• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • WebSphere Commerce Server Comes to IBM i

    July 27, 2010 Alex Woodie

    IBM last week announced that its flagship e-commerce software package, WebSphere Commerce version 7.0, will now run natively on the IBM i 6.1 and 7.1 operating systems. The move offers IBM i customers three new e-commerce product options for hosting business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce websites on their System i or Power Systems servers.

    WebSphere Commerce is a respected family of products that allows companies of all sizes to set up and manage their own customized e-commerce storefronts on the World Wide Web. The software, which has received kudos from Gartner and AMR Research, comes with pre-packaged and integrated capabilities, including search engines, shopping carts, order management, catalog management, merchandising, marketing, analytics, and customer and supplier relationship management.

    Version 7.0, which IBM launched during the fourth quarter of 2009, brought some compelling new features, such as the capabilities to support customers using smartphones to browse items and even complete transactions. This release also integrates with social media sites to make it easy for retailers to incorporate product reviews.

    New cross-channel capabilities in version 7.0 are aimed at establishing communication with customers who, for example, abandon a shopping cart.. IBM also improved its B2B and B2C “starter stores,” which are pre-configured templates that WebSphere Commerce users can use to get going quickly. The starter store templates are based on AJAX and use Dojo toolkit widgets.

    WebSphere Commerce Express provides a good building block for companies (with 1,000 employees or fewer) that are just starting to form their online presence. It’s worth noting that IBM enabled IBM i to run the entry-level WebSphere Commerce Express product. This is a bit surprising, considering that AIX is not supported on this product; only IBM i, Windows, and Linux can run WebSphere Commerce Express. Express can also be downloaded; other versions must be ordered on optical media.

    The Professional and Enterprise versions of WebSphere Commerce offer more features and scalability than the Express version. The Professional version adds things like the sales center add-on (used for cross channel selling in a call center), a product recommendation engine, support for auctions, marketing features, cross-channel order processing, and Rational Application Developer workspaces. (The sales center add-on does not run on IBM i, but IBM supports running this software on Windows and connecting to WebSphere Commerce on IBM i.)

    The Enterprise edition is the most scalable, and builds on the Professional edition with features like support for Software as a Service (SaaS) hosting, support for contracts and RFQs, support for business accounts and requisition lists, support for “punch outs,” B2B starter stores, and tools for managing advanced roles and relationships.

    IBM charges for WebSphere Commerce using its Processor Value Unit (PVU) rating system; sub-capacity pricing is apparently not available anymore. Under its PVU system, IBM assigns a different value to the individual cores running on a chip, and customers then use that number as a multiple for figuring out their final charge, based on how many individual cores they will use to run the software. IBM’s PVU pricing guide reflects the PVU ratings of various Power, X64, and mainframe processors.

    For the WebSphere Commerce Express software, IBM charges $299 for every PVU the customer wants to use to run the software. According to IBM’s PVU guide, each core on a Power 6-equipped System i Model 520 (a very popular entry-level AS/400) has a low PVU rating of 80. So, by multiplying $299 by 80 PVUs, you will see that it will cost $23,920 to get a license to run WebSphere Commerce Express on a single core of a Model 520 server, or $47,840 to run on both cores of a single socket. Developer licenses for Express are $4,600.

    Customers running a larger Model 550 (with a high PVU rating of 120) can run the software on only a single core, because there is a limit of 200 PVUs for WebSphere Commerce Server, as well as a single store limit.

    Each PVU for WebSphere Commerce Professional costs $1,130, brining the cost of running this product to $113,000 for a typical processor core rated at 100, such as a Power 7-equipped Model 750, all Power 4 and Power 5 processors, and some multi-core Intel Xeon Nehalem processors. This edition doesn’t have a maximum PVU limit before customers must upgrade to Enterprise, but they must be paying for at least 100 PVUs for every individual Web storefront. Developer licenses for Professional cost $21,300 per seat. Each PVU for WebSphere Commerce Enterprise costs $1,820, bringing a minimum configuration to a price of $182,000 on a standard 100 PVU core.

    WebSphere Commerce 7.0 is available now. For more information on WebSphere Commerce version 7.0, see www-01.ibm.com/software/genservers/commerceproductline.



