| IBM details client strategy for the enterprise -- with desktops, laptops and thin clients |
May 10, 2004
IBM envisions a greater role for mobile devices, thin clients, and other embedded systems in enterprise computing. The company today revealed their strategy for managing all of these devices. IBM's Workplace Client Technology (WCTME), part of IBM's Lotus Workplace strategy, enables customers to deploy, manage, and provision business applications and data to client devices such as desktops, notebooks, and PDAs.
The IBM client model includes middleware that runs on Linux, Unix, and Windows clients, on embedded operating systems such as Linux and Symbian. MacOS support will be added later this year. The model is based on a Web services architecture that makes the client operating system almost irrelevant, according to IBM.
The new IBM environment includes Workplace Client Technology, Micro Edition (WCTME) software version 5.7, which extends enterprise applications to "a wide variety of devices," according to IBM. WCTME includes device versions of IBM enterprise software, including DB2e, MQe, Service Management Framework, and Java runtime environments. According to IBM, WCTME will enable "a seamless link between devices and the enterprise."
WCTME, IBM points out, fully supports a wide range of applications running on "thick" clients -- such as desktops.
The IBM environment announced today also includes Lotus Workplace collaboration, email, and messaging suite, Tivoli software for centralized system administration, and WebSphere Portal software for Web-based application development.
The environment is intended to simplify development and configuration of function-rich applications on intermittently connected devices, as well as to enable remote device administration, maintenance, and software updates on them.
Last week, Red Hat announced an enterprise strategy that mentioned thin clients and Red Hat Desktop offering for the company's Enterprise Linux customers. The company will sell binaries, documentation, maintenance, and support available via a licensed subscription. Market analysts IDC projected a growing role for embedded clients in corporate IT. Partners Red Hat and Wind River have shown an interest in the Linux embedded enterprise market, as has MontaVista.
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