middleware

IBM proclaims middleware dominance

IBM released new analyst data on Monday that shows Big Blue is the market share leader for service-oriented architecture (SOA) software, capturing nearly 75 percent of the market. This follows news last week detailing IBM's 31 percent overall middleware market share.

And while it's not surprising that IBM has a large share of the middleware market, what's notable is that much of the company's recent success has come with an added bonus--taking away Oracle customers.

Oracle introduced its Fusion Middleware product roadmap in 2008, which included the amalgamation of several acquisitions, including BEA and Plumtree. However, … Read more

Bad economy is a gift that keeps giving to Red Hat

Someone should tell Red Hat that the world has been muddling through a global recession for the past few years. While others' earnings went into a deep freeze throughout the recession, Red Hat has consistently posted strong numbers.

Red Hat's fiscal fourth-quarter 2010 earnings, announced on Wednesday, are no different. Does the company ever get bored of reporting double-digit growth and record billings?

Apparently not.

Red Hat notched its fourth consecutive quarter of exceeding analyst expectations for profits. Highlights from Red Hat's earnings include:

$195.9 million in total revenue, up 18 percent from the year ago quarter. … Read more

Red Hat to collide with Microsoft

For years, Red Hat has happily sold Linux to Unix shops anxious to save money at equivalent or better performance. During this time, the company largely avoided Microsoft, which has tended to compete much higher up the stack. No longer. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer argues that one of Microsoft's biggest opportunities lies in enterprise infrastructure and associated application development.

Red Hat, meet Redmond.

Red Hat wants to own the infrastructure market. The company is nearing its initial $1 billion goal, but has a far more audacious ambition: own half the associated middleware market.

This is a direct challenge to … Read more

Revenue up, but Red Hat needs more JBoss focus

At the recent Red Hat Summit, company CEO Jim Whitehurst quipped that "flat is the new up," but he clearly wasn't referring to Red Hat. On Wednesday Red Hat announced another strong quarter, with revenue of $183.6 million for the company's second fiscal quarter of 2010.

That's a rise of 12 percent compared with the same period last year. Despite the company's against-the-grain performance in a weak market, however, it may need to invest more in its middleware business to ensure future growth.

But first, the good news. Of Red Hat's total … Read more

JBoss Mass makes dumping middleware easy

Red Hat on Wednesday announced that it has started offering migration tools to enable enterprises to abandon their proprietary middleware solutions for open-source Red Hat's JBoss product.

It's a new salvo in Red Hat's increasingly successful campaign to replicate its Linux operating system success in the application server market.

Importantly, the new JBoss Mass (migration assistance) program is not just about software. It's also a community effort, including system integrator partners such as RivetLogic and CityTech, which aims to "connect new JBoss customers with existing customers and partners who have extensive migration experience."

In … Read more

Some intriguing data behind Red Hat's 29 percent growth

Red Hat continues to impress. Coming off its already-strong first quarter and higher guidance for its fiscal year, Red Hat announced on Wednesday 29 percent year-over-year growth for its fiscal second quarter and 5 percent growth over its first quarter.

Total revenue for its second quarter hit $164.4 million. Both revenue and profit came in above analyst expectations.

This was the first time in years that Red Hat's second-quarter billings exceeded its first quarter billings. Not bad for a company that gives away free software.

Importantly, Red Hat appears to be doing longer-term deals, as its total deferred revenue balance was $496.9 million, growing 32 percent year-over-year and 1 percent sequentially. This would suggest that Red Hat customers are increasingly comfortable making a long-term bet on Red Hat's future. Indeed, on the analyst call, Red Hat Chief Financial Officer Charlie Peters indicated that the average booking for Red Hat is 24 months and that 36 percent of its subscriptions are for a term greater than one year.

In selling longer-term deals, Red Hat is successfully blocking competitive pressure from Novell, Microsoft, and other companies that might want to cut into its accounts.

On the earnings call, Peters and CEO Jim Whitehurst identified several key trends:… Read more

Oracle's Beehive buzzes at OracleWorld

SAN FRANCISCO--Oracle on Monday unveiled a new open enterprise software application designed to improve the way users collaborate and communicate on projects.

Oracle's Beehive is a 3-year-old project that the acquisition-happy software giant built from scratch. The goal is to take a company's setup, in which various communication and collaboration software applications from a number of vendors are running on an army of servers, and integrate the offerings into one Beehive system, Charles Phillips, Oracle co-president, said during the company's annual Oracle OpenWorld developers conference here.

Beehive seeks to take communication software, from e-mail to instant messaging … Read more

Q&A: Red Hat's JBoss business hits overdrive

It has been a little over two years since Red Hat acquired JBoss. Despite a relaxed public spin, rumors at the time, and for long afterwards, persisted that Red Hat didn't understand middleware, had botched the integration of the JBoss employees and culture into Red Hat, and worse.

However, in an interview Wednesday with Craig Muzilla, vice president of the Red Hat middleware business line, it became clear that JBoss--which includes all of Red Hat's middleware product line, including MetaMatrix--has finally come into its own at Red Hat. I had been hearing from different corners of Red Hat, … Read more

IBM to acquire ILOG in $340 million deal

IBM announced Monday that it plans to acquire business rules management software maker ILOG in a deal valued at $340 million.

Under the deal, IBM will merge ILOG into its WebSphere brand, in a move to expand its middleware software footprint. Middleware is a layer of software that helps servers running databases and Web site software talk with servers running applications.

By combining its business process management (BPM), business optimization, and service-oriented architecture (SOA) software with ILOG's business rules management technologies, IBM is aiming to provide customers with the ability to gather up all relevant information spread throughout their … Read more