimate goals of effective rehabilitation, compensation and return to work.”

Full article available at:  http://www-304.ibm.com/jct03001c/press/au/en/pressrelease/34223.wss

The World's First Enterprise Management "Appliance"

Avada Software, the leading innovator of Enterprise Middleware Management and Monitoring solutions, today announced Infrared360 EMAP, the world's first Enterprise Management "Appliance".

Avada Software's flagship product, Infrared360, provides administration, monitoring, testing, statistical reporting, and auditing for enterprise middleware platforms such as WebSphere MQ and WebSphere Application Server

While the core Infrared360 product requires no deployment of software to managed servers or client desktops, the Infrared360 EMAP goes one significant step further providing pre-packaged, pre-configured, "drop-in management".

It allows resource and budget constrained SMBs to free themselves of the need to procure or provision additional hardware, operating system, and application server software. "We are currently working with other vendors to provide choices among hardware, OS's, and application servers for the appliance", says Rich Schreiber, head of business development and strategic alliances for Avada Software. "This first model runs on a 64 bit Windows OS and is capable of handling a few hundred managed endpoints and hundreds of users."

"The fact that this very small footprint server is all that an SMB would need in order to manage their entire middleware environment is a testament to the simplicity and value that Avada Software has brought to this market", adds Peter D'Agosta, Product Manager for Avada Software.

"Building upon our other strongly accepted innovations such as secure collaboration, delegated administration, agentless monitoring, and a security model that exceeds standard compliance requirements, Avada Software is now making Enterprise level application management solutions available to the mini-enterprise SMB sector."

For more, go to www.avadasoftware.com

SugarCRM and LotusLive Integration Facilitates Greater Collaboration
Available immediately, Sugar 6 now includes connectors for the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence suite and IBM WebSphere Cast Iron for SugarCRM platform. The update, announced on Tuesday, also brings agreedSugarCRM for LotusLive to general release, allowing customers to make use of LotusNotes' collaborative web conferencing and document-sharing capabilities within SugarCRM. The LotusLive integration is available to SugarCRM and IBM customers, the company said.

 The integration of SugarCRM and LotusLive allows deeper levels of collaboration across company boundaries, making the process of supporting your customers and building loyalty easier and more effective.

Sean Poulley, IBM "Social businesses are more engaged with their customers, partners and colleagues," Sean Poulley, vice president of social business cloud at IBM, said in a keynote speech at SugarCon 2011 in San Francisco, where the announcements were made."The integration of SugarCRM and LotusLive allows deeper levels of collaboration across company boundaries, making the process of supporting your customers and building loyalty easier and more effective."

The IBM Cognos integration with Sugar 6 allows customers to access advanced reporting, analytics and dashboards across their CRM data. According to the company, this can give greater insight into sales, customer support and marketing activities.

Integrated Features
New in the integration is the ability to populate the Sugar platform with data from legacy or third-party platforms via the WebSphere Cast Iron integration.

As well as integrating features of well-known IBM products — the result of a partnership agreement between the two companies, announced in January — Sugar 6 integrates other popular collaboration tools, including Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, Citrix GoToMeeting and Google Docs, from the Sugar 6 interface.

SugarCRM has also bolstered the Activity Stream features of Sugar 6, adding the ability to reply to individual posts, view user profile photos within posts and merge a Sugar user's Facebook news feeds and Twitter streams that the user follows. The feature is based on draft specs of the Activity Stream format, which a number of companies — including MySpace, Windows Live, Opera and Gowalla — have already adopted with the aim of syndicating social activities.

Sugar 6 Professional is available for $30 (£18.41) per user, per month. The Enterprise edition costs $50 per user, per month. The company said the new features "will be generally available this spring". As part of the collaboration, IBM is offering all SugarCRM customers a free 30-day trial of LotusLive.

Android and BlackBerry Support
SugarCRM also recently announced updates to Sugar Mobile, adding compatibility with Android and BlackBerry mobile devices. It also launched a new native iOS app for the iPad, which joins the existing Sugar Mobile iOS app that was launched in 2010 for the iPhone. Regardless of platform, functionality stays the same; namely, offline synchronisation and HTML 5-based charting.

The apps allow access to core Sugar modules. SugarCRM said it expects to make these new apps available this spring.

To read more, go to: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/desktop-apps/2011/04/06/ibm-connectors-sweeten-sugar-6-proposition-40092417/

In Focus

New GWC Whitepaper: Agility Meets Stability: Best Practices for Application Integration
by Dan Moore, IBM

Today’s companies are faced with integrating a hybrid world of cloud and on-premise applications that are distributed in managed and co-located data centers and hosted sites for Infrastructure, Platform, and Software as a Service (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS), which dramatically increase the complexity. Learn more about emerging trends, what to look for in an integration solution, integration best practices and pitfalls to avoid and how a large enterprise and a mid market company are solving these integration challenges.

Click here to read more

Impact 2011 Recap: Monitoring Low-Latency Middleware at Barclays Capital Using WebSphere DataPower
The Global WebSphere Community

At Impact 2011 a few weeks ago, Stephen Neal, Director and Global Head of Middleware at Barclays Capital spoke about his experiences monitoring low-latency middleware at Barclays.  Here are some of the highlights of Stephen's remarks.

Click here to read more

Impact 2011 Customer Recognition Awards Recap
The Global WebSphere Community 

The Global WebSphere Community (GWC) in conjunction with IBM WebSphere Business Partners recognized four enterprises that over the past year have deployed WebSphere technology to make measurable, demonstrable improvements in Business Process Management, Private Cloud Implementation, SOA Integration and Connectivity. Legacy Modernization and Service Enablement., and/or Empowering Line of Business with Business and Event Rules Management. This article profiles the accomplishments of these four customers — Premier Inc., KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, cars.com, and TELUS.

Click here to read more