MIDDLEWARE HP Focusing On Next-Generation E-Business Software.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Byline: Murray Coleman

Hewlett-Packard Co.'s plan to buy Compaq Computer Corp. certainly affects both "ends" of computer systems - the clients and servers - but it also has implications for the middle.

Even as it made cuts in its hardware business, and as it talked with Compaq, HP has been boosting its middleware unit. This is software that connects end users, or clients, with the applications housed on the servers that power computer networks.

Many types of software can be called middleware, but probably the biggest chunk of this market is middleware that ties together many different users on many networks, all working on various operating systems.

"We now have HP focusing on a next-generation operating system for doing business electronically," said John Capobianco, general manager of HP's middleware division. "So we've made a commitment to create this underlying platform for all types of Web services."

Capobianco joined the computer maker this year when HP bought his former company, Bluestone Software. Bluestone makes software that helps businesses do transactions with other businesses online. Such B2B companies do the application integration that's integral to working on the Internet.

Filling A Gap