E-commerce tools debut
IBM will show off a fresh batch of e-commerce tools at next week's Internet Commerce Expo trade show in Atlanta.
The company will announce version 2.0 of its Net.Commerce software, IBM's server application for merchants who want to establish their own consumer-oriented Internet storefronts. Version 1.0 of Net.Commerce shipped last fall, priced from $5,000. Version 2.0 of Net.Commerce software is due to ship by late May. No pricing has been announced.
IBM will reveal next week new customers for its CommercePoint family of e-commerce offerings, of which Net.Commerce is a part.
The CommercePoint family, announced last September, addresses a range of issues from distribution to security to digital IDs for Internet buyers and sellers. Separate offerings are designed for companies that want to market to consumers or to other businesses.
Big Blue also will also unveil new security initiatives for its SecureWay offerings, along with new software for busy sites called Interactive Network Dispatcher, designed to distribute traffic across multiple Web servers.
IBM's SecureWay framework is designed to let separate businesses or different departments within a single company communicate securely even when they use incompatible encryption methods. Encryption scrambles data transmissions so they cannot be effectively intercepted.
Irving Wladawsky-Berger, general manager of IBM's Internet division, also will be a keynote speaker at the show. Others are Microsoft COO Robert Herbold and Silicon Graphics' William M. Kelly, general counsel and senior vice president of Silicon Interactive Group.