IBM Corp is to introduce a version of its VisualAge software development tool to enable businesses to extend their enterprise applications and data to the web and cash in on the booming electronic commerce market. VisualAge e-business integrates business application capabilities with content creation and web site management functions, to enable companies to create web sites that incorporate business logic and extend back end enterprise systems, such as transaction processing, to the web. The main components that make up VisualAge e-business are VisualAge for Java (CI No 3,199), the enterprise version of IBM’s visual Java application development environment; NetObject Inc’s Fusion web site building tool (CI No 3,223); the Lotus BeanMachine from IBM’s Lotus Development Corp, a visual authoring tool for combining JavaBeans and Java applets (CI No 3,133); the Lotus Domino Go Webserver (CI No 3,247), and IBM’s own DB2 Universal Database Developer’s Edition, a web ready relational database. It also includes a Netscape Navigator browser. The company is promoting the new web application development tool as central to its Network Computing Framework, designed to help its customers make the transition to web-based applications. The new VisualAge version follows a series of upgrades and product launches that have seen IBM jumping on the electronic commerce band wagon. In August the company upgraded its AS/400 and OS/390 systems to offer internet and data warehouse capabilities (CI No 3,228) and more recently upgraded VM and VSE entry-level and mid- range mainframes to give them access to electronic commerce capabilities (CI No 3,264). VisualAge e-business is available now for Windows 95 and Windows NT priced at $2,500.
