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In addition to the existing vendors (like IBM) updating their wares to address the newly expanded vision, vendors such as Mercator, Vitria, and webMethods were specifically founded to provide Web-oriented middleware tools. Industry groups such as the Apache Software Foundation and the ObjectWeb consortium encourage the development of open source middleware. IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation (IBM, or colloquially, Big Blue) (NYSE: IBM) (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since 1888) is headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company manufactures and sells computer hardware, software, and services.With over 330,000 employees worldwide and revenues of $96 billion (figures from 2004), IBM is the largest information technology company in the world, and one of the few with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. It has engineers and consultants in over 170 countries and development laboratories located all over the world, in all segments of computer science and information technology; some of them are pioneers in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. In recent years, services and consulting revenues have been larger than those from manufacturing. Samuel J. Palmisano was elected CEO on January 29, 2002 after having led IBM's Global Services, and helping it to become a business with a $100 billion in backlog in 2004. In 2002 the company strengthened its business advisory capabilities by acquiring the consulting arm of professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. The company is increasingly focused on business solution driven consulting, services and software, with emphasis also on high value chips and hardware technologies; as of 2004 it employs about 191,000 technical professionals. That total includes 300-400 Distinguished Engineers and 50-60 IBM Fellows, its most senior engineers. IBM Research has eight research labs located in the Northern Hemisphere, with half of those locations outside of the United States. IBM employees have won five Nobel Prizes. In the USA, they have earned four Turing Awards, five National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science, and outside the USA, many equivalents. Go to the official IBM Middleware website The Political Development of IBMThe paper Red and White and Blue All Over: The Political Development of IBM from David Hart analyzes variation over time in the issue agenda, policy positions, and political behavior of the IBM Corporation. It draws on, integrates, and contributes to rational choice, organization, and environmental theories of the firm as a political actor in doing so. The empirical portions of the text draw on original interviews, archival documents, and the public record. They describe a transition from personalistic to formal representation in the 1970s; two decades of growth, increasing sophistication, and inertia; and a crisis and scaling back to a more stereotypically rational approach in the 1990s. The conclusion stresses the value of combining multiple theoretical approaches in the study of business and politics. Interesting articlesMore IBM Software articles and IBM articles | |||||||
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