IBM, Cognos Strengthen SOA Development Deal

IBM and Cognos have deepened their alliance that will see the two companies working closely together to develop and sell tightly integrated solutions for service-oriented architectures (SOAs).

Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will work closely together to better integrate their business processes that could span the breadth of the enterprise, they announced today. The deal also calls for joint development, marketing and sales of SOA-based solutions that would serve to improve their analytics by leveraging best practices.

Officials from both companies see the announcement as cementing their common belief in open-standards-based solutions that will allow users and partners to better leverage existing IT assets to lower costs and offer more options among operating environments, including Linux. Ascribing to open standards allows users to more easily manage and integrate business data--their most valuable competitive asset.

"We're extending our strategic alliance with IBM in order to drive innovation deeper into the marketplace," said Rob Ashe, president and CEO of Cognos, in a prepared statement. "We think with this alliance our organizations will be more tightly aligned and in an optimal position to help our customers succeed with their business-intelligence and performance-management initiatives."

Some users seem pleased at the recommitment each company is making to the partnership.

"We've had great success working with Cognos and IBM," says Chris Framel, applications group manager for the City of Albuquerque, N.M. "Cognos' tools have helped keep our municipal departments and residents informed on public safety and operational issues through our extranet. The open architecture works well on our existing IBM infrastructure."

There appears to be good reason for IBM and Cognos to strengthen their ties. According to a recent report, IDC predicts that the market opportunity for SOA, including software, services and hardware, will reach $21 billion by 2007.