- Mythbuster busts his own tale
- 10 open source companies to watch
- Sony recalls 73,000 Vaio laptops
- Tool to evade China's Web censorship
- Chrome and Firefox and add-ons
Newsletters | Podcasts | Chats | Opinions | RSS Feeds | This Week In Print | IT Careers | Community | Reports | Downloads | Slideshows | New Data Center
Partner Sites:App Performance | On Demand Security | Networking Solution | SOA | Value of WDS
IBM on Tuesday released Atlas, a software toolset that provides advanced search and analysis functions for its enterprise social networking product, Lotus Connections.
"Atlas looks at the data within Connections and does some visualizations of the information," said Chris Lamb, senior product manager. "The main point is that it is a way to visualize the social data from a line-of-business perspective and a personal level."
The Atlas suite contains four components dubbed My Net, Find, Reach and Net.
The Net component provides a view of groups that have formed within an organization due to work on similar projects, IBM said. The point is to help users find ways to improve communications among various nodes throughout the company. My Net provides a similar view, but focuses on a user's personal network.
Atlas also includes Reach, a dashboard-like tool that helps users "navigate the six degrees of separation that divide them from a colleague," as an IBM statement describes. The purpose is to help workers more quickly connect with people in the organization who have a particular skill set or area of knowledge.
The last component is Find, which can provide search results that leverage social networking-related data, such as blogs and reporting structures, according to IBM.
Atlas and Lotus Connections fit into an ambitious push by IBM around social collaboration in enterprises.
A growing number of people use multiple networks and would like to easily move their profile data between them. Without providing specifics, Lamb said IBM is moving to address the problem.
"That's something that we're looking at, how we aggregate that," he said. "There will be some announcements around the Lotusphere time frame." Lotusphere is scheduled for Jan. 20-24 in Orlando, Florida.
IBM is selling Atlas through its Software Services for Lotus group. Lamb declined to provide specific pricing information.

In this whitepaper learn how Retrospective Network Analysis (RNA) has proved a different type of...
SNMP Monitorin One Critical Component to Network ManagementSNMP is a valuable tool to any network administrator who requires complete visibility into the...
Monitoring and Managing App PerformanceThis paper defines application analysis, discusses the different categories of tools on the market,...

Double-Take (r) Software and Microsoft are teaming up on September 9, 2008 for a webinar focusing...
Transforming the Enterprise WAN Edge: Video from CiscoLife on the edge of your WAN has changed dramatically. With the need to deliver advanced services,...
PoE Plus: Impact on the PoE MarketThe standard for Power over Ethernet (PoE), IEEE Std. 802.3af(tm)-2003, advanced networking,...

Archiving, backup and data protection take on ever more critical roles in the enterprise. Data...
The New Network/System Management ChallengesIncreasingly popular technologies such as virtualization, wireless networking and data center...
Virtualization Reality CheckFind out why analysts say approaching virtualization with an ounce of caution is wise. And also why...
Partner Content
Explore the Ultrium Edge
The powerful tape technology can address data security with tape encryption as well as long term data protection.
Find out more
Disk and Tape Square Off
Discover what disk and tape really cost -- and which solution provides lower total cost of ownership and optimizes energy use for your organization
Download the White Paper
Don't Fall For The Myths
The Clipper Group explores the truth behind the myths of tape, digging into the misconceptions in the disk vs. tape debate.
Download the White Paper
Will You Add Tape Too?
Over two thirds of disk-only users look to add tape back into storage infrastructure according to recent survey.
Download Survey Information
Comment