SOA Sandbox for Reuse

The SOA Sandbox for Reuse at developerWorks has just been updated to include Rational Asset Manager. I've been really impressed with the sandbox - it's a hosted environment where you can instantly access and play with the tools that make up IBM's SOA foundation. It loads very quickly and the performance is just as good as running the applications natively, except you don't have all the hassle of installing and configuring the tools yourself. The included cheat sheets guide you through sample SOA scenarios, but you can also just explore the environment on your own. Here's how you get to the RAM environment.

Go to the SOA Sandbox for reuse main page at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/soasandbox/reuse/. Once there, simply follow the prompts to start the online trial (you'll need an ibm.com ID to register). Once you've gone through the registration process, you'll be brought to the Trial Environment selection screen. If this is the first time you've worked with a hosted trial, you'll need to download the Citrix Metaframe presentation client (the link is on the page), then you can click on one of the available applications (below) - the RAM one is called "Governance of Reuse".

Once the application starts up (and it's very quick), it's just like using the native app. Follow the guidelines in the cheat sheet for a complete SOA scenario, or just explore for yourself. The cheat sheet is shown on the right in the image below.


So what are you waiting for? Go explore!

SOA Governance

There's a new article out this week from DevX, on SOA Governance, focusing on Rational Asset Manager and WebSphere Service Registry and Repository. From the abstract:

Your most valuable SOA assets are worthless if you and your team can't find, use, and manage them. Find out how IBM Rational Asset Manager and IBM WebSphere Service Registry and Repository's governance solution can help you maximize your SOA investment to meet your business needs.

You can find the rest of the article here.
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Murray Cantor on IT Governance

Network Computing India ran a two-page interview with Rational's Dr. Murray Cantor on the subject of IT governance. The Q&A captures Murray's opinions about the need for governance in the industry.

We've been focusing on governance a lot here on the Architecture Management team, but there's still lots of uncertainty about what is meant by IT Governance. Murray clears it up in the Q&A:

The first part is about looking at your IT organization and reasoning about the decision rights, authority so that you know that right people are making right decisions. Policies are a way of informing and constraining those decisions. They provide guidance around the decision process. The second part is about putting in place measurements and controls so that you know that the IT organization is delivering what it needs to deliver to be effective.

We're working on projects like Asset Manager to help with governance of IT assets, and you'll be seeing us add to the collaborative, analysis and accessibility aspects of the solutions over time. Right now, in fact, we're offering a rebate on Asset Manager and WebSphere Service Registry and Repository (WSRR) if you buy them together to help governance of your SOA assets.

Telelogic Acquisition gains EU approval

After many months of deliberations, IBM's acquisition of Telelogic was given the green light by the European Union yesterday. The news was widely reported across the globe. Some reports are linked here:

Infoworld: With the acquisition of Telelogic, IBM will become by far the largest vendor of two types of software development tools: software modelling and requirements management tools. Initially the Commission suspected that the combined strength of the two companies would skew competition in these market sectors, pushing up prices and shutting out competitors....
"The deal will not harm competition in Europe or in any part of Europe," the Commission said.

InformationWeek and, amazingly enough, PhysOrg.com also commented.

Welcome to the team, Telelogic!

Happy Anniversary to Rational!

It's been five years this week since Rational was acquired by IBM, so we're celebrating!

Of course, Rational has been around a lot longer than that - originally, we were founded way back in 1981, when we built Ada compilers and the hardware to run them on (you can go to wikipedia for a brief overview of Rational's history). We've come a long way since then! Today,

• IBM Rational delivers the industry's most complete, open, standards-based software development environment that helps developers deliver more reliable and precise, error-free code.
• IBM Rational software is the clear leader in Application Development and Project Portfolio Management (as ranked by Gartner analysts for six consecutive years).
• IBM Rational software is used by nine of the Fortune Top 10 companies, 45 of the Fortune Top 50 companies, and 87 out of the top 100 companies.
• Since the acquisition, more than 28,000 customers have purchased Rational software development solutions.
• IBM Rational has a tremendous impact on IBM's middleware portfolio. There are more than 2,000 Rational software developers within IBM focused on helping customers govern the business process of software and systems delivery.

