IBM to offer Eclipse services

Elite Support for Eclipse will be offered by IBM's Rational arm; new Rational tools are also due

IBM is to help firms building environments based on the Eclipse open-source development framework.

At the EclipseWorld conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, IBM said it would later this year begin offering a new service called Rational Elite Support for Eclipse.

Ovum senior analyst Bola Rotibi said it was necessary for “commercial vendors to complement the current open-source community model".

Separately, IBM released Eclipse software development tools based on the latest Callisto generation of the framework.

Next month, IBM plans to release beta-test versions of Rational Software Architect and Rational Functional Tester version 7. Registration for the beta programme is open now.

Also at EclipseWorld, Borland upgraded its Together 2006 for Eclipse modelling product with enhanced visual design capabilities.