Continuing to bet heavily on open source software, IBM later on Tuesday will announce it is buying Gluecode Software, a small startup that figures to give Big Blue a presence in the lower end of the market for server software. Gluecode, based in El Segundo, Calif., sells an open source server called Geronimo.
While IBM already has its own server in WebSphere, the company does not see Geronimo as a direct competitor but rather as a low-end complement designed to gain IBM traction among small and medium-size companies (SMBs). Geronimo is based on open source technology from the Apache Geronimo application server.