News

IBM x-86 Server Line Sale to Lenovo is Win-Win For All

In a deal that is a win-win for all concerned, Chinese PC maker, Lenovo Group Ltd. will purchase IBM’s low-end, commodity x 86 Server portfolios, related resources and operations for $2.3 billion, which includes $2.07 billion cash with the remainder in stocks.

The sale of the IBM x86 servers has been rumored for well over a year as Big Blue grappled with continuing pressure on its low-margin x86 servers. In its most recently completed fourth quarter, IBM’s revenue dropped 5.5% to $27.7 billion. Slumping hardware sales was the chief culprit for the revenue miss. IBM’s x86 server sales declined by 16% in the fourth fiscal quarter alone, following seven straight quarterly revenue declines.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lenovo will purchase:

IBM’s System x servers
The BladeCenter and Flex System blade servers and switches
The x86-based Flex integrated infrastructure systems
The NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers and associated software
IBM’s blade networking and maintenance operations

…

IBM x-86 Server Line Sale to Lenovo is Win-Win For AllRead More »

IBM x-86 Server Line Sale to Lenovo is Win-Win For All Read More »

IBM Watson Takes Cognitive Computing to the Head of the Class

Pardon the pun, but there’s nothing elementary about IBM’s newly formed, New York City-based Watson Business Unit (BU).

IBM is committing $1 billion and 2,000 employees, as well as its considerable research and development (R&D) talents and marketing muscle to Watson, thus putting the full weight of its global technology and services brand behind the newly formed BU and initiative.

IBM CEO Virginia Rometty said that Michael Rhodin, most recently SVP of IBM’s Software Solutions Group, will take charge of the Watson Group. According to Rometty, the company established Watson as a separate BU based on the strong demand for cognitive computing. The IBM Watson Group will develop cloud-based technologies that can power services for businesses, industries and consumers.

Rometty also said the new IBM Watson Group notably integrates design, services, core functions, technologies, and a fully formed ecosystem which includes a design lab as well as hundreds of outside external partner applicants, foundations and advisors. All of these elements are crucial if Watson is to succeed. …

IBM Watson Takes Cognitive Computing to the Head of the ClassRead More »

IBM Watson Takes Cognitive Computing to the Head of the Class Read More »

IBM Wins $150M EU Contract for 6,100 System x and Flex System Servers

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By Laura DiDio

IBM and Business Partner Bechtle AG just won a $150 million contract to supply the European Commission with 6,100 System x and Flex Systems for office and application servers and supporting services.
This is the largest contract ever awarded by the EC, which is the executive body of the European Union institutions and agencies in the EC’s 27 member states.

The contract is significant for both the size of the award and the fact that IBM and Bechtle AG beat out tough competitors including rivals Bull, Dell, Fujitsu and Hewlett-Packard for the multi-tier/year contract. That they did so is a testament to the EC’s confidence in the performance, reliability and scalability of IBM System x and Flex Systems server line and IBM and Bechtle AG’s ability to deliver top notch technical service and support.

The $150 million contract also underscores IBM’s continued commitment to and investment in the Intel Corp. based x86 platform. Rumors have been swirling for some time that IBM might sell off the System x server line. Given the EC contract win, coupled with several other recent big System x wins and potential System x server deals in the offing, a sale seems unlikely.

In addition, IBM is readying a new line of System x servers for release in early 2014 based on Intel’s forthcoming “Ivy Bridge” EX processor. Sources within IBM said that Big Blue will bolster the considerable performance and reliability features of the upcoming Intel EX processor with significant add-on capabilities that go beyond Intel’s own server specifications. …

IBM Wins $150M EU Contract for 6,100 System x and Flex System ServersRead More »

IBM Wins $150M EU Contract for 6,100 System x and Flex System Servers Read More »

Rise in Security Threats Increases Risk, Pressures on IT and Business

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By Laura DiDio

An overwhelming 80% of companies say that “end user carelessness” constitutes the biggest security threat to their organizations, surpassing the ever-present peril posed by malware or organized hacker attacks .

