IBM's WebSphere Wins Big With InfoWorld Magazine Readers WebSphere On Top In Three Key Categories

Market Wire, 20050229

IBM today announced new honors for WebSphere, as the e-infrastructure software was named the Enterprise Application of the Year, Application Integration Tool of the Year, and E-Commerce Product of the Year by InfoWorld Magazine's readers.

WebSphere won the Enterprise Application of the Year award with 46 percent of the votes over Oracle E-Business Suite's 24 percent and swept the Application Integration Tool of the Year category with 52 percent of the votes over Forte Fusion's 16 percent. In addition, WebSphere won as E-Commerce Product of the Year with 53 percent of the votes, ahead of Sun's iPlanet with 37 percent. InfoWorld's readers have chosen WebSphere as their leading software for facilitating integrated e-commerce functions easily and most efficiently.

Candidates for the InfoWorld Reader's Choice Awards were nominated by InfoWorld editors, writers and analysts. Subscribers were then asked to go online and vote once for their favorite choices.

In the short time since its introduction, WebSphere has:

Garnered thousands of customers, including most of the world's top commercial banks, telecommunications, healthcare and Wall Street brokerage companies. These companies rely on WebSphere for their complete Internet infrastructure needs -- including integrating their key business processes and conducting high-volume Web transactions.

Enjoyed eight consecutive quarters of double-digit growth, increasing 53 percent on Windows NT and Unix in 1Q 2001.

Gained significant market share, according to Giga Information Group. Over the past ten months, WebSphere's market share has doubled -- more than ten times the growth rate of BEA's market share over the same time period.

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 www.ibm.com/websphere.