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IBM WebSphere softwareplatform for e-business

®

Open standards:Driving the future of e-business.

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Paving the wayOpen standards are revolutionizing the software

industry. Both the availability and ease of modification

made possible with open source technology are

rapidly convincing companies to shift from software

based on proprietary vendor-controlled architecture

to open and unified solutions. Today, a key measure

of an IT company’s ability to help customers thrive in

the exploding e-business economy is a commitment

to open, vendor-neutral standards.

Without a stable, open base for deploying e-business

solutions, developers and companies may find their

transition into the world of e-business impacted by

complications. Open standards enable the greatest

degree of flexibility, choice and market opportunity—

their very nature provides the foundation to leverage

integrated e-business solutions and to develop

infrastructures that operate dynamically in the

e-business world. Simply put: Standards convert

technology into business.

While some companies are looking for monopolistic

control points, IBM is advocating open standards.

Why? Because open standards deliver on the full

promise of network computing and the ability to

develop in an open, available and unified environment.

IBM, a leader in driving the development and adoption

of cross-platform industry standards for e-business,

cooperates with the software industry and those

organizations dedicated to the development of

standards. IBM contributes to standards organizations,

such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C),

Open Software Foundation (OSF) and Java Community

ProcessSM (JCP). IBM contributions include specifica-

tions and source code for the Journal File System (JFS)

to the OSF, specifications for Extensible Markup

Language (XML) and related technology to W3C, and

over 80 percent of the application program interface

specifications for the Java™ 2 Platform, Enterprise

Edition (J2EE™) effort. IBM also contributes greatly

to the industry-standard specifications and registry,

Universal Description, Discovery and Integration

(UDDI). UDDI enables e-businesses to provide:

• Web components that communicate with each other

• Enhanced functions quickly and easily

• A Web-based registry for identifying and locating

technology to complete Web-based services.

Open standards are pavingthe way and revolutionizingthe software industry.

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Creating a new business modelTo survive in today’s rapidly changing global economy,

organizations must create new business models based

on solid, integrated technologies. This increased

emphasis on the Internet as the foundation for conduct-

ing business is having a profound, fundamental impact

on technology infrastructures.

IBM is deeply committed to industry standards that

best support the multiplatform, multivendor, dynamic

environment created by the Internet. With nearly 4,000

Java technology professionals, more than 500 XML

developers, 20 labs worldwide and over 30 Java

technology-enabled products and solutions dedicated

to advancing open, industry-standard technologies,

IBM is helping connect the world of e-business.

The IBM Framework for e-business:

A roadmap to successTo create a successful e-business, you need a clear

vision of your goals and an equally clear picture of

how to make that vision a reality. At IBM, we’ve devel-

oped a roadmap to help organizations navigate

toward e-business success: the IBM Framework

for e-business. Based on open standards and a proven

architecture and with rich security features, reliable

hardware and IBM WebSphere® software, the IBM

Framework for e-business helps organizations build,

run and manage e-business applications using a

flexible, scalable information technology infrastructure.

IBM has developeda roadmap to helporganizations navigatetoward e-business success:the IBM Frameworkfor e-business.

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IBM has a strong commitment to open standards,

evidenced in the IBM Framework for e-business.

A technical infrastructure based on this framework

provides a unified platform for deploying

comprehensive e-business solutions. For more

information about IBM Framework for e-business,

visit ibm.com/software/ebusiness. The IBM

WebSphere® software platform, which is implemented

to the J2EE specifications, is a key component of the

IBM Framework for e-business and exemplifies our

commitment to leadership in open standards. For

more information about the WebSphere software

platform, visit ibm.com/software/websphere.

IBM is uniquely positioned to help customers,

trading partners and developers realize the benefits

of e-business with open standards. Using the IBM

Framework for e-business and open source technolo-

gies, such as Java technology, XML and Linux ®,

WebSphere software platform is helping organizations

implement powerful solutions that support the growing

demands of e-business.

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An open platform for powerful e-business solutionsIncorporating an open, standards-based e-business

platform enables you to leverage your investment in

existing legacy systems while building an infrastructure

designed for flexibility. It means including reusable

application components, providing support for new

technology, such as mobile Internet devices, and

building in the ability to rapidly scale systems to

handle the enormous peaks and valleys of consumer

e-commerce. To meet these demands, the IBM

Framework for e-business is supported by multiple

open source technologies:

• Java technology is a highly productive, object-oriented

programming language that natively supports portability

and distributed processing—prerequisites for e-business

applications — to let computers and devices easily

communicate with one another.

