“The browser war is over, and IBM is now proclaiming that the
next battlefield is Internet middleware, the software layer between
computer operating systems and Web-based applications. “E-business
will be a war of Internet middleware technology,” declared Jocelyne
Attal, vice president for marketing of IBM’s WebSphere, the
company’s version of the so-called Internet middleware.”
“Although the line separating “middleware” and operating systems
is a blur, IBM recently unveiled a long-list of Internet middleware
products that makes e-business a reality. It has products ranging
from “simple” Web applications to the eclectic transcoding
publisher, that literally translates Web-content (HTML) to XML or
WML formats – formats that are designed for pervasive devices such
as wireless application protocol (WAP) devices, personal digital
assistants (PDAs), and others.”
“WebSphere Transcoding Publisher is a tool that is considered
“protocol agnostic,” meaning that this technology will soon allow
any Web content to be easily ported on any “display” device,
according to Edward Harbour, director of IBM’s business line
management and marketing connected e-business. Meantime, IBM is
now keen on promoting “open standards” and “open source” computing
as it declared that WebSphere will run on any platform, or that is
at least 30 hardware platforms, and a list of computing
environments such as Windows 2000, Linux, HP-UX, among others.
“IBM is particular about not building a suite of Web
applications but components that can be modular and can scale
up,” said Dutton.”