At the Innovate 2010 conference, IBM announced new software and services, based on its Rational line of software development tools, intended to help deliver a new "systems of systems" approach for integrating products and services.
"The value, lifecycle and ecosystem of any smart product today are driven by software," says Dr. Daniel Sabbah, IBM Rational general manager. "In order to build an enduring and innovative competency in software delivery, it must be managed as an agile and cost-effective business process within a framework that allows continuous improvements and accommodates change."
As part of the solution set, IBM announced Rational Software Delivery Services for Cloud Computing support for IBM Cloudburst, a prepackaged and self-contained service delivery platform that can be implemented in a data center to deliver the efficiencies of cloud computing. IBM Rational Software delivery services for cloud computing help leverage the cloud to transform software by providing software development and test solutions across multiple platforms, available for private cloud deployments on the IBM Smart Business Development and Test Cloud and as an offering for IBM Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud.
IBM announced new token and term licensing models intended to give IT managers and developers access to the right software at the right time during a project, without an abundance of shelfware or the hassle of a new purchase order or evaluation process. With tokens, users can quickly move between products as the capabilities are required without needing to calculate the anticipated number of licenses for each product, taking the guesswork out of product usage. The term license model allows for product usage over a given period of time.
IBM also announced a library of software available at no cost that delivers the building blocks critical for Smarter Planet projects. The Integrated Service Management Library and contains 1,800 software accelerators developed by IBM and third parties to help customers create more intelligent operations in 14 industries including automotive, aerospace and finance.
Additionally, IBM also announced its intention to establish an open source project on Eclipse.org for EGL technology. EGL, a business application programming language created by IBM, is designed for developing portable, cross-platform applications and services that can be deployed to the appropriate runtime environments based on the evolving needs of the business. EGL code is not tied to one particular platform, virtual machine, or runtime environment, and compiles into languages such as Java, JavaScript, and COBOL.
For more information on IBM Rational, go here.