6 ms·

Outside of big iron mainframe contracts for governments and banks who buys IBM these days? Excluding Red Hat, I would say they are largely managing themselves i

Outside of big iron mainframe contracts for governments and banks who buys IBM these days? Excluding Red Hat, I would say they are largely managing themselves into obsolescence.

scribu 6y ago
They do have IBM Watson, which has seen some uptake. [1] Not sure how much success they're having with their other cloud offerings, tho. [1]: https://enlyft.com/tech/products/ibm-watson https://enlyft.com/tech/products/ibm-watson Edit: Added source
- jbsimpson 6y ago
  What uptake is it having? I've only ever seen it used as a marketing device.
  - scribu 6y ago
    Added source to my initial comment.
    - chid 6y ago
      I doubt that this source is very accurate. The "List of the top companies using IBM Watson" is very odd. You get better information from their annual report.
- tyingq 6y ago
  From their Q4/2019 results: Revenue Highlights 4Q19 Total Revenue $21.8B Cloud & Cognitive Software $7.2B Global Business Services $4.2B Global Technology Services $6.9B Systems $3.0B So Watson is a portion of the "Cloud and Cognitive". Further down, it shows just the Cloud part: Cloud Revenue $6.8B $7.2B-$6.8B=$0.4B Not bad, but $400M in Watson "Cognitive" revenue isn't a notable portion of $21.8B.
- blantonl 6y ago
  IBM Watson has been an abject failure. I think IBM dumped a billion dollars into what were essentially 90% shell scripts sed'ing and awk'ing datasets.
- s1t5 6y ago
  Watson is just a brand prefix at this point - it goes in front of a number of products like Watson Studio, Watson Machine Learning, Watson Assistant and so on.
- Sylamore 6y ago
  The Watson groups, Watson health in particular but all of them in general, are some of the hardest hit groups in the last couple of RAs
reallydontask 6y ago
They do have, or used to, have a thriving? consultancy business. Plus I'm sure they do sell enterprise software at extortionate prices
timeSl 6y ago
> governments and banks A look at this (probably somewhat outdated) list (http://ibmmainframes.com/references/a41.html http://ibmmainframes.com/references/a41.html) seems to imply lots of companies with any kind of legacy software still do. Outside of mainframes, from my own experience, their Spectrum Scale/GPFS (parallel filesystem) is still the default buy in HPC. Not necc the _best_ choice, but still the one you wouldn't get fired for buying.
- mroche 6y ago
  My university’s cluster was running off of Spectrum Scale/GPFS with two sets of hardware: one from IBM the other DDN. Our half-PB expansion was purchased through DDN as their gear is more performant and not as expensive. One of the other admins was investigating the Lustre filesystem when I left.
pearjuice 6y ago
"who buys IBM these days" is answered by your question and it's a money printing machine which due to the contracts and how they position themselves, hardly ever jams. I've been in quite some government agencies over the world and you would be surprised with how many services and consulting they are hard-wired in organizations. IBM MQ, JBOSS, DB2, iSeries and so forth - if you let IBM run its course, it's like cancer spreading and at some time there's a point of no return (and this happened years ago mostly). Over time the sales people get so ingrained into the organization, it's just commonly accepted IBM has tentacles all around the org. and internal architects who try to reform quickly learn it is near impossible, even though there are cheaper alternatives available because of how slow and multi layered these bureaucracies are. Good luck trying to get all stakeholders around the table in time and in a justly manner without IBM sitting at the table grinning at their contracts. Once they are in, they won't let loose and maybe the glory days are over, they will continue to print money from this for years to come.
piokoch 6y ago
Almost nobody and it does not matter. IBM core business is not hardware anymore, they are consulting company like Accenture, McKinsey, Deloitte, etc [1]. The software & hardware company from the '80 and '90 died and filled for bankruptcy in 1999. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/274823/ibms-global-revenue-by-segment/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/274823/ibms-global-reven...
- octygen 6y ago
  I would caution comparing IBM to McKinsey. Very different DNA. Also, vs Accenture\Deloitte there is a big difference in that the two don't have their own products to push into boxes in component diagrams - IBM does and execs know it. This puts it very much at a disadvantage. Accenture, Deloitte & IBM are considered Tier 2. The BMW, Mercedes, Audi if you will. McKinsey, Bain, BCG are Tier 1. The Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin, etc. Tier 2 do their darndest to get into Tier 1 but the nature of the work is very different and the chasm between tiers is hard to cross just like in the car industry. Source: I've done extensive work in both tiers.
  - mensetmanusman 6y ago
    McKinsey just lost their schedule contracts with the feds: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition-policy/2020/05/gsa-terminates-mckinsey-co-s-schedule-contract/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition-policy/2020/05/gs...
  - Aeolun 6y ago
    Probably depends on location? I’ve never heard of Bain or BCG.
    - wegs 6y ago
      Nope. McKinsey, Bain, and BCG are the tier 1 everywhere. McKinsey is by far the biggest and best-known, but it's like MIT and Caltech. One is bigger, and one is smaller. The smaller is less well-known, but it's no worse. In this case, the smaller companies are, if anything, slightly higher-end (more boutique). I'm not actually sure the Tier 2 are trying to become Tier 1. It's like comparing Walmart to Tiffany & Co. They're very different business models, but upscale doesn't necessarily beat mass market.

