Candle Corp claims it has pulled off a bit of a coup in a deal with IBM Corp that sees a cut down version of Candle’s messaging middleware extensions bundled with IBM’s MQ Series product. Included in every pack containing IBM’s MQ Series CD-Rom, will be a CD-Rom with a subset of Candle’s Command Center, including configuration, systems management and editing tools. This subset of Candle’s Command Center – the company is no longer selling its tools individually but bundling them in one suite – enables users to configure the MQ Series middleware, see what’s happening on all their distributed systems and use the full editing tool. The hope is that once users have installed and used Candle’s bundled offering, they will go back to the company to get the full-blown management pack. The deal also includes maintenance and support. One of those responsible for putting the deal together is Steve Craggs, Candle’s vice-president of applications solutions, formally known as the father of ‘messaging middleware’ when at IBM itself. Cragg took several of the main IBM MQ Series development team with him to Candle. He believes the IBM deal represents a major coup for the company against its nearest rivals BMC Corp and Boole and Babbage. He estimates IBM currently owns at least 50% of the messaging middleware market, the explosive growth of which is being driven by the increasing requirement to integrate fully, applications from disparate systems. However, Candle is not putting all of its eggs in one basket. It currently also has tools for Microsoft Corp’s own messaging middleware MSMQ, and although this has not yet gained the size of market share enjoyed by IBM, as Craggs says You don’t ever write off Microsoft. The bundled IBM Candle product will not be available until early summer, but the new Candle Command Center management package is available now. No clear prices yet for the new management package except Candle says it will cost less that the component parts used to cost.