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags:

    Sponsored by
    VISUAL LANSA 16 WEBINAR

    Trying to balance stability and agility in your IBM i environment?

    Join this webinar and explore Visual LANSA 16 – our enhanced professional low-code platform designed to help organizations running on IBM i evolve seamlessly for what’s next.

    🎙️VISUAL LANSA 16 WEBINAR

    Break Monolithic IBM i Applications and Unlock New Value

    Explore modernization without rewriting. Decouple monolithic applications and extend their value through integration with modern services, web frameworks, and cloud technologies.

    🗓️ July 10, 2025

    ⏰ 9 AM – 10 AM CDT (4 PM to 5 PM CEST)

    See the webinar schedule in your time zone

    Register to join the webinar now

    What to Expect

    • Get to know Visual LANSA 16, its core features, latest enhancements, and use cases
    • Understand how you can transition to a MACH-aligned architecture to enable faster innovation
    • Discover native REST APIs, WebView2 support, cloud-ready Azure licensing, and more to help transform and scale your IBM i applications

    Read more about V16 here.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Sponsored Links

    PowerTech:  FREE Webinar! An Auditor's View: Assess Your IBM i in 15 Minutes. July 28, 10 a.m. CT
    HiT Software:  FREE white paper! Optimizing Data Access to IBM DB2
    COMMON:  Join us at the Fall 2010 Conference & Expo, Oct. 4 - 6, in San Antonio, Texas

    IT Jungle Store Top Book Picks

    Easy Steps to Internet Programming for AS/400, iSeries, and System i: List Price, $49.95
    The iSeries Express Web Implementer's Guide: List Price, $49.95
    The System i RPG & RPG IV Tutorial and Lab Exercises: List Price, $59.95
    The System i Pocket RPG & RPG IV Guide: List Price, $69.95
    The iSeries Pocket Database Guide: List Price, $59.00
    The iSeries Pocket SQL Guide: List Price, $59.00
    The iSeries Pocket Query Guide: List Price, $49.00
    The iSeries Pocket WebFacing Primer: List Price, $39.00
    Migrating to WebSphere Express for iSeries: List Price, $49.00
    Getting Started With WebSphere Development Studio Client for iSeries: List Price, $89.00
    Getting Started with WebSphere Express for iSeries: List Price, $49.00
    Can the AS/400 Survive IBM?: List Price, $49.00
    Chip Wars: List Price, $29.95

    Human Error the Number One Cause of Data Loss, Survey Says Using IBM Web Administration for i To Configure WebSphere Portal

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Volume 10, Number 27 -- July 27, 2010
THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY:

Infor
Bytware
RevSoft
Shield Advanced Solutions
VAULT400

Table of Contents

  • Infor to Resell Cashbook’s IBM i Banking Software
  • Tennessee Bank Kills Two Birds with One VTL Stone
  • DB2/400 Queries Go Mobile with New SystemObjects Tool
  • WebSphere Commerce Server Comes to IBM i
  • SurroundTech Helps Agilysys Move Hotel App to Azure Cloud
  • IBM Updates Systems Director Software
  • Jinfonet Adds Interactive Elements to Reporting Tool
  • GSI Unveils Maintenance App for IBM i
  • PistolStar Touts Deployments of Password Software
  • RentalMan XI Goes GA

Content archive

  • The Four Hundred
  • Four Hundred Stuff
  • Four Hundred Guru

Recent Posts

  • Liam Allan Shares What’s Coming Next With Code For IBM i
  • From Stable To Scalable: Visual LANSA 16 Powers IBM i Growth – Launching July 8
  • VS Code Will Be The Heart Of The Modern IBM i Platform
  • The AS/400: A 37-Year-Old Dog That Loves To Learn New Tricks
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 25
  • Meet The Next Gen Of IBMers Helping To Build IBM i
  • Looks Like IBM Is Building A Linux-Like PASE For IBM i After All
  • Will Independent IBM i Clouds Survive PowerVS?
  • Now, IBM Is Jacking Up Hardware Maintenance Prices
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 24

Subscribe

To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

Pages

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Four Hundred Monitor
  • IBM i PTF Guide
  • Media Kit
  • Subscribe

Search

Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle