IBM is taking service-oriented architecture (SOA) to its channel partners,
hoping to find more placement for its distributed computing technologies in
small- to medium-sized businesses.
The company today expanded its SOA arsenal at PartnerWorld in Las Vegas,
padding its portfolio for the more than 1,200 partners in its SOA partner
program, which includes Oracle, Lawson, Accenture and Deloitte & Touche.
SOA Business Central will include more than 3,000 SOA services, software adapters and intellectual property. The expanded partner outreach includes new software.
SOAs
processes, allowing them to reuse software and other assets to get more bang
for their IT buck. This is important at a time when CIOs are forced to rein
in spending.
Sandy Carter, vice president of WebSphere for IBM’s software group, said in
an interview that 2006 will be the year of the channels for SOA.
“What we’re trying to do for them is take away the heavy lifting so that
they can focus on innovation with their customers,” Carter said.
Therefore, Carter said, IBM is launching its SOA Business Central as a federated
catalog of IBM and SOA software services developed by business partners.
SOA Business Central will include the upcoming WebSphere Registry and
Repository for SOA Governance software product. Customers will be able to
search, download and install services from the catalog, which will include
utilities for the publication, subscription, management and policy
enforcement of SOA services and assets.
IBM is opening the WebSphere Registry’s application program interfaces
(APIs) to allow their software assets to be catalogued and stored in the
repository when it becomes available later this year.
IBM today also debuted new Solution Builder Express (SBE) SOA offerings,
which partners can use to develop repeatable solutions that address
specific business problems in an SOA.
The new Rapid Foundation for Application Infrastructure SBE is based on
WebSphere Application Server and Rational Application Developer to help
customers improve operational efficiency and reduce management costs.
The Sync Applications and Data SBE is based on WebSphere Enterprise Service
Bus and WebSphere Integration Developer. This tool is designed to improve
office worker productivity.
The Collaborative Workplace SBE, based on Workplace Services Express, simplifies the way employees access information. Lastly, the Process
Integration SBE is based on WebSphere Business Integration Server Express
and helps small businesses keep customers.
To help partners react to market changes to keep up with rivals, IBM
introduced the SOA Value Assessment Tool.
Based on data from thousands of IBM SOA customers, the tool allows business
partners to work with customers to identify business problems and recommend
the correct WebSphere-based software to solve the problem and project.
Carter said the new offerings should help IBM expand its leadership position
in the SOA market, where BEA, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, SAP and Microsoft
are all vying for market share.
