IBM, Information Technology Company
IBM, frequently referred to as ‘Big Blue’, began in hardware and prospered in that business for decades, becoming the main supplier of Mainframe . Over the years, the company changed its hardware and services hardware approach. In the 2010, IBM further modified its business combination to emphasize fields such as cloud -based services and cognitive computing . IBM Watson, a cognitive system, has become the company’s high visibility offer in the last technology segment.
IBM, although he is still an important player of you, has lost the domain he enjoyed during the Mainframe era. The company, as of October 2016, had seen 18 consecutive quarters of reducing income in the midst of its transition to new technologies and business lines. IBM had an income in 2015 of $ 81.7 billion compared to $ 106.9 billion in 2011.
IBM History
In his early years, IBM was widely associated with the perforated card, invented by Herman Hollerith . Hollerith was part of the Computing-Tabulation-Regulation Company (CTR), when, in 1914, Thomas J. Watson joined the company as general manager. The CTR company itself had formed from three companies that sold supermarket scales, time registration devices and tabulators. In the next decades, Watson built the business machines of the future, now known as International Business Machines.
In 1964, IBM introduced what would become the de facto standard for commercial computers of large companies with their System / 360. The orders of the Mainframe computers line exceeded sales forecasts, and IBM received more than 1,000 orders within four weeks after the product announcement, according to the company. The system / 360 executed the operating system (SO) OS / 360, but a successor operating system, multiple virtual storage (MVS) became particularly influential.
MVS, which debuted in 1974, has been at the Center for the Mainframe Operating System Technology of IBM for more than 40 years. The operating system for the current generation of IBM, z / os generation, can track its lineage to MVS. Throughout the decades, IBM has tried to maintain compatibility forward as its Mainframe operating systems have evolved.
The popularity of System / 360 and later Mainframe models gave IBM a lasting advantage in the market, but the company faced several rivals in the mainframe space. AMDAHL CORP., Founded in 1970 by former IBM Engineer Gene Amdahl, it also emerged as a mainframe supplier. In addition, the so -called ‘bunch’ companies (Burroughs Corp., UNIVAC, NCR CORP., Data Corp control. and Honeywell) were active in the mainframe sector.
IBM also faced the challenge of the mini -momputers or medium range systems, which were less expensive than the mainframes and were aimed at small businesses or departments within large companies. Digital Equipment Corp. And its programmed data processor products also took off in the 1960s. The average range response of IBM, the system / 3, was launched in 1969. This hardware platform finally begat a series of IBM average range systems, including the system / 34, the system / 36, the system / 38 and the AS / 400 .
However, IBM was due to additional technological changes. In the early 1970s, the perforated card was gradually replaced by the interactive screen terminal, and especially by IBM 3270 . Personal computer science began to move forward with the arrival of Apple II in 1977, along with machines with similar Commodore International and Tandy Corp orientation.
In 1981, Big Blue became small with the launch of the IBM personal computer . The IBM PC architecture soon became the standard for commercial use, and numerous suppliers, including Compaq, soon entered the market with PC compatible with IBM, also known as PC clones . The IBM selection of the Microsoft Disco Operating System (MS-DOS) such as the IBM PC SO, and its subsequent adoption by PC suppliers compatible with IBM, led to Microsoft’s domain in the software marketFor PC.
At the end of the 1980s, IBM added another hardware platform to its product mix: UNIX work stations. The IBM RT system, eventually supplanted by the RS / 6000, was the company’s entry into the market, executing the UNIX IBM AIX implementation.
At the beginning of the 1990s, IBM central platforms included Aix, OS / 2 (the company’s attempt to distinguish themselves from PC clones manufacturers), MVS and OS / 400.
While industry observers questioned IBM’s Sovereit Platform Strategy, IBM took measures to restructure their operations, giving more autonomy to their various products divisions in an attempt to improve marketing time. However, the restructuring program, under the CEO and president of IBM, John Akers, hit the wall. The company announced a loss of $ 5 billion for the 1992 calendar year. The loss was partly attributed to the costs of the restructuring initiative, which included early retirement and the closure of production lines.
In the midst of the financial struggle, IBM began to enter IT services. The company captured a subcontracting contract for basin data centers with Eastman Kodak Co. In 1989. Two years later, IBM Global Services was launched as the focal point of Big Blue’s Ti Services Business.
The outsourcing of IT became an important element of the IBM Services Company, as well as the Management Consulting. IBM consolidated its role in the last service with its acquisition for $ 3.5 billion PricewaterhouseCooper management consulting branch, PWC Consulting, in 2002.
While it happens, IBM took advantage of management consulting ranks to direct the company, hiring Louis Gerstner, a former McKinsey & Co consultant. and president of RJR Nabisco, to become CEO of IBM in 1993. Under Gerstner, IBM continued its promotion impulse in addition to expanding its role in the software. In 1995, IBM acquired Lotus Development Corp., And then he merged with Tivoli Systems Inc. the next year.
