IBM 2001 Annual Report Download - page 35

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no. 12
We majored on middleware
BUILDING OUR SOFTWARE BUSINESS
In 1993, nobody would have recognized the term “middleware.”
Today, it is nearly 40 percent of the $230 billion software
marketplace.
It’s also what we bet our software business on in 1995, when
we were looking for IBM’s next growth opportunities.
Middleware is the collection of products
—
databases,
transaction management systems, messaging, systems man-
agement
—
that lets customers do things they care about.
Things like allowing your online bookstore to make recom-
mendations based on prior purchases, or keeping your credit
card information confidential when you go to the Net to buy
an airline ticket.
Middleware represents 80 percent of our $13 billion soft-
ware business. We’re the world’s leading provider, and we’re
growing faster than our main competitors.