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REALITY CHECK
Open source: IBM's deadly weapon
The UDDI Project
By David Berlind
April 8, 2002
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At the same time, another standard that IBM and Sun had collaborated on--ebXML--was about to become the center of controversy. Throughout 2000, while the two companies worked together famously on ebXML for the United Nations and explored the idea of XML-based registries, IBM was also working clandestinely with Microsoft and Ariba on another directory specification, Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI).
ebXML proponents and companies like CommerceOne, who had committed significant resources to the registry work being done with ebXML, were stunned when they first learned of UDDI. But the sequence of events demonstrates how much pressure a move like this by Microsoft and IBM can create on the industry. The forum at ebXML.org (a part of OASIS) shows CommerceOne's Bob Glushko expressing surprise and frustration on the day the UDDI story was released in the New York Times. Then, one day later, CommerceOne is listed as being a supporter of the project.
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A pattern was beginning to emerge. To many, including Sun, it must have felt like the second blow of a one-two combination. The UDDI Project was born on Sept, 6, 2000, and Sun, having just seen SOAP steam-rolled into a standard, probably felt like it had a gun to its head and signed up as a supporter. Anybody might have guessed what would happen next: A few months later, IBM contributed its Java-based UDDI code to the open source community. If Sun, the Java Community Process, or the other ebXML supporters had any objections, it wouldn't matter. When code like this is given away, it has the same effect on developers that the price of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (free) has on end users. A standard is born.
Open-source, widely viewed as a way for the development community to participate in the evolution of software that's owned by nobody but shared by everyone, was now a compe titive weapon and a means to an end of IBM. (See "When will IBM buy Sun?") But IBM wasn't done. In a move that would enrage Sun, IBM open-sourced all of its Eclipse code with a contribution valued at $40 million. If SOAP opened the superhighway for RPCs, Eclipse would be the developer's interoperability interchange between target operating systems. Eclipse technology makes it possible for developers to target Linux, Java, or Windows with one integrated development environment. By virtue of their Eclipse support, the tools that plug into the IDE offer a degree of platform independence that their Windows, Java, or Linux-specific sisters can't. Most viewed the move as a way for IBM to get Windows developers to start targeting Linux. Sun saw it as a threat to the tenants of the Java Community Process and the write once, run anywhere promise of Java.
Once again, IBM had played open-source perfectly to its advantage, leaving only one question. What's next?
What do you think will be IBM's next open source play, and what competitive advantage will it give the company? Write to me at david.berlind@cnet.com and let me know, or TalkBack below.
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