While software and services grew in importance, IBM sought to get rid of some of its hardware operations. In 2005, under the IBM CEO, Sam Palmisano, who had previously directed IBM Global Services, the company sold its PC division to the Lenovo group. The PC division included the ThinkPad laptops line. At that time, the companies signed a strategic alliance in which IBM became the preferred service provider of Lenovo. Almost a decade later, IBM sold another hardware business to Lenovo: Big Blue’s X86 servers .
In the 2010s, IBM began to be refused as a cognitive solutions and cloud computing platform. Ginni Rometty, named CEO of IBM in 2011, emphasized a central group of strategic imperatives for IBM: analysis, cloud, mobility and security.
IBM products and services
Server hardware
Five decades since the launch of the IBM System / 360, the company continues to sell Mainframe class computers. IBM positions its Z Systems product line as business infrastructure for the cognitive business of its customers. IBM points to a range of solutions for its Z series products, which include analysis, blockchain, cloud and devotees .
Meanwhile, the company points its business servers Power Systems towards Big Data and Analysis applications. Power Systems executes the Aix and IBM I IBM operating systems, as well as Linux. In another wink to open source, IBM presented its Linuxone system as a hardware platform.
Storage
On the hardware side, IBM offers products that include its totally flash flashSystem, Storwize systems and other hybrid arrangements, storage area hardware fiber channel storage area, storage media and tape products. The company is promoting the storage defined by software with its Spectrum Storage suite and Cleversfefe object storage technology.
Software
The varied IBM software includes analytical offers such as IBM Cognos Analytics, IBM SPSS, IBM Maximo Asset Management and DB2 . Many of the IBM products in this field arrived through the acquisition: the company bought maximum in 2006, cognos in 2008 and SPSS in 2009.
IBM also provides IT infrastructure software, including its websit.
The company’s software line in the mobile and social space includes the IBM See Commercial Email offer and the IBM Notes collaboration product. In addition, IBM safety software includes MAAS360 for mobile devices and IBM Qradar Security Intelligence Platform, an event management product and security information .
IBM customers can acquire software licenses through Passport Advantage, the company’s licens program for larger companies, or Passport Advantage Express, a program designed for medium -sized companies. Meanwhile, Fix Central is an IBM support element that provides solutions and updates for software and operating systems of IBM customers. Central Fix also provides hardware support.
Cloud
IBM SmartCloud software and services offer began in 2011. That movement was followed in 2013 by the acquisition by IBM of Softlayer Technologies Inc., An infrastructure as a service provider . After that agreement, Smartcloud and Softlayer grouped into a cloud services division. Since then, however, IBM has merged its cloud services offers around its Bluemix platform as an offer of services . From the fall of 2016, Bluemix had incorporated the products and services in the softlayer cloud in a broader portfolio of infrastructure, platform and application services. The most integrated IBM cloud offer competes against rivals such as Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft.
Cognitive offerings
IBM Watson Supercomputer, which brings together artificial intelligence and analytical software, is the main cognitive computing offer of the company. A series of technologies and discrete products have emerged from the IBM cognitive computing system and their related research. Customers, for example, can use Watson API to integrate cognitive computing components into their applications. IBM also offers products with incorporated cognitive abilities. These offers include the IBM Watson and IBM Watson Analytics for social networks Internet platform for social networks. IBM has tried to take advantage of its cloud technology as it launches products related to Watson. Watson APIs, for example, are available through Bluemix.
Investigation and development
Thomas j. Watson JR., Who happened to his father as IBM CEO in 1956, placed the company on a research and development path. The Big Blue Research Center, launched in 1961, covers research laboratories at Yorktown Heights, NY and Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as a laboratory of industrial solutions in Hawthorne, NY the notable developments of the IBM Research Center include the invention ofDynamic random access memory and Fortran language . The most recent research efforts include blockchain, quantum computing and cognitive technology.
IBM also invests a lot in semiconductor research, as it investigates chips to support cloud computing and Big Data systems. But while Big Blue conducts research on silicon.
IBM (International Business Machines) is among the largest information technology companies in the world, offering a wide range of hardware, software and services offers.
IBM service units include Global Business Services, which houses Big Blue management consulting operations, and Global Technology Services, which provides mobility, networks, commercial continuity and outsourcing, among other services. Like other great IT services suppliers, in recent years, IBM has moved to buy companies that offer consulting and cloud implementation services. In 2016, for example, IBM bought Bluewolf, a Channel from Salesforce and cloud consultant. Bluewolf joined the practice of IBM interactive experience, which is part of Global Business Services. In 2015, IBM acquired Meteorix LLC, a workday services partner.
Leave feedback