Workplace is 'Evolutionary and Revolutionary': IBM

It's evolutionary and it's revolutionary. That's what IBM India has to say about its newly launched
middleware called Workplace. And the company has every reason to believe that its new software model will change the
front-end of computing. "Workplace extends our position of leadership in middleware from the server to the client and helps
drive an organization's path to become on-demand," remarks R Dhamodaran, VP & Country Executive,
Software Group and Developer Relations, IBM India.

He says that Workplace is not only a "flexible, dynamically adaptable environment that connects to the business when and
where it is needed but also a great agent to bring about a change in user experiences". The
Workplace family includes popular products like Lotus Workplace, Lotus Notes/Domino, WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Everyplace. Some people in the
industry have also touted this launch as the beginning of a serious competition to the Microsoft's dominance in the software
space.

"It will take some time for IBM to really make its presence felt with this new launch, but in a year's time it will for sure. Just
look at the way their DB2 business has shaped in recent times. I am pretty much confident of
the success that this middleware will have," says Mihir Chahwala, MD, Innovative Telecom and Software.
IBM is also betting on the fact that when deployed in a Linux environment, the Workplace is able to bring down the total cost of ownership
(TCO) significantly. This it feels gives it an edge over the pure Windows-based solution. "Workplace significantly improves the TCO of traditional
client/server model. This coupled with cost benefits of Linux only deliver further TCO benefits to customers, enabling them to deploy
industry-leading messaging and collaboration solutions," points out Jyothi Satyanathan, Linux
Business Manager, ASEAN/SA, IBM India.

While this 'open' middleware is designed to support clients running Windows, UNIX, Linux and operating systems for
wireless and embedded devices such as Symbian, support for Mac OS too is expected later this year.

GOLDIE

MUMBAI