IBM to expand software services for SMBs

IBM will be expanding its software portfolio for millions of small and medium businesses (SMBs), having an employee base between 5 to 500.

The American giant plans to offer its Lotus Foundations servers to SMBs, through IBM Business partners. The company has also announced a managed beta of a web delivered service by the name ''Bluehouse,'' providing extranet services to SMBs, enabling them to collaborate beyond their organizational boundaries.

With Lotus Foundations and Bluehouse, used separately or in combination, organizations will be able to take advantage of enterprise-strength software, delivered for start-up businesses without the IT staff.

''Our SMB approach which combines easy to-deploy, self-managed on premise servers with web delivered extranet collaboration services uniquely empowers SMBs to succeed in any market,'' said Mike Rhodin, GM, IBM Lotus Software.

Based on Linux, IBM Lotus Foundations is expected to provide server software that requires minimal technical expertise and is able to manage and heal itself.