IBM Furthers Open-Source Strategy With Gluecode AcquisitionIBM Furthers Open-Source Strategy With Gluecode Acquisition

IBM said Tuesday it has acquired Gluecode Software Inc., offering another sign of the company's strategy for marketing open-source software. Gluecode offers software and services around the open-source Apache Geronimo application server.

IBM says it will contribute to the Apache Geronimo open-source project and make open-source software for using Eclipse development tools to work on applications based on Apache Geronimo. Gluecode was privately held, and the financial terms weren't disclosed.

In acquiring Gluecode, IBM gets the closest look-a-like to JBoss, which has been the dominant open-source application server. Hewlett-Packard and Novell actively support JBoss, which put pressure on IBM to have an alternative.

The risk for IBM is if--by supporting Apache Geronimo and tying it into Eclipse, the open-source programmer's workbench--it makes it easier for low-end users to stick with Geronimo instead of upgrading to IBM's proprietary WebSphere application server. But IBM is positioning Gluecode as an entry-level tool for users who could later move up to WebSphere. "With the Gluecode acquisition, IBM enables customers and business partners to tap the low cost of entry of open-source technology to quickly develop and deploy applications, and migrate to WebSphere software as business needs expand," Robert LeBlanc, general manager, application and integration middleware, IBM Software Group, said in a statement.

IBM describes Gluecode as a tool to help developers "reduce the complexity of application development by pre-integrating the most common services for building mainstream Java applications."

Geronimo hasn't found a big business following yet, but IBM might be able to change that. However, Red Hat Inc. sought to get part of the application server market by working with French Java application server Jonas, and that effort doesn't appear to have had widespread success.