WebSphere First Software in Industry for Web Services; IBM Announces Software With Broadest Implementation of Open Internet Standards

Business Wire, March 14, 2001

Business Editors, Hi-Tech Writers

SOMERS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 14, 2001

IBM today announced the industry's first software enabled for Web services.

Web services are emerging e-business applications that can connect and interact with one another on the Web more easily and efficiently, eliminating much of the time-consuming custom coding currently required in, for example, B2B environments. The more efficient integration is being driven by a wide range of new open Internet standards, which IBM helped develop and has incorporated into its new software.

The new standards will allow software developers to create new e-business applications that will be able to navigate, discover and interact with other applications on the Internet similar to the way people navigate, discover and interact with Websites today. In other words, Web services are leading to a new phase in e-business in which the Internet will be driven increasingly by applications, which will lead to new levels of efficiency and productivity.

WebSphere Technology for Developers is the first software in the industry that supports the variety of open standards necessary to develop and securely deploy Web services, including:

-- Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI), which enables
businesses to describe themselves, publish technical specifications on how they
want to conduct e-business with other companies and search for other businesses
that provide goods and services they need all via online UDDI registries. IBM
led the development of UDDI with Microsoft and Ariba.

-- Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), which is a standard for reliably
transporting electronic business messages from one business application to
another over the Internet. IBM is the first to implement and integrate HTTPS,
HTTP Authentication and SOAP security, including digital signatures, enabling
end-to-end authentication, integrity and non-repudiation for SOAP messages. IBM
and Lotus co-developed SOAP with Microsoft.

-- Java2(tm) Enterprise Edition (J2EE)(a), which is technology that enables
software developers to write the "guts" of business applications (i.e.
connections to databases, handling transactions, etc.) that will run across
different computing systems. IBM contributed to most of the J2EE technology
working with Sun Microsystems. With this announcement, WebSphere has passed the
J2EE compatibility test suite (CTS) and is fully J2EE compliant.

-- Web Services Description Language (WSDL) , which describes programs
accessible via the Internet (or other networks) and the message formats and
protocols used to communicate with them. WSDL is important because it enables
Web services to describe their capabilities in a standard way, which allows for
easier interoperability among Web services and development tools. IBM
co-developed WSDL with Microsoft.

-- Enhanced integration of leading XML technologies. IBM has been a leader in
incorporating XML into its software since 1997. XML enables software developers
to describe business data and content to a high degree of specificity and
automatically exchange it.

WebSphere Technology for Developers supports what Gartner calls Services Oriented Development of Applications (SODA) and is IBM's Web application server software enabled with these standards.

In addition, the IBM WebSphere Studio Technology Preview for Web Services is the first set of software tools that enables developers to create new Web services and provide existing e-business applications with Web services capabilities. Using the software tools, Web developers can create, test and deploy Web services with minimal knowledge of Java technology, XML or SOAP. It is available at www.alphaworks.ibm.com.

"A key part of IBM's e-business strategy has been to embrace the development of open standards and compete based on implementation," said Daryl Plummer, Group Vice President at Gartner. "For that reason, IBM has been working across the industry the last few years to develop open Internet standards that span from XML to Java technologies. And it will deliver the value of those standards to its customers through its middleware software like WebSphere."

"WebSphere provides us with Internet infrastructure software and development tools that incorporate the broadest range of open Internet standards in the industry," said Greg Olsen, Chief Technology Officer, Extricity. "Because WebSphere is enabled with these open standards, it will enable Extricity to develop new Web services applications for B2B relationship management, which will take our customers to new levels of efficiency in e-business."

WebSphere Technology for Developers is available at no charge on a limited basis today from IBM sales representatives and business partners.

About IBM's (NYSE: IBM) WebSphere Software

WebSphere is Internet infrastructure software -- known as middleware -- that enables companies to develop, deploy and integrate next-generation e-business applications, such as those for business-to-business e-commerce. WebSphere supports business applications from simple Web publishing through enterprise-scale transaction processing. WebSphere transforms the way businesses manage customer, partner and employee relationships. More information about the WebSphere software platform is on the Web at http://www.ibm.com/websphere.>