IBM Expands Cloud-based Product Offerings

In the lead up to the Impact 2009 conference next week in Las Vegas, IBM is announcing several new products for running software in private and public clouds.

WebSphere Cloudburst

An appliance that allows you to host your own, private, cloud environment. This will be GA in 2Q and will provide access to software virtual images and patterns that can be used as is or easily customized, and then securely deployed, managed and maintained in a private cloud. A new version of IBM WebSphere Application Server Hypervisor Edition will be included, optimized to run in virtualized hardware server environments.

Amazon EC2 support expanded

IBM is adding availability of IBM Mashup Center and Lotus Forms Turbo for development and test use in Amazon EC2, and intends to add WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere eXtreme Scale to these offerings.

IBM BPM Blueworks

BPM Blueworks brings strategy and business process modeling tools into the cloud and integrates social collaboration technologies borrowed from LotusLive and Lotus Connections. BlueWorks provides business users with the collateral they need to implement business strategies within their organizations based on industry-proven business process management techniques.

BPM Blueworks builds an entire community around BPM, allowing you to use design tools to build your process models, capacity maps, and strategy maps and to collaborate with people inside your company, with your partners, or with the larger Blueworks community. This will allow you to share insight around a particular process, such as order to cash. IBM SMEs will also be joining the community to add advice and share best practices.

Look for a press release this afternoon from IBM.

IBM shows Microsoft that social computing is about the people

This morning, IBM and Microsoft presented Lotus Connections and Sharepoint in a head-to-head demo of social networking platforms. Of course, the play by play got published instantly on the public social networks.

Apparently Microsoft focused on email and document management, which did not wow the crowd. IBM got points for talking about how social networking is about the people. Quotes included "MS failing dismally at showing off Sharepoint collab tools. IBM totally ate their lunch.".

A few blog posts on the session:

IBM wins round 1 against Microsoft!
Enterprise 2.0 Conference - Social Computing Platforms: IBM and Microsoft
Social Computing Platforms: IBM & Microsoft Part 1
Social Computing Platforms: IBM & Microsoft Part 2

Finally, the conference has a social page devoted to the session:
Social Computing Platforms: IBM and Microsoft

Dan Reeves Comes to You

The Atlanta Lotusphere Comes to You Event has landed legendary NFL coach Dan Reeves as the keynote speaker!

I remember being at Lotusphere in 1999 watching the Falcons seal their trip to the Super Bowl.

Coach Reeves record speaks for itself:

• Was an All-Pro player for Dallas immortal Tom Landry.
• Led the Falcons to the playoffs (twice) and the Super Bowl, and became the NFL’s most successful coach with 167 wins.
  
• Won NFL Coach of the Year honors in 1993 (Atlanta) and 1998 (New York).
• Coached the Denver Broncos to five divisional titles and three Super Bowls.

For the keynote, he will deliver an inspiring talk on teamwork. Not only that, but he'll be on hand for photos and autographs.

Go here to see a detailed agenda and to register.

Lotusphere Comes to You, Atlanta

This year's Lotusphere included many exciting announcements from IBM and Lotus. Several years of work integrating SOA and the Eclipse platform into the Lotus products has opened up many new possibilities for delivering greater business value through social networking and composite applications (think business mashups).

If you couldn't make it to Orlando, Optimus Solutions is hosting the Atlanta Lotusphere Comes to You on March 4th at the Crown Plaza Ravinia.

Join us and you will hear:

• IBM experts delivering the Lotus Software strategy and roadmap for 2008
• The business value of Web 2.0: How IBM Lotus® solutions accelerate your organization's ability to tap into new trends in collaboration, innovation and the changing workforce
• An Optimus Solutions customer discuss their decision to implement IBM Lotus® Connections™ in their global infrastructure
• Unified communications and collaboration: the present, the future, the possibilities
• Extending your IBM Lotus investment with the Desktop of the Future, composite applications and open standards development

Go here to see a detailed agenda and to register.