IBM tilbyr nå den første komplette porteføljen av Web 2.0-baserte mashup-verktøy for virksomheter. Porteføljen er designet både for ikke-tekniske og tekniske brukere.
En mashup er en webside eller webapplikasjon som kombinerer innhold fra flere kilder eller databaser til en ny tjeneste via Web 2.0.
IBM mener at mashup varsler begynnelsen på en ny teknologisk æra. Mashup, som omfatter en sammensying av flere sanntidskommunikasjonsformer i et enhetlig univers, er det raskest voksende nettfenomen akkurat nå. Dette skyldes blant annet at en ny generasjon arbeidstakere tar med seg sine erfaringer fra Web 2.0-teknologi inn i arbeidslivet. I tillegg er en ekspanderende global økonomi, med ressurser fordelt på flere lokasjoner, med på å tvinge frem behovet for raskt å kunne sette sammen dynamiske applikasjoner for bedre beslutningsgrunnlag.
IBMs mashup-portefølje gjør det enklere for virksomhetsbrukere å skreddersy tilgang til applikasjoner og informasjon etter behov. Den har to produktlinjer, IBM Mashup Center og IBM WebSphere sMash.
IBM Mashup Center er en komplett mashup-løsning som støtter ulike applikasjoner, og ivaretar høye krav til administrasjon, sikkerhet og styring. Løsningen består av IBM Lotus Mashups for ikke-tekniske brukere som setter dem i stand til å bruke applikasjoner fra ulike kilder til egen personlige webapplikasjon, og IBM InfoSphere MashupHub for mer avanserte tekniske brukere.
Begge verktøy er tilgjengelige i betaversjon.
IBM WebSphere sMash er et fleksibelt utviklingsmiljø for tekniske utviklere med støtte for flere skriptspråk og gir rask tilgang til ulike tjenester og feeds.
Les mer i vedlagte pressemelding.
LAS VEGAS – April 8, 2008 – IBM (NYSE:IBM) today unveiled the industry’s first complete mashup portfolio for business, empowering individuals to create situational applications, or mashups, and to help them do their jobs more effectively and meet the needs of the emerging real time enterprise. Innovative companies of every size are beginning to realize the possibilities of Web 2.0, and IBM’s deep history in open standards, information integration and emerging Internet technologies, make the company an undeniably strong partner in a new technology era.
Today’s Information Technology departments are under enormous pressure to give business users access to information on demand, including text, audio, video and data from the Web – but must often prioritize enterprise-wide issues ahead of the needs of individual departments and end users. This balancing act frequently leads to frustration and missed opportunities, and causes increasingly tech-savvy business users to embrace new, simpler technologies, in some cases bypassing central IT departments.
IBM understands the challenges of both sides, and has compiled a mashup portfolio to help all types of individual users get the information they need. The portfolio involves two key products: IBM Mashup Center and WebSphere sMash. Together, these new products enable everyone from the non-technical business user to the IT Manager to develop dynamic applications to satisfy an immediate need.
IBM Mashup Center
IBM Mashup Center provides a complete mashup solution, supporting line of business assembly of dynamic situational applications – with the management, security, and governance capabilities IT requires. This new suite consists of two products: IBM Lotus Mashups and IBM InfoSphere MashupHub, which IBM is today announcing are open for beta testing. A managed beta testing phase for the IBM Mashup Center is underway.
An early Mashup Center customer is already using these capabilities to improve their sales force effectiveness. The company is combining core enterprise ERP and CRM data with a line of business application to show accounts by region, sales history, customer service incidents and projected sales pipeline by product line. Sales reps can then upload their own planned travel and spreadsheets of account forecasts into InfoSphere MashupHub which generates feeds to allow them to plan their most effective customer engagement strategy with better insight about the account including external Web-based information on the customer’s business environment and even competitor activity.
In addition to being sold as one package, IBM will also offer Lotus Mashups and InfoSphere MashupHub separately.
IBM Lotus Mashups – for the non-technical line of business user
IBM Lotus Mashups allows non-technical users – anyone in a business – to literally drag and drop mashup components from personal, enterprise and Web sources to easily create, deploy and share customized Web applications in minutes.
Business users interact with Lotus Mashups’ browser-based tool to provide easy assembly of new mashups. The software includes a set of out-of-the-box, business-ready widgets, as well as a catalog for finding and sharing widgets and mashups. To create new widgets, Lotus Mashups includes an easy-to-use development environment to access enterprise systems and the Web. Users can also take advantage of built-in Web 2.0 community features like ratings, tagging and commenting.
IBM InfoSphere MashupHub – for the IT professional and business analyst
IBM InfoSphere MashupHub is a lightweight environment for unlocking, transforming and mixing enterprise, departmental, Web and personal systems while enforcing enterprise-class security and governance. MashupHub stores information feeds from enterprise sources in RSS, ATOM or XML formats to maximize the types of information that can be unlocked and remixed. With the ability to merge, transform, filter, annotate or publish information in new formats, the software helps create a single view of disparate sets of information in minutes. MashupHub enables easy reuse and collaboration of these feeds within Lotus Mashups
According to research firm Gartner, more than 30 percent of Global 2000 organizations will enter a new era of end-user computing via user-assembled, composite applications created with enterprise mashup environments by 2010. IBM is building on nearly three years of leadership in the mashup space, and working with clients, partners and industry organizations to help unlock the value of the Web.
“The power of the Web is now in each person's hands," said Kristof Kloeckner, Vice President, Strategy & Technology, IBM Software Group. "And businesses are made up of individuals who can be innovators and problem solvers on their own, without waiting for, and straining IT support."
IBM WebSphere sMash – development environment for the technical developer
WebSphere sMash (formerly codenamed Project Zero) provides an agile development environment that supports today's hottest dynamic scripting languages, enables rapid aggregation of disparate services and feeds, and employs RESTful approaches to unleash critical information and services found within a company. This powerful combination allows companies to use technology to extend the reach of service oriented architecture (SOA), better align with business goals and uncover new opportunities to boost productivity or reach new markets.
For example, a U.S based retailer can use the WebSphere sMash to help accelerate the start-up of new stores opening overseas. The retailer has new local partners and employees that need a combined view of internal SOA services, such as pricing and inventory levels, and external services, such as currency exchange rates, and external carrier shipment verifications. This consolidated view of information helps the local partners and employees quickly uncover new business insights, more effectively communicate and provide consistent and accurate reporting of sales and inventory levels to headquarters at the end of each quarter.
An evaluation edition of WebSphere sMash will continue to be available from www.projectzero.org as a free download, while the commercial platform will be sold on a per license basis and will be available May 31, 2008 direct from IBM and its partners.
To learn more about IBM’s Web 2.0 initiatives,
please visit: www.ibm.com/software/info/web20