Jacques Martin

The IBM WebSphere family of products can be a lot of different things to different people, and - just like any family - each member has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are fully developed and mature; others are just starting out. Each member has its own way of doing things, and of working with other family members. Some members are very cooperative and eager to work with outsiders; others stay close to home. The most important part of the family, though, is not the software itself, it's the people who design, build, customize, deploy, and administer the software. Without all of you...there would be no WebSphere. The professional life of a talented group of men and women at IBM is entirely focused on WebSphere, and literally thousands of companies have joined the family to help deploy, customize, administer, and create their own applications that run with it.... (more)

A Conversation with John Shedletsky, Vice President of Competitive Technologies at IBM

Recently Jack Martin, editor-in-chief of WSDJ, spoke to John Shedletsky, vice president of Competitive Technologies at IBM. In addition to running the Competitive Technology Lab, Shedletsky and his team host competitive seminars for business partners and potential customers to illustrate the technical differences between WebSphere and its competition. WSDJ: When you say you try to understand competitors' technology and IBM's technology, what does that mean? JS: For example, with BEA WebLogic Server, we got the code, set it up, tried to write applications with BEA tools, and ran th... (more)

Offshore Outsourcing: Magic Bullet or Dirty Word?

Read JDJ's 2004 Predictions by i-Technology Leaders Feature Story Read The End of Middleware by Jonathan Schwartz Read From the Founding Editor by Steve Benfield In the world of IT, outsourcing is either the dirtiest word you can utter or a brilliant one; it's all about who says it to whom and where it is said. No matter who uses it, it is a word most often said in private. When corporate managers use the word, it is always mentioned in a most confidential fashion as a potential cost-cutting tactic, a magic bullet to increase margins. When technical people use the word in public ... (more)

Going Vertical: Interview with IBM's Paraic Sweeney

WebSphere Journal editor-in-chief Jack Martin recently chatted with Paraic Sweeney, IBM's VP of Marketing for Industry Solutions and Business Integration, Software Group. In this exclusive interview, Sweeney discusses IBM's Middleware Industry Solutions initiative, the drivers behind adding an industry-vertical dimension to the business, and the company's decision in 1999 to focus on middleware and get out of the application business. WebSphere Journal: Paraic, how do you spend a typical day? Paraic Sweeney: My typical day - especially now that we are in a launch phase around the ... (more)

Web Services: The Next Big Thing

If you search under Web Services in Yahoo! the results include religious supplies and services, translation services, adult entertainment, and Internet services; however, that's all about to change. Web Services are going to be the next incredibly great thing. Web Services are the core of the Microsoft .NET vision, and IBM is delivering a Web Services Toolkit based on J2EE. Sun, BEA, Ariba, and HP also have Web Service offerings, as will hundreds of emerging companies - the next NASDAQ darlings - by the end of the year. Soon even your barber and cab driver will be talking about ... (more)