| $3500 - Single Copy | Report # SH24391513 | 102 Pages | 73 Tables and Figures | 2010 |
| PDF Brochure | WinterGreen Research, Inc. |
WinterGreen Research (WGR) and its European Partner Business & Information Technology (BIT) Group announce the release March 2010 of a new IBM strategic study, dealing with the IBM Smarter Planet vision, as well as with the strategies, portfolios and execution capabilities of the IBM Software Group brands.
This study is a 6-part study totaling 102 pages and 73 tables and figures.
Part 1/6: IBM Smarter Planet, Software 2.0 and IBM Software Group brands 16 pages, 8 tables & Figures
In line with the "Cycle Theory", mediatized on the economics side by Kondratieff and Schumpeter, BIT Group - WGR Inc. and IBM share the same vision for the future, i.e. that we are on the verge of a new Technology Innovation Cycle that will induce a new long term Kondratieff "prosperity" cycle ca 2017-2018 to the mid-century.
IBM calls it the Smarter Planet paradigm. BIT Group names the emerging Technology Cycle: "Intelligent Digital World", in reference to the one we are living in: Digital World 1 that got started ca 1970 with Arpanet and the Micro-Processor soon joined by GSM (mobile) technology.
This "Intelligent Digital World Cycle" should see the fusion of the Digital World 1 (modular organizations, collaboration-led people interactions) with the Physical World of Objects made intelligent (Smart Things), communicating via the "Future Internet", i.e. the IPv6, SOA-architected and software-enabled Internet.
This in turn will generate an important productivity jump via Smart Grids in Electricity or zero-energy homes and buildings for instance, enabling the start of the aforementioned new prosperity cycle.
In this momentum, software is key both for innovation and change. However, as states Gary Booch, IBM Fellow, "90% of the software we need for this new era is yet to be written". This raises the strategic question about effective Software Delivery, from design and development to operations in a Service-Oriented (SO) Architected Information System.
To match the above vision and strategy, the IBM Software Group, under the leadership of Steve Mills, has been re-shaped from a middleware-centric entity to a more software-centric entity whose mission is to enable enterprises to conceive Smart Products, drive Change and allow Innovation-based Differentiation.
Parts 2 to 6 of this study detail the vision, strategies and execution capabilities of the IBM Software Group key brands, leveraging information provided during their annual conferences.
Part 2/6: WebSphere and SOA Smart Work 18 pages, 9 figures
On the enterprise structure front, because markets saturation forced the industrialized world economies to move to a replacement economy in the late 1970s, organizations had to move to more agile and cellular structures so as to serve a moving-target client in an open world.
As modularity becomes part of the organizations' DNA, the Information System has to mirror this trend and this is the business legitimacy of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).
IBM is a premier provider of SOA, Cloud Computing and Enterprise Services Oriented Architecture: It is the market leader with 70% share in the first three quarters of 2009. SOA drives business imperatives that permit the achievement of flexible IT systems. Line of Business managers cannot function efficiently if they are locked into static IT business process. They are dependent on the existing automated process to achieve business efficiency, but they need to be able to change that to achieve appropriate response to competitive situations. SOA provides that technology.
Ease of use remains a significant issue for SOA implementations. Governance and the constraints that accompany good governance get in the way of rapid IT change. Small companies that grow using Microsoft.NET programming constructs have difficulty implementing sophisticated governance process when the need arises. Likewise, enterprise legacy systems that are mired in governance, cannot easily build new applications rapidly.
Impact of SOA on IT is in this context. SOA is a Web services initiative for rapid application development, accessing code that already runs the enterprise. Instead of rebuilding that code, or copying it and reusing it in that manner, SOA permits access to information located anywhere using a SOA API.
From a sourcing perspective, Cloud may be seen as the Next Generation Outsourcing, the first one which will not be "people based" only but will contain a sizeable part of automation. Thus, at Impact 2009, IBM presented and demoed the WebSphere CloudBurst Appliance.
Part 3/6: IBM Rational - Telelogic, Smart Products & the Innovation Agenda 22 pages, 25 tables & figures
In line with the "Software 2.0" vision aforedetailed, IBM says "Software is becoming the "invisible thread" at the center of the world transformation towards a smarter, more productive planet. Intelligent software and systems lie at the heart of IBM's Smarter Planet agenda. What we are seeing this year are clients at a crossroads. They view software as the key to differentiation yet they still struggle as how to improve project outcomes.
This defines our unique market. IBM Rational - Telelogicis helping its clients redefine their software and systems delivery processes and make the incremental, staged improvements that will give them the insight to align initiatives with business strategy and improve the business value of those projects. Collectively, IBM Rational - Telelogic helps its clients (1) Produce, consume and manage smarter products; (2) Optimize desired business outcomes from their investments in software; (3) Free-up resources that can be re-invested in innovation".
Part 4/6: Information Management - The Information Agenda - IOD 14 pages, 5 tables & figures
Transforming software-generated data and information into knowledge for smarter decisions in "real time" is the ambition of the Information Management Business Unit of the Software Group of IBM Corporation.
IBM has an Information Agenda. Customer resources are scarce. Costs are high. Information is siloed. Competitive pressures reduce the time to react. IOD laid out an information strategy designed to permit customers to retain a competitive advantage. The information agenda approach accelerates organizational ability to share and deliver trusted information across all applications and processes.
