Not to be outdone by Andy and Richard, today is the eigth anniversary of my joining IBM. Eight whole years… that’s longer than I was at secondary school for! Here goes with a little jaunt down memory lane…
I joined IBM straight from university and initially joined the test team for IBM’s CORBA offering: Component Broker. I didn’t last more than a couple of months before transferring over to development although, like many new starters, I was given the fun job of fixing defects. Those were the days… trying to find memory leaks in reams of C++ code!
Then along came this young upstart called WebSphere Application Server which was eventually to sound the death knell for Component Broker. Responsiblity for the Java Transaction Service came to the team in Hursley where I worked.
Come Version 3.5 of the Application Server, someone had the bright idea of trying to provide JMS support within the Application Server for WebSphere MQ and, in particular, to provide transactional integration. I was duly dispatched to work in this new team. This grew over time to include other, third-party, JMS providers.
In Version 5, I was responsible for redesigning the JMS support, bending the specifications more than a little to rebase on the Java Connector Architecture (JCA). That code still haunts me now! I was also responsible for the runtime implementation of the Extended Messaging Service (aka Container Managed Messaging). This was intended to isolate applications from the messaging world using a business interface, an idea that has resurfaced in the Service Component Architecture. This functionality started out in Enterprise Edition, made its way to Server Foundation and I believe still lives on in WebSphere Process Server.
With Version 6, there was to be a new messaging provider for WebSphere Application Server and, with my background, I soon became responsible for the resource adapter that would integrate the JMS support with the Application Server. This meant leaving my cosy little office for pastures new (open plan) but gave me the chance to work with a different bunch of very smart people!
Eventually I longed to know what customers were actually doing with the products I was helping to develop and that’s why you now find me in software services.
And we are so glad to have you out in the field with us! Wow. I had no idea you had such a colourful background. This blog is becoming absolutely essential reading.