Software Quarterly

Getting Connected With John Patrick


IBM's vice president of Internet Technology, John Patrick, has helped create leading-edge Internet offerings and expand the use of the Internet within IBM. SQ recently asked Patrick about network-centric computing and its potential.


SQ: Why should customers worry about NCC or adopt it as part of their IT strategies?

Patrick: Network-centric computing is about helping our customers connect to their customers, extend their global reach, and improve their competitiveness. We want them to be able to reach constituencies they couldn't reach before. We're deploying all of our capabilities: hardware, software, services, education, consulting, the IBM Global Network -- everything.

SQ: In terms of the Internet, what do reach and compatibility mean?

Patrick: Reach gives businesses the potential to touch every consumer, and allows every consumer potentially infinite choices. Compatibility is related to reach. At the connectivity layer, TCP/IP is becoming pervasive. Last year, more PCs were sold than televisions, and most of the PCs had TCP/IP. So, at the connection level, basically every computer in the world has been Internet-enabled.

SQ: What's your view of Web browsers?

Patrick: There are differences among browsing software packages, but fundamentally they're the same. Over time, this capability will be embedded in all IT applications. A good precursor is what you see in Lotus Notes Version 4, where you're able to read a document in Notes -- a collaborative database, a customer master file, an E-mail, or a URL that appears in that document. Click on it, and you're looking at a browser inside Notes. So, because browsers are all compatible, businesses can extend their reach. If they put an application on a Web server, anybody will be able to use it.

SQ: How will IBM help customers leverage enterprise systems and client/server investments?

Patrick: The Internet isn't replacing IT -- rather, it's extending IT as we know it. The Internet enables us to extend customers' reach to enhance their competitiveness. CICS, DB2, MVS, SNA, client/server LANs -- these technologies are at the heart of commerce all over the world, and they'll continue to be very important. What the Internet will do is link these core business systems to larger constituencies and enable people in different enterprises to communicate with one another, even though they use different platforms. In short, the Internet doesn't replace systems, it allows them to interconnect.

SQ: What will be the mainframe's role in NCC?

Patrick: An important one -- that's where all the information is. The Web becomes an interface into the mainframe. We're building gateways that allow the Web to become the window into core business systems, and we're doing it in several ways.

For example, we're providing DB2 and CICS WWW gateways that allow browsers to query a DB2 database or initiate a CICS transaction. We're also integrating Notes with the Internet and these core enterprise platforms. Businesses realize that the Internet is an extension of their LANs, and that putting up a home page is only a start.


See also:
Notes Heard Round the World
An Interview With Dr. Internet

Photo: Courtesy of Technology Solutions









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