Additionally, 65% of businesses do not calculate the cost or business impact of security-related downtime and over 30% of firms are unable to detect or defend against a security breach in a timely manner when one does occur.

Those are among the top findings of the ITIC/KnowBe4 “2013 – 2014 Security Deployment Trends Survey.” The joint independent Web-based survey polled 500 organizations during October/November 2013 on the leading security threats and challenges facing their firms and their top priorities over the next 12 to 18 months. In order to maintain objectivity, ITIC and KnowBe4 accepted NO vendor sponsorship and none of the respondents received any remuneration for participating.

The data indicates that IT departments are hard pressed to stay abreast of myriad security issues which represent just one portion of their overall job responsibilities. Some 44% of survey respondents said their IT departments and security professionals spend less than 20% of their time on daily operational security. Another 32% said they devote 20% to 40% of their time on security. Only 20% of participants dedicate a significant portion of their daily and weekly administrative activities to securing their systems and networks. …

Rise in Security Threats Increases Risk, Pressures on IT and BusinessRead More »

Rise in Security Threats Increases Risk, Pressures on IT and Business Read More »

Does Infrastructure Really Matter When it Comes to IT Security?

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By Laura DiDio

Yes, infrastructure absolutely does matter and has a profound and immediate impact on enterprise security.

Server hardware (and the server operating systems and applications that run on them) form the bedrock upon which the performance, reliability and functionality of the entire infrastructure rests. Just as you wouldn’t want to build a house on quicksand, you don’t want your infrastructure to be shaky or suspect: it will undermine security, network operations, negatively impact revenue, raise the risk of litigation and potentially cause your firm to lose business.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. These days, many if not most corporate enterprises have extranets to facilitate commerce and communications amongst their customers, business partners and suppliers. Any weak link in infrastructure security has the potential to become a gaping hole, allowing a security breach to extend beyond the confines of the corporate network and extranet. Security breaches can infect and invade other networks with astounding rapidity.

Increasingly, aging and inadequate infrastructure adversely impacts enterprise security. …

Does Infrastructure Really Matter When it Comes to IT Security?Read More »

Does Infrastructure Really Matter When it Comes to IT Security? Read More »

National Advertising Division Strikes Oracle Out Over Misleading IBM Ads; Refers Case to FTC

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By Laura DiDio

It’s Strike Three for Oracle in its ongoing argument with the Better Business Bureau’s National Advertising Division (NAD) and IBM over a series of 2012 ads in which Oracle claimed its servers were much less expensive and outperformed Big Blue’s machines.

NAD, the investigative unit of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation, has now forwarded the complaints onto the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC is a government regulatory agency and it wields much more authority than the BBB or NAD.

At this point, Oracle would do well to give up gracefully. But given the history between these two long standing rivals, that is unlikely to happen.

The dispute revolves around three separate Oracle advertising campaigns in 2012, which ran in major publications including The Wall Street Journal. According to the NAD’s latest press release each of Oracle’s ads featured “an overbroad and unsupported comparison between one Oracle product and one IBM product.” Each campaign was reviewed by NAD following complaints lodged by IBM, which alleged Oracle’s claims were specious and hyperbolic. The NAD reviewed all of the complaints and agreed with IBM and recommended that Oracle discontinue making misleading claims in its advertisements. …

National Advertising Division Strikes Oracle Out Over Misleading IBM Ads; Refers Case to FTCRead More »

National Advertising Division Strikes Oracle Out Over Misleading IBM Ads; Refers Case to FTC Read More »

One Hour of Downtime Costs > $100K For 95% of Enterprises

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By Laura DiDio

Over 95% of large enterprises with more than 1000 employees say that on average, a single hour of downtime per year costs their company over $100,000, over 50% say the cost exceeds $300,000 and one in 10 indicate hourly downtime costs their firms $1 million or more annually.

