The company declined to comment ahead of the event, but several sources said the news centers around a continuation of IBM's software and services onslaught, which has been gaining steam in recent weeks.
One source confirmed that the news will include a new version of WebSphere Application Server, IBM's core product in the competitive application deployment software market, which IDC said is worth $7 billion.
Application servers are software engines that run applications on the Internet. They are a cornerstone of SOAs (define), systems that allow customers to use Web services (define) to shuttle requests between disparate computing networks.
