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Microsoft Goes Head-to-Head With IBM
conq writes "BusinessWeek has a piece on Microsoft's latest announcements that it is going after large-business computing, a realm that IBM currently has a stronghold on." From the article: "In both cases, the company has fashioned 'enterprise' versions of the products with additional security and collaboration-enabling features for sale to large businesses. Microsoft has spent $20 billion over the past three years on these upgrades, and Ballmer says it will spend $500 million over the next year marketing them to corporations. 'We're unlocking the next wave of growth for Microsoft,' Ballmer predicted during a press conference after his speech." We've previously discussed Microsoft's plans for IBM.
Wouldn't that require an operating system that didn't suck?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Ok, they threw $20 billion at it and will throw another $500 million at it. But what it is is a mature market, wherein customers have grown weary of the old business model of turning over buckets of money for software and support. Many big buyers are moving along on old, unsupported versions of Office, which they are loathe to upgrade for no reason other than to buy a pile of features they're not convinced they need. Usually the push for upgrades comes from some brash executive who thinks by the seat of his/her pants that it's about time they got into the 21st century (whatever the hell that is really supposed to mean) just before they, themselves pack it in and move along to their next rung up the ladder (with a new line for their resumee: Modernized infrastructure)
While I was a bit of an IBM hater, back in the 80's, for the attitude their sales people conveyed, I do believe IBM is now a far better company, much wiser and behind the winning hand -- Open Source. Their time in the trenches will serve them well as a the cocky crew from Redmond attempt to strut in like they own the house.
Considering Microsoft's track record, particularly in the press with all the vulnerabilites, I think they've got a tough sell. Some will be low-hanging fruit, easy to pluck, but others will be much harder to reach. It will be interesting to see how much further.
Personally, I'm already advising our shop to dump Microsoft. We simply can't afford them anymore.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
$20 Billion bozo. With a "B". $20 billion, $500 million.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
IBM backed the "Netscape" antitrust case the government won against Microsoft in the 1990s. That decision didn't protect consumers from Microsoft's monopoly abuse so well, but it did protect IBM's Lotus/Notes product line from Outlook/Exchange taking over the Internet. Let's see how well either of them fare, without a Republican government to protect Microsoft and with a real competition between them keeping them too busy to crush the smaller players entering the groupware market, especially on Linux servers. Interoperability is the most likely winner in a multilateral vendor competition.
--
make install -not war
This won't work until Microsoft has completely changed Windows to be Unix-like. They are working on it. With each release, they learn their lessons and add backwards implementations of Unix innovations. As long as they continue down that path, they might someday be able to take over the big iron market. But they're not quite there yet.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
I thought they tried this a few years ago with Unisys. Long story short, it was supposed to be a 32-processor version of Windows on Unisys iron. AFAIK it went nowhere. (This was about the time that Unisys was pitching connecting web servers running on mainframes to the Internet.)
..er, no - thats Billion! (with a B)
But yes, with your keen eye to detail you should have gone into advertising. Not so much an emphasis on things like 'facts' in that industry.
Starsucks
They have an iPod killer.
They have a Google killer.
They have a Java killer.
They have an IBM killer.
Microsoft has a killer for everything!
Dubya should hire Microsoft to develop a terrorist killer! War on Terror would be victorious!
Any sympathy I might have had towards IBM in this confrontation vanished upon reaching the word "Lotus". Save me, Microsoft!!!
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
Please wait for your airline reservation while critical update download completes.
...I say, bring it on, Billy Boy!
What, Windows doesn't run on mainframes? So sorry, let's talk again when you have at least one heavy-duty operating sytem (like z/OS or Linux). Not to mention the applications to run on it.
How's that for a marketing slogan, Mr. Ballmer?
And I'll even sell it to you for only $100 Million.
(That's less than your current yearly office furniture budget...)
For servers, Windows is a poor system (it is for desktops too, but that is another thing). Most server application / services install themselves everywhere in the system and updates things in the OS/Windows folder (this is particularly true for Microsofts own products). For this reason, if you want stable operations you put just one, or a few server products on each server. Combining development/test/production on the same machine is impossible. This is partly a Windows problem - partly a problem about how applications are built for Windows - both things are equally bad. Who wants to VMWare everything just to not have thousands of servers more or less doing nothing but hosting an OS and a single service?
Oooh, they implemented OLE in Outlook! How 1995 of them.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
From personal experience working with a large data warehousing company, the anti-M$ 'attitude' is the norm. As my boss once put it:
If it's development, we run Solaris, if it's serving, we run Linux, if it's graphics, we run Mac, and if its the sales guy's laptop, we run Windows."
