WebSphere Revolution

that would allow clients to build applications and inherit all of the services that were typically needed by every Web application. This led to the development of IBM Component Broker which was released in 1997. So the stage was set when WebSphere Application Server arrived on the scene in 1998. Once WebSphere Application Server, CICS, and Component Broker were all in the marketplace, IBM began to hear customers asking for the same thing—time and time again. Steve Mills explains, “Customers were saying they wanted an interface to the Web on one end a platform for executing transactions in the middle and they wanted the brokering services on the back end. They wanted all three things in one.” Until then, customers had often been doing what is called “rip and read.” That is, they would take an order over the Web, print it out, and hand deliver it to someone else who would then enter the information from the order into a separate back-end system, wasting time and money. Now customers were asking to have an end-to-end process managed by one integrated product. Steve Mills could see that meeting this need would require a much more sophisticated product than that embodied in the first versions of WebSphere Application Server. But it wouldn’t require invention as IBM already had all the pieces of the puzzle. The challenge would be to successfully combine the efforts of three disparate IBM teams. The effort would involve taking what IBM already had and putting it on a single common base. None of IBM’s competitors were anywhere close to being able to pull this off and IBM was perfectly positioned—it was time to act. So in the fall of 1998, Steve Mills convened a pivotal meeting with Daniel Sabbah (lead WebSphere engineer), John Swainson (Lab Directory at IBM Toronto in charge of IBM Component Broker), and Alfred Spector (leading the IBM CICS TXSeries project stemming from the Transarc acquisition) to discuss how best to combine their independent product development efforts. During the meeting, it was decided that “These were not decisions made in corporate halls they were based on true market needs.” —Steve Mills, IBM Senior Vice President and Software Group Executive WebSphere Application Server v1 WebSphere Application Server v2 WebSphere Application Server v2.0 was created by combining the functions of CICS TXSeries, Component Broker, and WebSphere Application Server v1. 1998 Steve Mills convenes a pivotal meeting with Danial Sabbah, John Swainson, and Alfred Spector. 1998 Netscape donates its browser code to open source creating Mozilla Foundation. C TX ICS Se rie s t en on r mp Co Broke 19

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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