IBM's Aptsoft, Lenovo, and Linux Deals

IBM Corp. acquires Aptsoft Corp. as it seeks to expand its business event processing portfolio. In other IBM software moves, the company introduced versions of its Lotus Notes collaboration suite and Symphony productivity tools that run on Linux. Additionally, IBM extended its relationship with Lenovo Group by allowing the firm to license, manufacture, and sell low end IBM servers under the Lenovo brand.

Focal Points:

• IBM announced it is acquiring the privately-held Aptsoft Corp., based in Burlington, MA, for an undisclosed amount. Its business event processing software products help customers uncover the cause-and-effect relationships amongst seemingly disparate business events. According to IBM, Aptsoft software will add to IBM's SOA offerings, complementing its Information Management, Tivoli, and WebSphere offerings. AptSoft will be a unit of the IBM Software Group WebSphere software brand and its products will be incorporated into its Business Process Management (BPM) portfolio.
• IBM has expanded its support for Linux by releasing new versions of Lotus Notes and Symphony tools. The company plans to ship an "Open Collaboration Client" composed of Lotus Notes 8 and Symphony that will run on Canonical Ltd.'s Ubuntu Linux distribution. Lotus Notes 8 includes e-mail, calendaring, and contact management modules, while Symphony – available as a free download – features word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications build on the open source OpenOffice.org standard. IBM also stated that it is working with Red Hat Inc. to a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform version that would include these two software packages and the Lotus Domino messaging server.
• IBM is granting Lenovo a license to manufacture and sell its uni- and 2-way x86 servers which are to be sold under the Lenovo brand. IBM emphasized it was not exiting the market or having Lenovo do its manufacturing. IBM is not offering Lenovo its BladeCenter, 4-way and greater System x servers, and x-architecture licenses. The deal is structured to help IBM improve its penetration of the SMB through use of the Lenovo channel. Lenovo will also have access to IBM financing, maintenance, and Server-Proven options.

Experton Group believes IBM's Aptsoft purchase fills a major gap in its SOA capabilities that will ease the burden of isolating performance problems created by the service-oriented architecture. IT executives and their architects should, as a minimum, understand the purpose and value of the Aptsoft products so that they can address the SOA challenges they will face before the problems arise. IBM's Linux move is designed to extend enterprise adoption of its anything anywhere strategy through use of open source alternatives that are dependent upon server processing. Additionally IBM would like to loosen the stranglehold of Microsoft desktop solutions but Experton Group believes that will have limited success. The expanded Lenovo relationship is targeted at penetration of SMB accounts, where IBM's presence is limited. IT executives, especially those currently using Lotus and looking for open source collaboration solutions, should review these and other open source developments that would enable users to work collaboratively and productively while lowering the costs associated with client systems.