• XML is a markup language that uses a general syntax

to describe hierarchical data within a Web page or file.

It leverages existing IT assets to reduce risk and improve

speed-to-market as organizations make the transition

to e-business.

• Linux is a freely distributed implementation of the UNIX ®

operating system and runs on a number of hardware

platforms. Linux is a powerful platform that offers

portability, flexibility, scalability and excellent networking

capability.

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• Unicode is a universal encoding standard designed to

capture characters of nearly all the world’s languages —

living, ancient, scientific and mathematical — and provide

a computerized linguistic bridge between them. Unicode

defines a consistent way of encoding multilingual text to

enable international data exchange, thereby creating the

foundation for global software to support multilingual

e-commerce and worldwide business transactions.

• Web services are technology components provided by

service providers to perform specific business functions —

for example, run a credit check for a new applicant —

and are accessible by other Web-based applications.

Web services offer the basic infrastructure for dynamic,

automated integration of e-commerce transactions.

Web services are designed to accelerate and broaden

business-to-business (B2B) integration and commerce

on the Internet.

The WebSphere software platform

and the value of open standardsThe real question when it comes to open standards

is what value do they represent to customers? The

answer is flexibility— the flexibility to choose the right

technology to support the elements for e-business

success and the ability to integrate heterogeneous

environments to connect disparate resources inside

and outside the enterprise.

Because the WebSphere software platform provides

open, industry standards support, customers can use

a variety of WebSphere components to easily build,

deploy and manage a full range of e-business solu-

tions based on business needs instead of proprietary

restrictions. In addition, its component-oriented

structure makes WebSphere software adaptable to

a full range of e-business needs, from the simplest

e-commerce Web site to the most sophisticated

B2B e-marketplace.

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IBM WebSphere Application Server is a critical component

of the WebSphere software platform, enabling serious

e-business applications that span heterogeneous

applications and servers, as well as corporate departments

and IBM Business Partners. The WebSphere software

platform and associated application servers deliver the

ideal platform for the application flexibility that is crucial

to developing and growing a successful e-business.

IBM WebSphere software platform provides a comprehen-

sive set of award-winning, integrated e-business solutions

based on the standards that are at the heart of the

e-business evolution. Companies leverage WebSphere

software solutions to integrate enterprise applications

and process electronic transactions over the Web. The

platform offers support for major computing environments

and applications from nearly 9,000 software companies.

It is a key IBM e-business product that helps customers

quickly integrate e-business solutions, and is already

being used by more than 35,000 customers.

The WebSphere software platform is the leader in open

standards, offering both compliance with and contributions

to the following open standard technologies:

• Java and J2EE

• XML

• Electronic business XML (ebXML)

• Hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)

• Apache

• Linux

• UDDI and Web services

• Simple object access protocol (SOAP)

• CORBA

• Lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP)

• Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)

• Synchronization markup language (synchML)

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An ideal platform for application flexibility iscrucial to developing and growing a successfuland cost-effective e-business.

An open standard strategy for successThe adoption of an open, vendor-neutral Internet applica-

tion platform is critical to successfully unleash the

innovation and power of the e-business economy. Open

standard WebSphere software products from IBM are

transforming companies into successful e-businesses.

WebSphere software is providing the foundation compa-

nies need to compete and win in the new economy.

WebSphere software continues to implement standards

where they already exist, partner with open standards

organizations to develop new solutions and contribute

significant resources to help ensure success of the

open foundation.

For more informationIBM WebSphere software platform offers a family of

products and a step-by-step methodology based on open

standard solutions for transforming your organization into

an e-business. To get started right away, call your local

IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit:

ibm.com/software/websphere

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© Copyright IBM Corporation 2001

IBM CorporationSoftware CommunicationsRoute 100, Building 1Somers, NY 10589U.S.A.

Produced in the United States of America03-01All Rights Reserved

The e-business logo, IBM, the IBM logo andWebSphere are trademarks of International BusinessMachines Corporation in the United States, othercountries or both.

Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos aretrademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the UnitedStates, other countries or both.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Groupin the United States and other countries.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Other company, product and service names maybe trademarks or service marks of others.