IBM WebSphere 7.0 is a 10

As you probably know, IBM just rolled out its biggest release of middleware ever with the introduction of WebSphere 7.0. It's been a while seen we've seen such a massive, full scale WebSphere upgrade with 6.0 versions of various flagship products dating back to 2004.

While the IT community may be closely evaluating the new version of WebSphere ESB or the DataPower security appliances, this latest release actually speaks to three significant business challenges that are affecting many organizations today and that are being addressed by SOA, cloud computing and BPM.

The first challenge is the architecture itself. Remember that SOA is an architecture and not a product. Think of it as the foundation to a house - without a sound architecture, it's impossible to build anything on it. Given the amount of mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, global expansion and/or contraction that has occurred in the past year alone, the IT architecture really is the foundation that will help sustain the organization as it evolves.

For those considering venturing into the cloud, there are still a lot of discussions around security and standards. However, if executed properly, a hybrid computing model that supports some applications and services in the cloud could significantly reduce costs.

The third challenge, where BPM is most valuable according to IBM, is in helping the line of business respond more quickly to real-time events. From my experience and I'm sure IBM would agree, these real-time events can range from executing millions of financial transactions per second to establishing the processes that keep a hospital emergency room up and running 24/7, for example.

Within the BPM suite, IBM has upgraded its integrated governance and policy management tools. As a long time IBM business partner, WebLayers will continue to complement the WebSphere governance offerings including the latest release of WebSphere Registry and Repository. The Channel Insider story sums it up well, "IBM tapped a small group of select software and business partners to build out development tools and application management governance products that round out its BPM and SOA life cycle management offerings."

Obviously, what really stands out for me in this new WebSphere stack are the governance offerings. Much like the house metaphor, governance across the entire infrastructure will help create a more solid foundation - one that will accelerate the speed at which way that SOA, cloud and BPM address business issues. Of course, selling these IT concepts and products to the business is a matter of articulating the business benefits and steering away from the jargony dialog.

Regardless, IBM's WebSphere 7.0 is big news indeed and speaks to the strength of the entire middleware portfolio - which is probably why not many folks were too surprised to learn about WebSphere's 14 percent growth in sales as reported in this past week's earnings announcement.