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David Rubinstein: What’s Happening NOW?


By David Rubinstein
August 15, 2007 — 
IBM, it appears, is getting real about real time.

Its June announcement of its intention to acquire Telelogic, when completed, will give IBM a strong foothold in the automotive, aerospace, defense, medical and telecommunications industries. Its July announcement of its intention to acquire DataMirror, when completed, will ensure that information gained from those traditionally closed systems can be used in a number of different ways.

And IBM can now go into those customers to show them how to merge their embedded systems data into other enterprise IT systems, according to Voke principal analyst Theresa Lanowitz.

Say you’re an insurance adjuster looking at a vehicle that has suffered damage in a crash. Currently, you need a Tablet PC or a handheld device, which must be synchronized with a main system, and the data must then be downloaded. There is no ability to track anything else.

But maybe you, the adjuster, have four calls that day, and you need to keep track of your hours worked. With real-time data integration, you can get the names of the vehicle owners and the location of the vehicle, and tie into the human resources system for hours worked.

“In the past, data coming out of these disparate systems could not be used in other ways,” Lanowitz said.

There are potential downsides for putting real-time technology into practice. For example, in late July, New York City taxi drivers began a series of protests that could result in a September strike over the push to mandate the installation of a GPS system in each car. This, of course, would help dispatchers locate cabs for customers, monitor trip lengths, and return forgotten items to riders.

The drivers, though, believe the GPS systems will be used to track their whereabouts. One cabbie said he would feel like a dog on a leash if tied into dispatch via GPS.

The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission has vowed it is not using the technology to track riders, that it is only capturing data from an electronic trip sheet, which is similar to the ride sheets drivers have been filling out on paper for decades. When the cabs are off-duty, a spokesperson has said, the systems will not be feeding data to TLC.

Beyond personnel matters, though, few can dispute the advantages of being able to gather information in real time and use that data with other systems. Think of how an automobile dealer can fine-tune its service message to customers. Instead of simply sending a postcard reminding of a service at, say, 15,000 miles, the dealer could notify the driver that his brake pads are wearing unevenly—based on real-time diagnostics gathered from the car—and that an inspection is needed now.

By acquiring Telelogic’s Rhapsody, a popular modeling tool for software running on embedded systems, and DOORS, a very technical requirements tool, IBM can implement a product strategy that recognizes the convergence of multiple, disparate systems. The DataMirror purchase will allow IBM to move data across those systems in real time, making it a powerful player in the mission-critical software space.

Lanowitz noted that the small companies that now offer tools for testing software running on hardware won’t be able to compete with IBM, which has said it will tie the real-time tools into the Rational suite, or HP, with the Mercury line of testing tools.

IBM plans on being there when the worlds of embedded, closed systems and enterprise back-end systems converge. But with a real-time component being built into the Java specification, it certainly won’t be there alone. The real-world requirement of data that can be used and acted on by multiple departments in a company, or by multiple companies in an industry, will make it so.

David Rubinstein is editor-in-chief of SD Times.


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