WebSphere Revolution

“The challenge was to take IBM’s application and transaction processing leadership into this new emerging Internet world.” —Paraic Sweeney, then IBM Vice President of Marketing for Web Servers They took a careful look at the types of application programs that were being deployed and thought about how IBM could best help businesses deliver more value to their customers over the Web. There were long meetings during which many ideas were bandied about. As a result of this work, the team decided to recommend the development of a product that would help businesses deploy Web applications more efficiently. To illustrate the concept, the team started building a prototype of the product they had in mind. By February, barely six weeks after their initial meeting, the team went back to Steve Mills and demonstrated their prototype. Steve immediately embraced the concept and surprised the team with his next question, “How soon can you put this out as a product?” Chris’s response, “You mean our prototype?” “Yes how long?” asked Steve. Chris composed himself and answered, “We can do it in 12 weeks.” Right there on the spot, Steve gave them the green light. So Chris’s team, led by IBM Program Director for SWS Development Sue Wallenborn, put their minds to the task of turning their prototype into a product and doing it in record time. It was a “hack it and pack it” project, as Steve calls it. That is, there was an urgent market need and IBM needed to ship a product to meet that need as soon as humanly possible. The team was energized. As Chris explains, “When you are a technical person and you are working in design and get buried in it literally, the clock goes away then for some reason you’ll get interrupted and you’ll look up at the clock and it will be 11 o’clock at night you wonder where the time went.” The team was breaking new ground and developing an innovative and important product. It was the kind of project every software developer dreams about and there was energy in the air. While clearly the technical excellence of the product was critical, the marketing effort needed to launch the product was also paramount to the success of the project. So Steve tapped IBM’s Paraic Sweeney, then involved with the marketing of IBM’s application development and transaction processing tools, to become the Vice President of Marketing for Web Servers. It was time to do something fundamentally new for IBM. It was an opportunity to make a once-in-a-lifetime contribution to the future of business and everyone could see that. Paraic immediately agreed and so began to marshal the fledgling product through the mechanics of the IBM product release cycle and build his marketing plan. As Paraic puts it, the challenge centered around how to “take IBM’s application and transaction processing leadership into this new emerging Internet world.” It was a new world for IBM indeed for everyone and Paraic jumped at the chance to blaze a new trail to get in on the ground floor of something that would make a real difference. The code name for the product was “Hurricane”—chosen because the IBM team intended to “blow away” the competition. The team would combine a Java servlet engine with XML parser functionality, an Internet protocol stack, and a proxy cache—all on top of Internet Connection Server (IBM’s 1998 Steve Mills directs Chris’s team to turn their prototype into a product—code name “Hurricane.” 1998 Paraic Sweeney joins the Hurricane team to lead the marketing effort. 1998 Europeans adopt the “euro” as their common currency. 1998 The crew of the space shuttle Endeavor connects the first two modules of the International Space Station. 12

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of WebSphere Revolution

WebSphere Revolution Table of Contents The Rise of Internet Business WebSphere Takes the Stage WebSphere Application Server Evolves Beyond the Application Server WebSphere and On Demand Business New Flexibility through SOA An Eye Toward the Future

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