IBM And SAP Join Forces

IBM and SAP have been partners for over 30 years now, but they didn't release any product as a joint effort so far. Anyway, this is going to change pretty soon, because by the end of this year("in the fourth quarter", they say), we should see the fruit of a common software developping effort, according to official sources from both companies. If they are going to meet this self-imposed deadline or not, that's what remains to be seen, but now we should find out more about what are they going to bring into the software world...

At this time, we know that the future offspring of these two IT giants is codenamed "Atlantic", and its purpose will be to allow access to SAP's Business Suite applications by using IBM's Lotus Notes desktop software as "a catalyst".

A lot of people were probably expecting IBM and SAP to merge, but it seems this is not going to happen anytime soon. Anyway, the "Atlantic" product comes as a consequence of customer feedback, because both companies received requests from their clients to provide the features that this software is going to have.

Other than the above, it's interesting to mention that SAP developed Duet together with Microsoft, to allow access to their business applications suite through the programs from Microsoft's Office package. Regarding the "Atlantic" effort, no additional info emerged so far, but be sure we'll keep you informed!