Welcome to the blog where IBMers exchange viewpoints, share their perspectives to provide more insight around service oriented architecture solutions, and delve into a range of SOA-related subjects. We want you to speak out on SOA through comments in the blog -- from where your organization stands on SOA adoption, to your challenges and experiences -- to share with the larger community the impact of SOA on your marketplace. Sandy Carter is IBM's Vice President, SOA & WebSphere Marketing, Strategy and Channels. Discover the entry points to SOA and how companies worldwide are making SOA pay right away.

Unconference "Energy" Camp -- Green BPM enabled SOA?

Green efforts can be helped by SOA? Yep.   I had a customer really hammer this one home.  This large retailer had previously optimized their processes for efficiency and effectiveness.  Now they are looking at how they make their processes greener.... BPM enabled by SOA can help them optimize their processes for Green! 

That is why we want to elevate the conversation on Green beyond the datacenter!

James Governor and Gerry Cuomo -- 2 of my favorite people -- will be there to host the event!  Gerry will give the keynote address, and then James Governor will lead the sessions.  James is co-founder and principal analyst of RedMonk and author of the Greenmonk.net blog, a community dedicated to the use of open source and social software to improve the environment and encourage good behaviors. Sample discussions at the previous Energy Camp included 'Best Practices For Equating "Green IT" to Cost Savings,' 'Are Companies Ready to Consider Some 'Crazy' Ideas to Improve Data Center Energy Efficiency?,' 'Best Practices for Recycling and Refurbing Electronics,' and more!

Please check it out here! 

Poland and IT! WOW!

Hey! 

I am in Warsaw Poland!  What a great place  I had the chance to visit a little of the city. The Old Town is on the World Hertitage Site listing.  During the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944, more than 85% of Warsaw's historic centre was destroyed by Nazi troops. It was rebuilt in 5 years using pictures to recreate the same feel and design.   Pretty amazing!!!! Check it out here.....

But I am not here to tour but to learn about the business.  Here is what I learned!

1)  Poland growth is amazing and is growing faster that I expected!   According to E&Y 2008, Poland is the most attractive location for investments in Europe!

2)  The people are extremely talented -- and skilled!  I was super impressed -- especially with the IBM and the IBM Business Partners!

3)   SOA is becoming hot here --- it is now moving from education stage to let's get started!

Overall, the Poland team was amazing and the market is tremendous!

More later!

IBM Signs MOU to Launch Tender Offer to Acquire ILOG

I am pleased to inform you that IBM and ILOG have just announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding for IBM to acquire ILOG through a cash public tender offer. ILOG is a leading provider of software designed to help companies make better, faster business decisions.

Offers on the SOA and Web 2.0 Book!!!

My SOA and Web 2.0 book has now been translated into multiple langagues and is still going strong!

We are still looking to assist customers getting started with case studies, etc.  

Go here for a free eBook sampler, a discount on the books, like a buy 2 books get 1 free offer, even a podcast!

I do want to hear what you think about it!!!

Sandy

What a ride!

I just got back from a multiple country visits and conferences!

SOA around the world is amazing!!    I was just in front of audiences in Madrid, Paris, Athens, Venice, Mumbai, Beijing, Tokoyo and more.  

I will try to summarize my insights from each!!!

Hear from a customer!!!!

Here is a great interview featuring our customer Austin Energy!

Click here!!!

Top 6 Announcements from IMPACT 2008!

Gang...here are the top 6 announcements from IMPACT 2008!

Take a listen and then I'll go into more details...like I did for the BPM Suite and Capability!!

The top 6 takeaways!!!

Let me know your thoughts!!!

Announcements at IMPACT! First Announcement on BPM

Hello All !!!

I am getting a lot of emails to summarize the announcements that we made at IMPACT 2008!   So what I decided to do after a great dinner last night with our IBM friends in the North End of Boston, was to do a blog for each of our six announcements!

The first one I would like to highlight is the announement on our IBM BPM Suite with events capability.  

Just a few facts before we get into the announcement.  Fact: The BPM Market is predicted to grow over 35% CAGR to $6B by 2011 (Forrester Research)Fact: IBM is the Marketshare leader in BPMS (Gartner Dataquest)Fact: IBM is rated a leader in more Magic Quadrants and Waves than any other vendor (six), including: BPMS (Gartner), Business Process Analysis (Gartner), Integration-Centric BPMS (Forrester), Document-Centric BPMS (Forrester), Human-Centric BPMS for Banking/Financial Markets (Forrester); and Human-Centric BPMS for Insurance (Forrester).

In fact,  IBM was first to market with an integrated BPM/SOA offering (Bruce Silver Associates/Bloor Research)Fact: IBM is the recognized "clear" leader in Content-Centric BPMS (Forrester)

These announcements at IMPACT took a another step ahead for our client's value -- around our announcement of the BPM Suite.  Accordining to Wikipedia, a suite is "a collection of computer programs, usually application software and programming software of related functionality, often sharing a more-or-less common user interface and some ability to smoothly exchange data with each other." -Wikipedia

(By the way did you guys see Jimmy Wales speak at IMPACT?  He was amazing!) IBM's BPM Suite is a comprehensive set of role-based, SOA-enabled product capabilities that provide customers with the ability to continuously optimize processes, and adapt processes rapidly to changing needs.