Moreover, for a select three percent of organizations, whose businesses are based on high level data transactions, like banks and stock exchanges, online retail sales or even utility firms, losses may be calculated in millions of dollars per minute.

Those are the results of ITIC’s 2013-2014 Technology Trends and Deployment Survey, an independent Web-based survey which polled over 600 organizations in May/June 2013. All categories of businesses were represented in the survey respondent pool: 37% were small/midsized (SMB) firms with up to 200 users; 28% came from the small/midsized (SME) enterprise sector with 201 to 1,000 users and 35% were large enterprises with over 1,000 users. …

One Hour of Downtime Costs > $100K For 95% of EnterprisesRead More »

One Hour of Downtime Costs > $100K For 95% of Enterprises Read More »

IBM Intros New Power Servers for SMBs, Enterprises

Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By Laura DiDio

IBM’s latest generation of Power Systems introduced this week are all about “power,” emphasizing:

The power to support compute intensive workloads
The power to deliver business analytics
The power to drive business efficiencies through server consolidation
The power to conserve resources by consolidating floor space and lowering energy consumption
The power to cut costs by reducing the number of licensing core requirements
The power to leverage new product features and capabilities that simplify the IT experience

IBM’s new Power enterprise and entry servers also align with the company’s strategy to address organizations’ need to support compute-intensive workloads and more complex application environments, which include physical, virtual, cloud and mobile environments.

The new solutions – which support IBM’s AIX, and IBM i operating systems, as well as Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SuSE Linux Enterprise operating system environments – use the same underlying advanced processor technology that powers its Watson supercomputer, the system so famously displayed in 2011 when it trumped Jeopardy! grand champions during a nationally televised match. …

IBM Intros New Power Servers for SMBs, EnterprisesRead More »

IBM Intros New Power Servers for SMBs, Enterprises Read More »

IBM Powers Up New PowerLinux Products, Strategy

2010, Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By Laura DiDio

IBM this week unveiled its latest generation of industry standard Linux-only servers optimized for its Power architecture along with a new strategy targeting specific x86 applications and workloads.

IBM has been a longtime Linux proponent, supporting industry standard distributions like Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Linux Enterprise – on its Power Systems line for the last 12 years. This week’s announcement reaffirms Big Blue’s commitment to Linux and broadens its scope with offerings designed to drive more growth for the Power platform in the lucrative x86 arena. IBM will fuel this growth via its mantra, “Tuned to the task,” which emphasizes delivering higher quality and superior economics than rivals.

According to Scott Handy, vice president of IBM’s PowerLinux Strategy and Business Development, “This is an extension to our overall Power strategy to address the Linux x86 space and drive more growth for our Power Systems servers.” …

IBM Powers Up New PowerLinux Products, StrategyRead More »

IBM Powers Up New PowerLinux Products, Strategy Read More »

National Advertising Council Tells Oracle to Discontinue Misleading IBM Ads

2012, Laura's Insights ITIC Blog, News / By Laura DiDio

The always heated ongoing rivalry between Oracle and IBM, just got more contentious, with the recent news that the National Advertising Division (NAD) has called out Oracle for publishing misleading ads in The Wall Street Journal and The Economist claiming Oracle’s T4-4 server is 2x faster and 66% cheaper than IBM’s comparable P795 server.

NAD, a division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, based in New York City recommended that Oracle discontinue “certain comparative performance and pricing claims” in the national newspaper ads and on the www.Oracle.com website. Specifically, the NAD took exception to Oracle advertisements claim that “Oracle’s SPARC SuperCluster T4-4 system retails for $1.2 million whereas IBM’s P795 high end server costs $4.5 million – an improbable $3.3 million price discrepancy.

The NAD functions as an objective and impartial self-regulatory forum for the advertising industry. In its official determination, the NAD took pains to remain objective. It noted that both the advertiser (Oracle) and the challenger (IBM) produce high quality computer systems. …

National Advertising Council Tells Oracle to Discontinue Misleading IBM AdsRead More »

National Advertising Council Tells Oracle to Discontinue Misleading IBM Ads Read More »

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