Outside of big iron mainframe contracts for governments and banks who buys IBM these days? Excluding Red Hat, I would say they are largely managing themselves into obsolescence.

scribu 6y ago

They do have IBM Watson, which has seen some uptake. [1] Not sure how much success they're having with their other cloud offerings, tho. [1]: https://enlyft.com/tech/products/ibm-watson https://enlyft.com/tech/products/ibm-watson Edit: Added source

jbsimpson 6y ago
What uptake is it having? I've only ever seen it used as a marketing device.
- scribu 6y ago
  Added source to my initial comment.
  - chid 6y ago
    I doubt that this source is very accurate. The "List of the top companies using IBM Watson" is very odd. You get better information from their annual report.
tyingq 6y ago
From their Q4/2019 results: Revenue Highlights 4Q19 Total Revenue $21.8B Cloud & Cognitive Software $7.2B Global Business Services $4.2B Global Technology Services $6.9B Systems $3.0B So Watson is a portion of the "Cloud and Cognitive". Further down, it shows just the Cloud part: Cloud Revenue $6.8B $7.2B-$6.8B=$0.4B Not bad, but $400M in Watson "Cognitive" revenue isn't a notable portion of $21.8B.
blantonl 6y ago
IBM Watson has been an abject failure. I think IBM dumped a billion dollars into what were essentially 90% shell scripts sed'ing and awk'ing datasets.
s1t5 6y ago
Watson is just a brand prefix at this point - it goes in front of a number of products like Watson Studio, Watson Machine Learning, Watson Assistant and so on.
Sylamore 6y ago
The Watson groups, Watson health in particular but all of them in general, are some of the hardest hit groups in the last couple of RAs

reallydontask 6y ago

They do have, or used to, have a thriving? consultancy business. Plus I'm sure they do sell enterprise software at extortionate prices

timeSl 6y ago

> governments and banks A look at this (probably somewhat outdated) list (http://ibmmainframes.com/references/a41.html http://ibmmainframes.com/references/a41.html) seems to imply lots of companies with any kind of legacy software still do. Outside of mainframes, from my own experience, their Spectrum Scale/GPFS (parallel filesystem) is still the default buy in HPC. Not necc the _best_ choice, but still the one you wouldn't get fired for buying.

mroche 6y ago
My university’s cluster was running off of Spectrum Scale/GPFS with two sets of hardware: one from IBM the other DDN. Our half-PB expansion was purchased through DDN as their gear is more performant and not as expensive. One of the other admins was investigating the Lustre filesystem when I left.

pearjuice 6y ago

"who buys IBM these days" is answered by your question and it's a money printing machine which due to the contracts and how they position themselves, hardly ever jams. I've been in quite some government agencies over the world and you would be surprised with how many services and consulting they are hard-wired in organizations. IBM MQ, JBOSS, DB2, iSeries and so forth - if you let IBM run its course, it's like cancer spreading and at some time there's a point of no return (and this happened years ago mostly). Over time the sales people get so ingrained into the organization, it's just commonly accepted IBM has tentacles all around the org. and internal architects who try to reform quickly learn it is near impossible, even though there are cheaper alternatives available because of how slow and multi layered these bureaucracies are. Good luck trying to get all stakeholders around the table in time and in a justly manner without IBM sitting at the table grinning at their contracts. Once they are in, they won't let loose and maybe the glory days are over, they will continue to print money from this for years to come.

piokoch 6y ago

Almost nobody and it does not matter. IBM core business is not hardware anymore, they are consulting company like Accenture, McKinsey, Deloitte, etc [1]. The software & hardware company from the '80 and '90 died and filled for bankruptcy in 1999. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/274823/ibms-global-revenue-by-segment/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/274823/ibms-global-reven...

octygen 6y ago
I would caution comparing IBM to McKinsey. Very different DNA. Also, vs Accenture\Deloitte there is a big difference in that the two don't have their own products to push into boxes in component diagrams - IBM does and execs know it. This puts it very much at a disadvantage. Accenture, Deloitte & IBM are considered Tier 2. The BMW, Mercedes, Audi if you will. McKinsey, Bain, BCG are Tier 1. The Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin, etc. Tier 2 do their darndest to get into Tier 1 but the nature of the work is very different and the chasm between tiers is hard to cross just like in the car industry. Source: I've done extensive work in both tiers.
- mensetmanusman 6y ago
  McKinsey just lost their schedule contracts with the feds: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition-policy/2020/05/gsa-terminates-mckinsey-co-s-schedule-contract/ https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition-policy/2020/05/gs...
- Aeolun 6y ago
  Probably depends on location? I’ve never heard of Bain or BCG.
  - wegs 6y ago
    Nope. McKinsey, Bain, and BCG are the tier 1 everywhere. McKinsey is by far the biggest and best-known, but it's like MIT and Caltech. One is bigger, and one is smaller. The smaller is less well-known, but it's no worse. In this case, the smaller companies are, if anything, slightly higher-end (more boutique). I'm not actually sure the Tier 2 are trying to become Tier 1. It's like comparing Walmart to Tiffany & Co. They're very different business models, but upscale doesn't necessarily beat mass market.