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IBM pushes its vision for e-business version 2
UNDER a broad campaign called on-demand computing, IBM has unveiled a vision of corporate computing based on uniquely flexible infrastructures. These architectures would automatically adjust to changes in demand for processing power, unfailingly accept new applications regardless of source, and support the creation of spur-of-the-moment teams comprised of a few people or whole companies.
In his first major address after adding the title of chairman to his CEO tag, IBM’s Sam Palmisano said businesses must move to on-demand computing if they are to remain competitive. Speaking to a roomful of CIOs and reporters in New York’s Museum of Natural History, Palmisano was almost admonishing in tone. “You are the ones who have to drive this; you have the organizational perspective,” he told them.
IBM’s campaign unites a number of initiatives that the company has been pursuing for a couple of years, including grid computing, storage virtualization, open-source operating systems, and middleware and Web services.
“This is the next phase of e-business — it’s the on-demand phase,” said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM’s VP for technology and strategy. Wladawsky-Berger will head a new on-demand unit within IBM that will pull together resources from across the company to develop new technologies.
While the strategy sounds grand, some observers say it’s merely the culmination of works in progress that IBM has been engaged in for several years. “This is very evolutionary,” Merrill Lynch analyst Steve Milunovich says. “On the other hand, businesses don’t like their strategic vendors to go off on radical changes,” he added.
Palmisano said the company will invest $10 billion in related R&D, business activities, and acquisitions. The company will also open on-demand design centers around the world to help customers implement pilot projects. The centres will be in Poughkeepsie, NY; San Jose, California; as well as in Japan and France. IBM is also launching an on-demand assessment practice within its business consulting practice.
IBM is also changing the way it sells hardware and software to better align with the way it thinks customers will need to acquire technology in an on-demand world. The company says its entire line of business hardware and software will be available under flexible, utilitylike pricing models under which customers pay for only what they use, when they use it.
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Media player code released
RealNetworks on Tuesday made the source code for its internet media playing software available for other software and hardware makers to use in their products, in a push to make its technology the industry standard before rival Microsoft does.
“We are leveraging momentum in market, both among consumers and companies, to move media beyond the PC,” said Dan Sheeran, vice president of media systems. “This community and technology finally gives manufacturers the modular open engine player they need to create any application they want.”
The release of the source code, or basic language used to create software programs, is part of an already announced plan to offer a universal platform for sending and receiving digital media.
RealNetworks — the streaming media industry leader whose lead versus hard-charging Microsoft is narrowing — is betting that the drive to make its source code available will help ensure that its standard will be used across a wide range of devices and platforms.
RealNetworks, best known for its Real series of players for video and audio sent over the internet, in July released the Helix Universal Server for sending media over the web for Windows and Unix-based server operating systems as well as for open-source Linux.
While software giant Microsoft also works with other developers to include its media streaming technology in devices, RealNetworks is throwing open its doors to anyone who wants to use its software to create programs and devices that will play back all media formats, including Microsoft’s.
“The more content that’s out there getting created using our technology, the more we can drive our PC business,” Sheeran said, referring to the RealNetworks-managed music and video subscription service for personal computers.
HP, MIT digital library
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Hewlett-Packard have unveiled a system for electronically archiving books, lecture notes and scientific data that potentially will serve as a model for academic libraries in the future.
Called DSpace, the new system is essentially a centralized, electronic repository for the massive amounts of intellectual property created by research institutions, said Mackenzie Smith, associate director of MIT Libraries and the DSpace project director.— Dawn Sciencedotcom Report
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