Gluecode targets hardcore Java developers in organizations that are running a single application with low transaction volumes. By comparison, IBM’s existing entry-level offering, WebSphere Application Server Express, is a more complex product. Although it hides many of the complexities of Java itself with various wizards, WebSphere Express also bundles various development tools and business application templates.
Like JBoss, Red Hat, MySQL and other commercial open source products, Gluecode is available for free download and offers technical support based on annual subscription. Gluecode offers three tiers, including email, business day, and 24 x 7 options, from $500 – $2,500 annually per CPU, a change from the previous per instance pricing.
By comparison, WebSphere Express retails for $2,000 for first year license and support. Both products will continue and be supported by IBM WebSphere’s sales force and support groups.
Although IBM plans to rebrand the Gluecode products WebSphere, it will keep the product separate, position it in the segment that WebSphere is missing, and build a migration path for customers graduating beyond the basic Apache Geronimo-based product.
According to IBM’s Robert LeBlanc, who heads the WebSphere middleware product group, in the long run WebSphere may incorporate some of the Gluecode/Geronimo technology if appropriate.
Where we can bring the products together we will, but we don’t want to get caught into a one-size-fits-all situation, he said. One likely item up for consideration may be subscription pricing. Although similar schemes are available through IBM’s On Demand Computing offerings, this would be a first for IBM’s WebSphere software group.
Chet Kapoor, formerly head of BEA’s WebLogic Integration software group, joined the startup earlier this year to ready it for the IBM acquisition and will head the new unit, which will report to Mr LeBlanc.
This isn’t the first time that IBM bought a parallel product and open sourced it. Several years ago, IBM acquired Cloudscape, an embedded J2EE database that certainly wasn’t going to displace DB2. After dangling for several years, IBM subsequently open sourced it and embedded it in the recent IBM Lotus Workplace product.
And open source is not a complete stranger to WebSphere either, with the Apache HTTP server already forming the heart of the WebSphere webserver component.
The real driver of the deal was the fact that WebSphere is too complex for open source or other application developers who need a basic, do-it-yourself J2EE server for embedding, or for small businesses whose needs are modest.
However, although a simpler product, the Gluecode offering still requires developers with a healthy knowledge of Java, keeping it out of the lowest end of the market. That end of the market is still more attractive for Microsoft.
Left unsaid was the fact that JBoss is beginning to squeeze incumbents at the low end of the J2EE market, where much of the growth is. JBoss claims that it is present in at least a third of all companies using Java appservers, although most of them are using the free version.
It claims that its product offering is much further advanced than Apache Geronimo and generates far more developer interest, with a total of 383 posts to the Geronimo news group over the past year versus JBoss’s 3,000 per month.
Nonetheless, JBoss corporate strategy vice president Bob Bickel welcomed IBM’s entry, characterizing it as just another step in the movement for open source to take over the world.