These old-school guys love their unix. I cant see this happening any time soon.
From the article: Microsoft argues that by integrating those user-oriented software packages thoroughly with back-end programs for data storage, communications, and business-process management, it puts companies' ordinary employees, rather than the geeks, at the center of the computing world. "Our innovations facilitate the power of people" in businesses, he said.
It's true that MS is taking a completely different approach from IBM. MS espouses off-the-shelf software products (theirs of course) glued together by the customer's own employees. IBM espouses an army of consultants armed with a collection of applications and CDs packed full of open source, writing your company's custom business software.
Now which approach do you think will win? What does history tell us? Personally, I think things in computerdom always trend towards off-the-shelf standardization. the reasons for this are obvious. There is someone to call when there's a problem. The cost typically drops as volumes are high. And the learning curve is lower because people already are familiar with the building blocks. I can't think of any examples where customization is a longterm solution to a problem. This is why I think MS has a good chance of success here.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
Windows for mainframes.... Virus infections at the speed of light!
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
You do realize that in some spaces, such as application servers, IBM can't even win in a fair fight until they start *giving away free consulting* from IBM Global Services in order to push the adoption of their software, right?
As for mainframes... I don't know who is investing in new mainframes. All of my customers (government & financial) seem to be going with clusters of blade servers.
IBM has a good story because they do have their hands in every kind of technology, from processors and hardware to operating systems, open source, and enterprise software... but in the enterprise space, the story isn't about the software, it's about IBM pushing consulting.
So don't underestimate Microsoft. And don't think they are the only thorn in IBM's side. :-)
'We're unlocking the next wave of growth for Microsoft,' Ballmer predicted during a press conference after his speech.
Microsoft getting bigger? I only have one word for that:
Tetsuooooooooo!
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
$20 Billion bozo.
Is that the sequel to Million Dollar Baby?
This guy's the limit!
I'm not a Troll, it's reverse psychology.
They are going after IBM yet their real competition is Google in web services, Linux on servers, and Apple on the desktop and multimedia.
Could this just be a $500M ploy to make people think they aren't paying attention?
I remember these guys. Wasn't it them who said they were going to build a desktop operating system to beat OS/2? Then they were going to build a word processor to beat Word Perfect, then a spreadsheet to knock Lotus 123 off its perch, then they were going to build a database that was cheaper and easier to maintain than Oracle. At one point they even said they getting into games machines.
The Roman Empire was done in not by an equal country, but by small bands of invading hordes. And perhaps the rules of political empires apply to technology empires, too.
Businesses are like people. Each one is unique and different, each one has specific needs, has specific goals, and the route through life is a little bit different for each one. On one hand, it makes sense for Microsoft to go after the big money that exists in the enterprise market; there is a lot of money to be made there. On the other hand when you go to an enterprise and offer them something, they won't usually take it straight off of the rack, they will want it tailored to meet their specific needs. Companies like IBM and Oracle seem to understand this far better than I expect a company like Microsoft will.
I'm not saying that I am against Microsoft entering the market, competition is usually good. What I am saying is that I think Microsoft will have to learn a lesson or two in order to actually compete. They won't be able to get away with delivering a product out of the box and then providing only a minimal level of support for it. Microsoft will have to play ball like the other big boys and learn to accept some of their rules. I expect that there will be some resistance to this from their end but, they will end up between a rock and a hardplace on the this because their enterprise level customers will simply demand it or look elsewhere.
Microsoft argues that by integrating those user-oriented software packages thoroughly with back-end programs for data storage, communications, and business-process management, it puts companies' ordinary employees, rather than the geeks, at the center of the computing world. "Our innovations facilitate the power of people" in businesses, he said.
Microsoft has to sell software to those geeks in the back office. If the sales pitch is to take the effort out of the back room and dump it onto the employees, how are the geeks (who make the decisions on IT) going to keep their jobs with this decision? Even if they did opt for this, they don't want users building complicated ill-thought-out custom crap and then calling IT for support when the $h|t don't work.
Microsofts customer is not a desktop user - it's the IT manager.
Microsoft is a software company. IBM is a hardware/service company that happens to sell some software.
Microsoft thinks they understand the "business enterprise" computer market, but it's just the bottom, low-end stuff compared to IBM.
And don't even bother comparing Microsoft customer "service" to IBM customer service, there's just no comparison.
One thing to remember when thinking about what Microsoft does is how important their stock price is to them. (Think of all the compensation in the form of options or stock grants.) It's important to them to keep the perception that Microsoft is a "growth" company. Here's why.
