To: T-Lo Greens who wrote (454 ) 7/27/1999 7:11:00 PM From: Steve Rubakh Respond to of 1214
IBM and INIT....nice allience IBM LAUNCHES ISP BUSINESS UNIT And PARTNER PROGRAM Group to Leverage Advanced Internet Research to Speed Emerging Applications to ISPs-- WHITE PLAINS, NY, April 13, 1999... IBM today announced the formation of a new business unit to aggressively market products and services to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) -- a market estimated to generate total revenue of $37 billion in the United States by 2003*. The first initiative of the new business unit is the global IBM Business Partner Program for ISPs. The program will provide ISPs with early access to IBM's Internet research and extensive e-business resources to help them enter new markets and succeed. "As the industry leader in technology research and delivering e-business solutions, we intend to marry the best of these two worlds for ISPs," said Jim Corgel, general manager, IBM ISP Industry unit. "IBM's industry-leading research matched with our industry-leading solutions and experience are a combination that no other vendor can match." Interliant, Inc., formerly known as Sage Networks, Inc., offers a diverse range of hosting and enhanced Internet services to business customers worldwide. IBM's Net.Commerce Hosting Server, a highly scalable and secure Web transaction solution, addresses the needs of Interliant's customers looking to leverage the power of the Internet. "IBM's technology allows us to expand our breadth of solutions required by our customers to stay competitive in today's Internet business environment," said Stephen W. Maggs, President and CEO, Interliant. "As businesses of all types and sizes integrate new technology into their everyday operations, partnering with a company able to provide scalable Internet solutions is key to our customers' success." IBM Business Partner Program for Internet Service Providers The global IBM Business Partner Program for ISPs is designed to help ISPs deploy advanced applications and enter new markets through access to technology education, e-business expertise and business development tools. ISPs can enroll in the program on the IBM Web site beginning in May. The program also extends an ISP's reach by teaming it with IBM's vast network of value added resellers, independent software vendors, application development partners, consultants and systems integrators. IBM's partner network extends to more than 45,000 business entities throughout the world. This program is based on the same tiered program design and technology support infrastructure that IBM is adopting for all its Business Partner programs. These programs reward business partners who invest in relationships with IBM. IBM Launches International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR) In conjunction with Northwestern University, with support from Ameritech and Cisco, IBM recently announced the launch of the world's first International Center for Advanced Internet Research (iCAIR) to focus on the rapid commercialization of advanced Internet applications. ISPs seeking to be first to market with advanced applications will gain early exposure to the emerging services developed by iCAIR and IBM. Among the goals of this research center is to help speed the transition of academic and government research projects into viable commercial applications through the rapid prototyping of next generation Internet applications. The new unit will focus on delivering IBM's extensive portfolio of best-of-breed software, hardware and services to address the specific needs of ISPs. These include e-business services infrastructure such as Web hosting and application serving, messaging and collaborative applications and commerce solutions. IBM recently announced broad support for Linux, an open-source code operating system and the fastest-growing server operating environment. IBM will be developing solutions to run on Linux for ISPs, expanding a commitment to open-source software for Internet applications. IBM will also provide ISPs with industry leading UNIX and Windows NT-based servers such as the RS/6000 and Netfinity. These reliable and scalable platforms are ideally suited to meet any ISP's most demanding requirements. IBM recently introduced the RS/6000 Model H70, the world's fastest 64-bit, four-way Web server, designed to provide unparalleled speed, performance and high availability.