The suite contains key functionality from across IBM to control and manage business processes across their lifecycle, with an emphasis on business user empowerment and greater collaboration across multiple roles within a client's organization

IBM’s BPM Suite combines product capabilities from across IBM Software Group that match the way customers purchase, implement, and upgrade BPM software while protecting and reusing their existing IT investments.

To make it easier for customers to get started with BPM, we’ve created Starter Sets for the IBM BPM Suite. The IBM BPM Suite includes a choice of two starter sets – Dynamic Business Processes Set and Content-Aware Processes Set. Starter sets are packaged offerings and are designed to address key customer scenarios.

Each starter set contains tools to model, deploy and monitor core business processes. The suite also offers a number of optional extended-value offerings to enhance and advance overall capabilities.

The starter set for Dynamic Business Processes supports process optimization across heterogeneous, dynamic, transaction-rich environments, requiring enterprise-wide integration capabilities and SOA. This starter set is best for processes that require choreography across multiple divisions, departments or applications and which may involve higher frequencies of change. Products include WebSphere Business Modeler, WebSphere Business Services Fabric and WebSphere Business Monitor.

The starter set for Content-Aware Processes supports process optimization where content is core to your processes or integrated compliance requirements exist. This starter set is best for processes that require the content object to be managed as the item of work utilizing content repository services (document management, versioning, imaging, etc) that you expect in a world class enterprise content management system. Products for this starter set include FileNet Business Process Manager, FileNet Business Activity Monitor, FileNet P8 eForms, and FileNet Business Process Framework.Extended value offerings are capabilities that augment the foundational starter sets and regardless of which starter set you choose, you can leverage additional capabilities in areas such as events, rules, and analytics. Specifically, the extended value offerings include: Business event processing (through WebSphere Business Events), Asset repositories for BPM (with Rational Asset Manager and WebSphere Service Registry and Repository), Collaboration (with WebSphere Business Modeler Publishing Edition, Lotus Connections, Lotus Quickr, and plug-ins for Sametime), and Advanced analytics (with Cognos).

In addition, pre-built industry-specific solution accelerators and assets based on industry best practices are available (these include the Process Automation Accelerator for Portal, and the Dashboard Accelerator for Portal, along with Industry Content Packs and Industry Models).

Details on Suite and Starter Set packaging, pricing and support available in Q2 2008

I hope that helps!  Let me know ok!!!   Announcement #2 details will be coming tomorrow!!

April 30th Webcast: IBM's Smart SOA™ Approach: Aligning Business & IT for Maximum Impact

It was great to see so many of you at last week's IMPACT conference. I really enjoyed the chance to meet with you and get your feedback.

The webcast will feature the following presenters, plus a customer case study:

Sitting here after IMPACT 2008!

I am sitting here after IMPACT 2008 reading all the great comments from customers, partners, and others.   

Yes, I am a little sad that it is over.  And yes, I am planning IMPACT 2009 for May next year in May already!

A HUGE thank you to the 272 customers and partner speakers who have branded IMPACT as

THE customer event of the year. It is the power of your stories that is truly making a difference.

Feel the energy again if you dare...and yes that is Jim Haney

from Harley riding in on a Harley to open the entire show!

Sweet dreams for 2009!

Day 1 Highlights!

IMPACT: DAY 1 Kickoff!

Today was truly an incredible day at IMPACT! I arrived this morning at the MGM Boxing Arena to learn that we had 6,000 people in attendance at the conference.   This morning's session was a chance for us to connect with our customers, partners, analysts and press.  It's hard to believe that this is only the second annual IMPACT conference. The sheer volume of customers has grown by nearly 50 percent in the past year. Indeed, interest in SOA among companies of all sizes in all industries continues to rise at an increasingly rapid pace.

I want to share with all of you, some of the exciting news we talked about today.

Here's a quick summary with links to more information:

IBM SOA Leadership – putting IBM's experience to work for you.
Industry Platforms for Innovation -a fast start with industry frameworks and solutions.
Business Process Management Suite with Business Events -to model, simulate, deploy and change your processes.
Evolution of applications with SOA and Web 2.0 Mashups - to enable rapid innovation throughout your business.
Smart SOA Social Network -- to build interdisciplinary 21st Century skills.
Infrastructure SOA and Healthchecks --to get your SOA into prime condition.

The Smart SOA Social Network was of particular interest to attendees. The concept of the network is to bring together a like-minded, global community of thought leaders, information technology (IT) and business professionals, university professors and students, and other interested parties through both online and in-person forums designed to help members build skills and share best practices.

The IBM SOA social network is open to any customers, partners, academics and interested parties aiming to advance and share SOA knowledge and best practices. Membership is free and not restricted to the IBM community.

Please join us on the Network and share you thoughts & experiences.

And don't forget to join this week's SOA JAM.  We want to hear from you!

