In-Depth

News in Brief

Outsourcing IP VPNs, IBM's Rational Software acquisition, and BEA's updated Tuxedo for Web Services

• By Stephen Swoyer
• 02/25/2003

Most Customers Opt Not to Outsource IP VPNs

Market research firm In-Stat/MDR's survey of IP VPN users shows that most IT organizations prefer to implement and support IP VPNs using their own in-house resources.

According to In-Stat/MDR, 91 percent of IT organizations purchase their own customer premise IP VPN equipment and opt to send their IPSec or SSL traffic over the public Internet. Just nine percent of organizations contract with an IP VPN service provider to provide customer premise equipment or network-based services, or to manage the service once it’s running.

Among organizations that say they plan to implement an IP VPN over the next two years, however, service providers typically fare much better. Although the majority of such organizations indicate they’ll still implement their own in-house solution, In-Stat/MDR found that 21 percent say they’ll implement an outsourced IP VPN service.

IBM Completes Acquisition of Rational Software

IBM Corp. last week announced that it had successfully completed its announced (http://www.esj.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=351) $1 billion acquisition of development tools specialist Rational Software Corp.

Rational, which has 3,400 employees, has a presence in 98 percent of Fortune 100 companies, including IBM itself. It provides open, industry standard tools for developing applications and building software products and systems. Last year, market research firm International Data Corp. indicated that Rational’s Software Configuration Management (SCM) and Analysis, Modeling and Design (AMD) tools were the market leaders in their respective categories.

Like the former Lotus Development Corp. and Tivoli Systems Inc., both of which were picked up by Big Blue, Rational will be subsumed as a distinct brand in IBM’s software group.

Former Rational CEO Mike Devlin will act as the general manager of IBM’s new Rational division. He will report directly to Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive of IBM’s Software Group.

BEA Enhances Tuxedo for Web Services

BEA Systems Inc. recently announced Version 8.1 of Tuxedo, its transaction-processing platform for distributed applications.

BEA says that Tuxedo’s traditional strengths as a platform for C, C++ and COBOL development are augmented by enhanced integration with its WebLogic Enterprise Platform, which consists of its WebLogic 7.0 J2EE Web application server and WebLogic Workshop integrated development environment (IDE).

BEA says that the tighter integration between its products can help to enhance Tuxedo operations and management, enabling support for single sign on and centralized security administration.