Big Blue, like enterprise information technology as a whole, is slowly going the way of Google.
On Monday, IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) announced a free beta version of what it calls "Blue House," a Web-based software suite that expands the company's programs for scheduling meetings and projects, storing and sharing documents, instant messaging and running Powerpoint-like presentations--all via the Web, with applications hosted on IBM's servers.
Blue House is meant for more than internal collaboration: IBM also aims to let users collaborate over the Web with other organizations, creating what it describes as a social network of business users.
Blue House will also try to reassure businesses of the security of their information by offering companies precise controls over which participants they let at the data. IBM says it will let its customers audit the service's data storage to make sure no information inadvertently slips through those safeguards to the wrong third parties. Because the services will eventually be based on paid subscriptions--not advertising, as in the case of other Web applications like Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people )'s--IBM is also telling users that it won't sift through customers' data to learn about them.
"We're serving the needs of business users first," says Sean Poulley, IBM's vice president of Web collaboration services. "It's their identity and their data. That means we have a very different starting point for how we think about the service."
The programs, an addition to the company's "Lotus" group of applications, also represent one of IBM's most ambitious forays yet into enterprise software-as-a-service, the browser-based model of applications pioneered by companies like Salesforce.com.
IBM has long had a strong culture of exploiting the Web for its own internal business collaboration. The massive computing company likes to boast that its 350,000-plus employees use around 10,000 internal blog and 15,000 wikis, and have more representation than any company on social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. IBMers periodically hold firmwide "Jams"--online brainstorming sessions on topics ranging from data centers to translation software. And the company's last annual meeting of its top 200 researchers was focused on how to make the best possible use of the Web for business. (See "IBM's Webbie World.")
Blue House represents the fruits of that internal focus on the Web: an expansion of IBM's online offerings, not just for its employees but also for its customers. On top of that in-house development, the service ties in IBM's acquisition of Web presentation company WebDialog in August 2007.
IBM's Web focus also exploits the timely appeal that software-as-a-service has to IT managers' wallets in the midst of the current economic downturn, says IDC Research Analyst Frank Genz.
"With traditional software, you have to initially spend $100,000 or millions of dollars. With this, you pay as you go, per user," says Genz. "Especially in an economy that's getting pinched, it's a tremendous advantage over the traditional models."
IBM isn't the only stodgy enterprise IT company to turn its focus to the Web. Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) has long offered business applications as part of its "Live" suite of Web programs, and Cisco (nasdaq: CSCO - news - people ) late last month launched a revamped version of its Webex online presentation software with new collaboration tools.
That means Blue House will put IBM head to head with the other IT giants looking toward the Web as the new platform for business, says IDC's Genz. "The question is whether the older players in the business world are ready to compete in this space, and IBM is saying yes. It's staking a claim as a leader of cloud collaboration," he says. "The destination for enterprise IT is the cloud. But it's going to be a long and closely run race."
On Monday, IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) announced a free beta version of what it calls "Blue House," a Web-based software suite that expands the company's programs for scheduling meetings and projects, storing and sharing documents, instant messaging and running Powerpoint-like presentations--all via the Web, with applications hosted on IBM's servers.
Blue House is meant for more than internal collaboration: IBM also aims to let users collaborate over the Web with other organizations, creating what it describes as a social network of business users.
Blue House will also try to reassure businesses of the security of their information by offering companies precise controls over which participants they let at the data. IBM says it will let its customers audit the service's data storage to make sure no information inadvertently slips through those safeguards to the wrong third parties. Because the services will eventually be based on paid subscriptions--not advertising, as in the case of other Web applications like Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people )'s--IBM is also telling users that it won't sift through customers' data to learn about them.
"We're serving the needs of business users first," says Sean Poulley, IBM's vice president of Web collaboration services. "It's their identity and their data. That means we have a very different starting point for how we think about the service."
The programs, an addition to the company's "Lotus" group of applications, also represent one of IBM's most ambitious forays yet into enterprise software-as-a-service, the browser-based model of applications pioneered by companies like Salesforce.com.
IBM has long had a strong culture of exploiting the Web for its own internal business collaboration. The massive computing company likes to boast that its 350,000-plus employees use around 10,000 internal blog and 15,000 wikis, and have more representation than any company on social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. IBMers periodically hold firmwide "Jams"--online brainstorming sessions on topics ranging from data centers to translation software. And the company's last annual meeting of its top 200 researchers was focused on how to make the best possible use of the Web for business. (See "IBM's Webbie World.")
Blue House represents the fruits of that internal focus on the Web: an expansion of IBM's online offerings, not just for its employees but also for its customers. On top of that in-house development, the service ties in IBM's acquisition of Web presentation company WebDialog in August 2007.
IBM's Web focus also exploits the timely appeal that software-as-a-service has to IT managers' wallets in the midst of the current economic downturn, says IDC Research Analyst Frank Genz.
"With traditional software, you have to initially spend $100,000 or millions of dollars. With this, you pay as you go, per user," says Genz. "Especially in an economy that's getting pinched, it's a tremendous advantage over the traditional models."
IBM isn't the only stodgy enterprise IT company to turn its focus to the Web. Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) has long offered business applications as part of its "Live" suite of Web programs, and Cisco (nasdaq: CSCO - news - people ) late last month launched a revamped version of its Webex online presentation software with new collaboration tools.
That means Blue House will put IBM head to head with the other IT giants looking toward the Web as the new platform for business, says IDC's Genz. "The question is whether the older players in the business world are ready to compete in this space, and IBM is saying yes. It's staking a claim as a leader of cloud collaboration," he says. "The destination for enterprise IT is the cloud. But it's going to be a long and closely run race."
'Business' 카테고리의 다른 글
| Fed Moves to Thaw Credit Markets (0) | 2008.10.07 |
|---|---|
| Police: Jobless father kills family, self (0) | 2008.10.07 |
| Dow Sinks Below 10,000 as Stocks Plunge Globally (0) | 2008.10.07 |
| EBay buys Bill Me Later for $945 million (0) | 2008.10.07 |
| Citigroup sues Wachovia, Wells Fargo for $60B (0) | 2008.10.07 |