For more information about IBM IMPACT, visit: www.ibm.com/press/impact2008

Join IBM's SOA Jam, April 7- 10!

Great news--- I found a way I can connect with all of you in the virtual world via the web!  Get ready for the upcoming SOA Virtual Jam.

Countdown to IMPACT 2008--Ready, Set, GO! April 6-11, 2008

Recently, Forrester Research published a telling report on SOA Adoption. According to Forrester's latest survey data, "the IT industry is continuing its strong adoption of service-oriented architecture (SOA)." And satisfaction with SOA implementations continues to run high. Why? Because SOA continues to help businesses solve real business problems.

IBM's IMPACT conference offers the proof of the Forrester data. Check out the number of customer speakers that will be there to talk about their SOA implementations. This is one of the conference highlights that is truly superior.

The list of companies is right out of the Fortune 500: Aetna, AllState, Bank of America, Countrywide, Harley Davidson and more. Its a rare opportunity to hear actual customer case studies and SOA best practices.

And there's more...
 

• The SOA customer feedback track offers end-users of IBM solutions the chance to have a direct dialog with IBM's technical gurus and experts
  
  
  
• 400+ Technical Sessions including SOA and Patterns, BPM Enabled by SOA, Process Integrity, Industry Services and lessons learned
  
  
  
• Sessions for previous attendees of the Transaction & Messaging conference & the WebSphere Technical Exchange conference

And just for fun...

• 10th Birthday of WebSphere! You are cordially invited to the Purple Lounge on Tuesday, April 8 to celebrate
  
  
  
• Join the SOA Jam at the conference
  
  
  
• Rock it out with the B-52s
  
  
  
• Play the INNOV8 game for a chance to Win a Smart(R) car

If you haven't registered yet, go online and register NOW! There are still a few spots left.....

Smart SOA --- Smart Car -- IMPACT 2008 ---

The Smart SOA(TM) approach is our theme for IMPACT 2008!!

A Smart SOA(TM) approach is leveraging our over 5700 customers' experiences.  Smart SOA allows customers to meet the requirements of tomorrow’s advanced deployments without un-doing their current projects. Smart SOA demands that we apply the principles of simplicity and robustness at every stage of sophistication. Through the flexibility that optimizing their service oriented architecture (SOA) can deliver— a smart approach to SOA—companies are changing their businesses and seizing new opportunities for growth.

Now, the cool thing, is that Smart Car USA will be presenting on stage at IMPACT 2008 a Smart Car -- based on the winner of our Smart SOA contest!  For details click here!

IMPACT 2008! Techy conference!

I have been working non stop on IMPACT 2008!  We are getting ready for 6,000 of you to come learn, network, and have some fun!

Why is it so cool?  A must come event!  Check this out!!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txJz-gR-3go

First there are No Chart Zones, Stump the Architect, certifications, and more.

Second, there are over 500 classes available for you to deepen your technical skill. Just for SOA enabled by Web 2.0, here is what we have in place! The Web 2.0 roadmap highlights how IBM products and open source initiatives can enable Web 2.0 innovations in the enterprise. The Web 2.0 curriculum at IMPACT 2008 has sessions designed to help  architects identify how the cultural and technical components of Web 2.0 are likely to affect  their organizations, as well as how to use existing and new technologies to support them.  In addition, application developers can select from a number of sessions, from entry level through advanced, on ways to weave Web 2.0 technologies like REST, AJAX, Feeds, Assembly, JSON/XML and other technologies into your software applications.  Learn how to build and deploy applications on the Web quickly by participating in our hands-on labs using IBM tools.  Take the opportunity to see how rapid development and service reuse can help your enterprise stay one step ahead in a rapidly changing global marketplace.   Please join IBM Distinguished Engineers Marc-Thomas Schmidt, Jerry Cuomo, Kyle Brown, Jason McGee, and Rob Will and a host of leaders from across the IBM labs to learn about our Web 2.0 strategy.

Web 2.0 Roadmap

DATE 

TITLE 

Speaker(s) 

LEVEL 

Mon, 7/Apr 

SOA, Web 2.0, people interaction: 
End-user interaction with SOA 

W. Jon Raslawski, IBM;
Cheng Zhou, Ascendant Technology;
Mike Harry, Cisco Systems 

Beginner 

Mon, 7/Apr 

SOA, Web 2.0, people interaction: 
End-user interaction with SOA 

W. Jon Raslawski, IBM;
Cheng Zhou, Ascendant Technology;
Mike Harry, Cisco Systems 

Beginner 

Mon, 7/Apr 

Unleashing SOA to the Web 

Jerry Cuomo, IBM;Kyle Brown, IBM 

Beginner 

Mon, 7/Apr 

Unleashing SOA to the Web 

Jerry Cuomo, IBM;Kyle Brown, IBM 

Beginner 

Mon, 7/Apr 

New features in IBM WebSphere Portal Version 6.1 

Robert Will, IBM 

Intermediate 

And Finally, we have great IBMers for you to meet and greet like Rob High, Jerry Cuomo, Craig Hayman!!!!

I hope to see you there!