Using alphaWorks Services, developers, businesses and universities can easily access emerging technologies over the internet directly from IBM R&D labs, and provide real-time feedback to the technology owners. By creating this collaborative environment between IBM's R&D labs and the outside world, alphaWorks Services will enable IBM to elevate its degree of responsiveness to the end user, respond quickly to changing business needs and requirements, and in turn, deliver higher quality software to the marketplace.
With the technologies residing at a centralized Web site, users are provided with a stronger collaborative working environment and are given the opportunity to forge closer relationships with IBM. For example, one of the first technologies available on alphaWorks Services is a simplified tool that allows non-technical users to use a web browser for rapidly creating powerful applications without the need to understand complex programming details. As the user develops the application, they have an opportunity to access various IBM resources and submit specific questions and feedback, in an effort to help both IBM and the individual make better use of the tool.
"For the past ten years, alphaWorks has served as a technological proving ground for businesses, developers and universities, ushering in emerging technologies, standards, and trends that have helped shape the technology landscape," said John Patrick, president of Attitude LLC and founding father of alphaWorks. "With alphaWorks Services, IBM continues to set the industry standard for encouraging collaborative innovation between its labs and the individuals and organizations that rely so heavily on technology in today's business world."
A Decade of Innovation
Today's announcement marks a major milestone for alphaWorks, which is celebrating ten years of delivering emerging technologies into the hands of early adopters. In 1996, IBM launched alphaWorks to host emerging technologies that users could read about, experiment with, provide feedback for, and build upon. alphaWorks has given the outside world a unique peek into the work underway in IBM's R&D labs by highlighting the company's most cutting-edge work and providing it for free download.
Ten years later, alphaWorks has delivered nearly 700 technologies to the marketplace, graduated 47 technologies into stand-alone products, incorporated 129 technologies into existing IBM products and serves hundreds of commercial licensees. In 2005 alone, 93 of the Fortune 100, and 25,000 companies in total, downloaded technologies from alphaWorks, leveraging this unique model to remain innovative. alphaWorks has also been a strong conduit for IBM's commitment and strategy around open source to help businesses accelerate development and spur innovation. Since its inception, more than 30 alphaWorks technologies have been donated to open source, with the first ever IBM open source license being published on alphaWorks in 1998.
"Since 1996, alphaWorks has been one of the hidden jewels within IBM's software business. Serving as a window for users to get a sneak peek into our R&D labs, alphaWorks relies on early adopters to help shape IBM's innovations into today's market-leading products and open source technologies," said Buell Duncan, general manager, ISV & Developer Relations, IBM. "We are proud to celebrate ten years of success and are looking forward to leading businesses into the next generation of collaborative innovation through our alphaWorks Services initiative."
As part of today's announcement, IBM will roll out the first technologies to be offered as a service:
-- Ad hoc Development and Integration tool for End Users (ADIEU) - A
simplified online tool for rapid collaborative development of Web
applications and Web services that allows end users to develop these
applications in an environment designed for non-programmers with an easy to
understand interface. For example, a company who finds it valuable to
provide specific stock quotes for its customers can create a Web service in
a matter of minutes and have the stock quote information optionally
delivered as an RSS feed.
-- Web Relational Blocks (WebRB) - A visual web-based tool that allows
consumers and developers to easily build enterprise Web applications
through a simple browser interface. Components are dragged and dropped onto
the canvas and then wired together to visually assemble the GUI. For
example, WebRB can be used to rapidly develop and deploy web-based e-
commerce applications such as a shopping site by simply adding the store
features through the drag and drop mechanism.
-- Deep Thunder - Local, high-resolution weather predictions. For many
businesses, such as transportation agencies or supply chain companies,
expected local weather conditions are critical factors in planning
operations and making effective decisions. Companies can use weather
predictions from this tool to collaborate with other organizations and plan
accordingly.
The Evolution of Innovation
Several of IBM's key technologies were incubated through alphaWorks, evolving into full-fledged initiatives and products, and demonstrating the potential of providing emerging technologies to the community at the earliest stages of the development process. For example:
-- Autonomic computing, introduced by IBM in 2001, autonomic computing
describes IT systems with the ability to manage themselves -- much in the
same way the autonomic nervous system regulates the body. IBM began by
delivering an autonomic blueprint, and technology based on the blueprint,
to alphaWorks to get feedback from the development community. It has since
evolved into a cross-company initiative with more than 500 autonomic
features spanning 75 IBM software, hardware and services offerings.
-- alphaWorks hosts 61 technologies made for the Eclipse platform, which
was created by IBM and donated to open source developers, and has become a
premier development environment. Two technologies graduated from alphaWorks
to become core components of the Eclipse Modeling Framework.
-- Servlet Express, an alphaWorks technology that started out as an
engine plug-in and turned ordinary Web servers into Java-enabled Web
servers, was incorporated into IBM's WebSphere Application Server.
ADIEU, WebRB and Deep Thunder are available on alphaWorks today. For more
information, please visit
http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com.
Contact: Faye Abloeser IBM 908-770-0762 Email Contact