IBM offers:
-Independent foundational information tools
-Tools for aligning IT and business goals through
-Enterprise information roadmaps
-Industry specific expertise
-Assets that can be used for rapid time to value
-Ways for centralizing best practices
-Establish competency centers
IBM used IOD 2009 for getting customers started on an information transformation journey. The Information Agenda aims at introducing the concepts of industry specific automated processes that lead to rapid systems implementation. IBM presented its information agenda approach in the context of reference accounts that provide a proven track record. The information agenda is positioned to provide granular variety of customized tools used by companies of various sizes and in various industries.
Information On Demand systems are used to respond and adapt quickly to unpredictable, up-to-the minute changes in information. Information may be on a global level, or in the next cube over.
Part 5/6: IBM Lotus 'Empowering people' - The Collaboration Agenda 16 pages, 11 tables & figures
IBM Lotus 2010 strategy is articulated around three key words: Collaboration Agenda, Cloud and IBM Future Collaboration Vision, sometimes called 'LotusNext'.
Lotus is in charge of the Collaboration Agenda, defined as an industry-specific approach to realize measurable value from improving the way people interact. IBM Collaboration Agenda aims to improve responsiveness of teams especially when the members are located remotely.
On the cloud front, IBM has made several enhancements to IBM LotusLive, including an easier access to LotusLive Notes and a promised increased openness to partners (2H 2010) who will be able to get APIs to propose add-on services without being obliged to be part of the Lotus Design Partner program.
IBM is a premier provider of cloud computing and desktop collaboration tools: The Smarter Planet initiative seeks to bring automated process to ordinary tasks, creating ways to leverage sensors for all aspects of business implementation. With its smarter planet initiative, IBM is bringing intelligence to a vast array of what were previously manual tasks. IBM has positioned as an infrastructure provider.
Lotus is seeking to define a platform operating in the cloud where services are available in real time, on demand. Industries targeted include healthcare, education, oil and gas, buildings, transportation, public safety, and government.
The IBM Future Collaboration Vision includes several projects from IBM LotusLive Labs: among these, IBM Project Vulcan is said to be "the IBM future collaboration vision", according to Alistair Rennie, the new IBM Lotus General Manager.
Even if it was not in the 3 conference keywords, "User Experience" has got its share of improvements (Sametime, Quickr, Connections, Symphony) as winning the ergonomics or comfort battle is strategic for making the end user 'happy' and therefore being its Partner of choice. Mobility has also been under the spotlights with a series of announcements regarding Apple, Google, Nokia and RIM terminals.
IBM has also developed solutions specific to the Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (Lotus Foundations).
Part 6/6: IBM Tivoli - Enabling Innovation 16 pages, 15 tables & figures
Pulse 2010, the IBM Tivoli annual conference, was still much in the shadow of economic downturn and success stories presented were in the most crisis-resistant sectors such as energy and government.
Aside from the conference core quite normally dedicated to Service Management, and its evolution Integrated Service Management, IBM has taken the opportunity of a 5,500 professionals gathering to give a better visibility to its Smarter Planet concept and Cloud strategy evolution.
Smarter Planet - Tivoli Service Management outside the traditional IT environment The IBM Smarter Planet concept, developed in the part 1 of the IBM Software Group Series, predicts that the next technology cycle that should take over the current one started in ca. 1970 with the microprocessor and Arpanet, will be empowered by the meeting of the "physical" (Smart Objects) and the "digital" world we are experiencing now with our interconnected systems and people collaboration.
The concept is then adapted for different industries such as Smart Grids for electricity, Smart City or Smart Building, Smart Healthcare, Smart Banking and so on.
IBM wants to bring its Service Management expertise outside the Data Center and IT field by going to the "physical world" and proposing to monitor and manage the Smart environments.
At Pulse 2010, IBM with some of its Senior Executives on stage, tempted to demo the concept through a live show about Las Vegas and the Venetian Palace as a smarter city and building respectively.
A more traditional slides based presentation detailed the Smart Grid for Electricity services provided by IBM, to some extent also to illustrate the guest keynote by Al Gore who delivered a sustainability message on behalf of mankind.
Integrated Service Management
The opportunity to integrate operational assets with hardware, software and services is being leveraged by IBM as it offers improved service management. Integration is the motto. IBM wants its customers moved to the next step, which it calls "Integrated Service Management", another aspect of the on-going battle against the silos. Products and services are offered for (1) Data Centers; (2) Software Design and Delivery (Tivoli and Rational bridging); (3) Specific industries: banking, Chemicals & Petroleum; Energy & utilities; Healthcare
Cloud
On the cloud front, IBM has made several enhancements to systems management, providing easier access to virtualized systems by those authorized to have access, and greater security to protect the systems from unwanted intrusion. Federation is key to integrate the internal private cloud (virtualized data center) with external private, community clouds or the public cloud. IBM Tivoli proposes the Federated Image Library for this new software layer associated with the evolution to the cloud.
| Companies Profiled | |
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IBM
IBM Rational – Telelogic IBM Ilog IBM Lotus IBM Tivoli |
IBM Filenet
IBM Cognos Microsoft Oracle SAP |
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