IBM is improving the scalability of its
mainframe transaction systems and is developing interfaces that
will enable systems to be used in online environments, such as
Second Life.
Speaking at the company's UK research lab in Hursley last week,
Steve Mills, who heads up IBM's £9bn software business, said,
"Developing processing systems will remain the core of our software
business. Banks, shipping companies and governments use our
software to process over 10 billion transactions a year, and our
clients are looking to increase the scale of their IT
infrastructures to cope."
Although IBM will continue to invest in traditional mainframe
transaction systems, Mills said the firm was looking at new
approaches.
"IBM aims to invest the majority of its research and development
dollar into building software that can link traditional transaction
systems to modern interfaces, for example, releasing automatic
teller machines that link to banks in virtual worlds such as Second
Life," he said.
IBM's Smart Bank application, which is currently being tested at
Hursley, simulates a banking environment running at high volume.
The virtual ATM is linked to a real payments system using web
services to provide authorisation from a core banking system in
real-time.
Along with the research and development effort, IBM has been
expanding its software family. Its planned purchase of Princeton
Softech, announced at the beginning of August, will give users the
ability to identify and store historical data on cheaper storage,
while keeping current data on storage networks that demand greater
resilience.
In July,
IBM purchased Data Mirror for £80m. This software allows
modified data to be identified and delivered in real-time
processes, allowing auditing changes to be made in a database, for
example.
And in June,
IBM bought Telelogic for £392m to improve its services arm,
which helps users develop industry-specific software.
"By following its acquisition strategy, IBM will boost its
position in the transaction processing market and fill gaps
elsewhere in its software management offerings," said Jim Duggan,
research vice-president at analyst firm Gartner.