IBM takes on Sun's server dominance Pt II
Published: 20 Mar 2001 09:52 GMT
Technology sharing also has boosted IBM's Intel server line.
"When we first came here, the Intel servers were big desktops. These are now small mainframes," said John Callies, general manager of IBM eServer appliances.
The earlier attitude to Intel servers at IBM was derisive, Callies said. Now, with advances such as 16-CPU Intel servers based on IBM's Summit supporting chips: "We're not a joke anymore."
But the Intel server business has been hampered by the numerous delays of Itanium, the first in Intel's line of more powerful 64-bit CPUs that the chipmaker hopes will displace competing CPUs from Sun, Compaq, SGI, HP and IBM.
"I'm disappointed that the benefits are going to come 24 months after we originally anticipated," Callies said.
Things should improve with the arrival of McKinley, Intel's second-generation 64-bit CPU. "You're going to see a completely different definition of what Intel servers are," Callies said.
It wasn't part of the initial plan, but an unexpected force arrived to inject energy into IBM's server overhaul: Linux. The operating system, though not the easy road to riches many startups had hoped, has shaken Microsoft out of its leisurely assault on Unix.
In early 1999, IBM merely announced its Intel servers would work with Linux, adding it to the stable of more than a dozen operating systems it already supported. Later, though, IBM's Linux love affair grew more serious. It decided to spread Linux to all four server lines and in December said it spent $1bn on Linux in 2000 and pledged to spend even more in 2001.
"It turns out Linux is the enabler that lets you [bring] applications into all these different environments," IBM's Zeitler said. Java had some promise for that job, too, and IBM is spreading Java across its server lines, but Big Blue wasn't comfortable with the degree of control inventor Sun has over Java.
"It was proprietary. It was controlled too tightly," Zeitler said.
IBM's strategy to push Linux across all four of the main server lines has helped unify IBM's server groups, Eunice said, by simplifying the use of higher-level software such as databases or the Websphere e-commerce package.
Perhaps more important, Linux has changed IBM's popularity among programmers and has raised the company's profile in a very similar way to what Sun accomplished with its Java software.
"As Goethe said, boldness has a magic to it," Eunice said. "The fact that they took this wild, completely committed swing at Linux -- I think that's very appealing to people. It says IBM is moving back to innovation. You can't buy that kind of positive feeling. Now it's Sun that's on the defensive about Linux."
Making Linux a priority on the mainframe was a great idea for customers that would like to split a single mainframe into hundreds of different virtual Linux computers, IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky said. Scandinavian telecommunications company Telia has taken that approach, and IBM is working with Princeton University and Japan's Keio University on programs that would give students their own piece of a mainframe, IBM has said.
"Having 1,500 Linux images on one [mainframe] is drastically cheaper to manage than 1,500 separate appliances," Kusnetzky said. "You could have $50m to $60m savings just on administrative staff, and that doesn't even include savings on floor space, air conditioning and maintenance."
Telia believes it is likely to have 2,000 to 3,000 small businesses using its services soon, said Illuminata analyst James Governor. "At that point, the economies of scale kick in, and the mainframe begins to make sense," he said.
"This is like the Holy Grail. This is the fabled new mainframe installation. Sun just got out-consolidated by IBM," he added, referring to the strategy Sun has used to sell its computers as a way to consolidate multitudes of Windows servers.
And Linux is a boost to IBM's business partners as well. Sytek Services, for example, has been selling IBM mainframes for 14 years -- but not to the 1,500 largest customers, which IBM keeps to itself. But when Linux is involved in the sale, Sytek "can sell to any company we want", said Sytek president Robert Kusche.
With IBM speaking so boldly about getting its act together, it's now time for the company to deliver the goods. Prognosticators are varied on how well Big Blue will do.
"I was very sceptical when they started," Eunice said, but the latter stages of IBM's server overhaul have come when IBM has been in a position of some strength. "They did not do it when they were in bad times. There was something here other than trying to mask bad results or a dismal future."
Change has to be deeper than just top server executives cooperating more, Henkel said, and he's not convinced of how deeply the new philosophy has penetrated IBM.
"Often, what you see in reality is that individual sales reps tend to default to the things they know best," Henkel said. "One of the challenges we see facing IBM is coordinating the messages among the different [server lines]. Things are never as simple as the cookbook."
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