So, let's celebrate! There's a new podcast you can listen to in which Grady Booch, Lee Nackman and Walker Royce chat about the last five years, talk about what it has meant for each company and for the software profession in general. Refinement of Rational's focus, the expansion of IBM's software paradigm, the further embracing of open source and open standards, the investment in growing technical talent, and the Jazz platform are all discussed.

For more information, check out the special anniversary page.

Jazz now open to everyone!

Jazzed about the new year? Looking to get your hands on some cool Rational technology?

Well, now you can.

From the press release:

IBM is announcing it is opening up its development platform based on Web 2.0 technologies for developers to collaborate and contribute to software under development at www.Jazz.net. Jazz.net is an open, commercial community designed to help companies globally and transparently collaborate on the development of Jazz-based technology.

Previously only available to IBM customers, academics and partners, Jazz.net is now open to the greater software development community. IBM's vision for community-driven development expands the boundaries of how the open source community can impact global software development by not merely creating a vehicle for feedback after products have been developed, but enabling the global community to be a part of IBM's development process from start to finish.

So, hop on over to Jazz.net and sign up!

Asset Reuse Webcast!

Asset reuse is a key strategy for companies looking to create innovative solutions to solve complex software development problems. Searching for, identifying, updating, using and deploying software assets can be a difficult challenge.

Our new webcast on "Innovate don't duplicate! Asset reuse strategies for success" looks at strategies and tools that can be leveraged for a successful project, including Rational Asset Manager, Rational Software Architect and WebSphere Service Registry and Repository.

The webcast is scheduled for tomorrow, January 10th at 11am EST, so sign up while you have the chance. It'll also be available for replay.

New Software from Rational

Rational today announced new software to help complex systems developers meet specific industry standards and ensure the quality and reliability of complex real-time and embedded applications.

This category of software developers faces monumental challenges - not only getting the job done, but doing so in a manner that doesn't risk lives at the end of the day. Rational is taking the complexity out of the development of complex systems. By simplifying adherence to protocols, standards and code review, systems developers are better able to ensure that the lines of code they are writing are in line with broader project goals - increasing reliability, levels of precision and effectiveness, and higher degrees of error free code.

Amongst the updated offerings are IBM Rational Systems Developer and IBM Rational Software Modeler - and check out the other updates here.

More IBM Tunes.....

You know, we really should produce an album.


Turns out there's an entire IBM songbook. OK, so it's a little dated (1931), but it has many songs that resonate today, especially the one to our noble engineers:

TO OUR I. B. M. ENGINEERS
Tune: "Mademoiselle from Armentieres"

We're proud of all our Engineers in I. B. M.
No problem is insolvable to these great men.
Their mastery of the technical -- mechanical -- electrical --
Behold in their accomplishments.

Each year they perfect new machines for I. B. M.
Superior products all the time for business men.
We thank and praise our Engineers,
The whole wide world unites in cheers,
To the Engineers of I. B. M.

Odd. I couldn't find any songs for marketers. Must have been an oversight.

From the foreword:

For thirty-one years, the gatherings and conventions of our IBM workers have expressed in happy songs the fine spirit of loyal cooperation and good fellowship which has promoted the signal success of our great IBM Corporation in its truly International Service for the betterment of business and benefit to mankind.

Wow! Looks like we were singing company songs long before the Japanese! I can't imagine sitting around today before a meeting and bursting into song - although apparently we'll all be singing the Rational Anthem now. Coming soon - IBM: The Musical!

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving! (there's got to be an IBM song for that somewhere.......)

Other great places to visit

Here are some other links I thought I'd share with you.

Our colleague Brian Bryson over on the Quality Management marketing team has his own not-to-be-missed blog, The Rational Tester.

Also not to be missed is Grady Booch's blog over on IBM developerWorks. Grady is pretty much our hero, so definitely check out what he has to say.

Finally, there are lots of great blogs over on the IBM Blogroll, so it's worth heading over there to browse the random musings of IBMers.