Our blog,
“Solutions, open platform,
commitment drive IBM Power System success[1]”, commented on IBM’s plans,
strategy and solutions for Power Systems as announced in early October. At the
recent IBM Enterprise2013 event, Doug Balog, General Manager for Power Systems,
took the opportunity to expand on IBM’s Power Systems platform strategy for
market success. It resolves around IBM’s ability to provide solutions that will
make the transformation to Smarter Business operations faster, easier and more
effective by using insights gleaned from Big Data-based analytics. Where the earlier
piece focused on an overview of announcements and enhancements, now, we focus
on the strategy and rationale driving IBM’s continued investment plan for
success in the enterprise marketplace.
The IT
market in the global economy is slowly lurching toward recovery. However, even
the largest emerging markets (China, Brazil, Africa, etc.) once growing
relatively rapidly, appear to be catching their breath. It’s no secret that the
server market has become a difficult market. Currently, sales of intermediate
servers like Power are flat to slightly declining. While some new contenders
are performing adequately, many of the established vendors appear to be more
focused on fighting a rearguard defense as they contemplate exiting the
segment.
Taking
a different view, IBM has been investing heavily in solutions based on the Power
Systems platform. Given current trends, why take this position? No doubt one reason
is the experience and insight gained through longevity in a market that has
seen dramatic shifts in the past. The System i part of Power Systems was introduced
25 years ago (AS/400 in 1988). This makes it one of only two actively marketed
proprietary system architectures. The other, the System z mainframe (49 years
old), will be discussed in another blog.
But,
longevity also argues against success as familiarity breeds boredom or exhausts
innovation. To such arguments, Balog’s response is that the core of the market
for Power System servers consists in large part of users committed to the
platform. A core set that believe in the platform and want solutions based on
it. They will also develop their own solutions for it. They want to implement
clouds, deliver mobile services and apps, address security issues and leverage insights
gleaned from Big Data/Analytics. Given motivation, they will use Power Systems.
This is a phenomenon with considerable history in the IT market.
Doug’s
team is committed to providing the motivation to the core and as many other
users as they can attract. The ‘reasons to buy’ include the fast-time-to-value
of integrated infrastructure, cognitive computing capabilities, intelligent
applications, scalability, fully integrated solutions, Total Cost of
Acquisition (TCA) and/or Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) advantages, etc. Such features
drive sales, and the platform is designed to provide them. Here’s how they
intend to do that.
IT users
need systems and solutions that are adaptable enough to support multiple ways
to develop and deliver services. High quality of service delivery and user
experience provides significant competitive advantage. This requires infrastructure
configurations matched to workload needs. Therefore, the Power Systems
solutions come in a wide range of configurations and solutions packages. They
range from Flex System components to PureSystems to Power servers to Watson
solutions. All are designed for effective use in multiple configurations in
cloud, on premise or hybrid operating environments. They provide access as a
service for cloud, infrastructure, platform, applications and software at price
points that match IT budgets.
Linux-based
solutions are of high interest to this segment. Therefore, IBM is focusing on
expanding the Linux-based solutions portfolio[2].
(System i and AIX remain as integral pieces in the strategy.) Another key
motivator will be the availability of next-generation solutions using Big Data
and sophisticated analytics to drive business success. Big Data provides
significant opportunities enterprise transformation. It enables competitive
advantage by improving decision making with faster data analysis. It enhances
the quality of customer interactions, even make possible the elusive task of
treating each customer as an individual.
But, providing
such a range of choices complicates decision-making. Integrated, targeted
solutions pre-built and ready-to-run simplify choice. One example is the IBM
BLU Acceleration Solution that supports in-depth Big Data business intelligence
and data warehousing applications. Other solutions provide predictive analytics
that help avoid capacity problems, one that speeds cloud implementation, and
one that optimizes virtualized infrastructure management. Another example is IBM
Watson, which launched the era of ‘cognitive computing’ and is driving radical
change in medical research, teaching, practice and personalizing the service
experience in finance and retail operations. See our earlier blog or IBM Power Systems[3] website for more information.
In
short, Balog, and IBM, believe they will win with Power Systems built as open,
standards-based, feature rich platforms matched to the workload. They are designed
to leverage the latest technologies to solve pressing problems and making it
easier for users to develop solutions. They
offer end-to-end industry-specific solutions with exceptional business and
predictive analytics. They will grow cognitive computing. Finally, they foster
open, collaborative development through the OpenPOWER™ Consortium.
If the
strategy and tactics sound vaguely familiar, it is. Doug admits his strategy is
styled on what System z accomplished by aggressively promoting targeted solutions
and Linux on z. We think this is a very reasonable strategy. After all, IBM has
a good track record with this platform. Power is a major part of the very well
received PureSystems family. Power technology is at the heart of cognitive
computing in Watson – which is creating and expanding markets already.
The big question: Will Linux-based Power Systems turn the
tide in servers? Market signals aren’t encouraging today. No other vendor has
tried as aggressive a commitment. You can’t force a customer to buy something. But,
offered the right products, they’ll buy. IBM’s focus on speeding and
facilitating value realization sounds right. There was a lot of skepticism
about Linux on the mainframe, both about the platform and the Linux strategy. IBM
won big there. We think Doug has a better than even chance of succeeding.
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