The price/earnings (P/E) ratio for a common stock is a measure of the earnings growth expected by the market: other things equal, a higher P/E corresponds to higher expected growth. At this writing, Microsoft stock (MSFT) is trading at $27.58, which is a P/E ratio of 22.8x the latest 12 months' earnings. IBM is trading at $83.12, which is 17.1x trailing 12-month earnings. If MSFT were to trade at the same P/E as IBM (meaning that it was expected to grow about as fast as IBM), its stock price would be $20.68, a decline of almost 25%. I think that might result in a few unhappy campers in Redmond.
Microsoft's practice of consistently announcing fabulous new products that generally turn up later and with less capability than they were touted with is entirely consistent with their need to keep the stock price up.
This is nothing but retribution against IBM for it's walk on the Linux side.
Though, of course, the same could already be said of Microsoft's generous donations to SCO at the time SCO's frivolous lawsuit began against IBM..
Which leads me to something interesting. Microsoft quietly gives a large deal of money to a group who seems to have completely devoted their entire business 100% to legally punishing IBM for making Linux part of their business strategy-- a group which seems to be violating at least the Lanham Act in the process of doing so. Shortly after (a couple years) Microsoft announces plans to attack IBM head on in the market where Linux is relevant to IBM's business strategy. This means that Microsoft performed direct and possibly illegal actions to damage IBM's ability to compete in this market as a prelude to entering the market themselves, just a few short years after losing (but not being sentenced or in any way punished from) a major antitrust case.
I wonder whether the courts will or can pick up on that.. there have been subpeonas related to Microsoft's involvement in SCO funding but it is unclear whether it will actually come out in the court case.
That's how I still view Microsoft. They know how to build a Desktop OS, so is their Enterprise system going to be 10,000 Desktops?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
The biggest story on Microsoft is how they have lost the server market.
Microsoft has had, for over ten years, a monopoly on the desktop. A generation has grown up thinking that Microsoft is synonymous with computing. Microsoft also has billions and billions of dollars to spend on research and advertising. With all of its name recognition and money, Microsoft has not been able to build a serious name for itself in the server market.
This is the type of statement that will generate a lot of comments on both sides: Unix people who say that any version of Windows couldn't be considered seriously at all for a server, and Windows people who will point out XP and Windows Server are now stable and secure enough for mainstream usage.
But the fact still remains, that if you check out netcraft, Microsoft products seem to place a far third behind commercial Unixes and Linux. For a company with Microsoft's name recognition and research resources to not be a dominant player in the server market after 30 years of business and over ten years of market dominance is a staggering fact in itself.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
But only slightly less well known, is never go head to head with IBM.
Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...
pantent portfolios.
I think IBM will win on that front.
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
While they are touting (as always these days it seems) security, it is going to be a BIG hurdle for MS to clear. Many of the larger institutions, such as banks and gov't agencies, using high end IBM apps and hardware are truly paranoid, and IBM has done a good job accommodating that (ever hear of anyone cracking a RACF? I haven't). MS has a huge stigma to overcome before it can really crack that market.
And all this talk of integration makes me nervous. Now we have a set of pipes from Outlook to Office to SQL Server to AD to IIS etc.? Not my idea of a good time trying to secure all the possible attack vectors.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
... a tearful Sam Palmisano announced that IBM was immediately directing its vast army of Indian developers to begin rewriting zOS as a .Net client.
"When I woke up this morning and saw my kid's pony's severed head in bed next to me, I just knew it was Balmer. When I went down for breakfast and found all my coffee dumped on the floor, I knew he meant business."
At least he didn't threaten with chairs and profanity.
Seriously, after IBM exited the desktop PC hardware business, any usefulness they had to Microsoft vanished, and they became just another competitor -- one with considerable corporate influence and a bigger source of Java legitimacy in the corporate world than Sun (who is on a short leash to Microsoft in any event), AND the biggest legitimizer of Linux for corporate use around.
The miracle is that Balmer wasn't throwing chairs and spewing profanities during the interview.
Forgive me for not knowing exactly which Netcraft survey you're referencing, but from my own personal experience it's not that way at all.
Sure, the majority of *websites* are served by Linux/Unix machines. No doubt there.
But if you're talking about typical business servers (ie: print servers, file servers, application servers, email/calendaring servers, collaboration servers, intranet servers, etc) I think you would find most of them are running Microsoft.
This is especially true if you look at the small/mid-sized market. Around here, I can't think of a single business that is running a non-MS server somewhere in their operation -- except for highly specialized services needed in the financal or health industries -- and even then it's one machine among a dozen MS servers.
-David
Judging from the headline, /. could have defied space-time to bring us a 20 year old dupe.