The system will provide a client as small as 50 Kbytes to reside on portable devices and connect to MQSeries software running on company systems. IBM plans to develop versions of the software for synchronous and asynchronous communication.

The MQSeries Everywhere technology is a key component of IBM's "pervasive computing" initiative, under which the company is developing technology, products, and services for portable computing devices and embedded systems. MQSeries Everywhere is expected to go into limited beta testing in the third quarter; no availability date has been set.

That might be just as well for some IS managers, who have more pressing issues on their to-do lists. Mike Petrilli, information services managing director at AAA Auto Club South in Tampa, Fla., says he has "looked superficially" at information about MQSeries Everywhere, but "I'm not even going to give it any thought until post-year 2000." The auto club uses MQSeries to run its credit-card verification system.

"There is no question that intermittently connected devices have to have this kind of capability," says Gartner Group analyst Roy Schulte. IBM's success rests on the idea that there are advantages to running the same software on portable devices as on back-end systems. While he calls IBM's effort "very aggressive," Schulte says it's not clear if message-oriented middleware is the answer. He points to Oracle's plan to provide links between company databases and database software embedded in portable devices as an alternative.

IBM also signed a deal with Psion plc, a manufacturer of mobile computing technologies, under which Psion will incorporate MQSeries in a future line. Psion also plans to use the DB2 Everywhere database in the new line of devices.