Worklight offers multiple components that are integrated as a platform and IBM WebSphere is one of the key supporting environments that runs underneath it.

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Sterling will reside in the software group under WebSphere, IBM's on-demand business software.

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In March, IBM released software called WebSphere Transcoding Publisher, which transforms content to match the capabilities of mobile devices.

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With Sterling and WebSphere together, IBM can offer a soup-to-nuts e-commerce platform.

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An IBM global CEO survey showed that their top concerns were either mobile or analytics, said Mike Riegel, vice president of mobile and WebSphere solutions at IBM.

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When the acquisition closes in the first quarter, Rational will be the fifth division within IBM software, along with Websphere, DB2 database, Tivoli management products and Lotus collaborative software.

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Partnership activity remains strong and includes a recent collaboration with IBM to support that company's WebSphere Application Server Community Edition as part of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

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In fact, IBM is counting on using this to expand beyond its existing 100, 000 WebSphere clients.

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