Vision Granted Premiere BP Status, Hires Former IBM Exec

Corrected: July 25, 2006

by Alex Woodie

iSeries high availability solution provider Vision Solutions announced yesterday that it has been re-awarded premiere partner status with IBM. The Southern California company also named a former IBM exec to a newly created vice president position.

Vision Solutions, which is owned by the publicly traded, South African company Idion Technology, has been working with IBM to develop high availability solutions for the OS/400 platform for 16 years. During that time, the company has been involved in many programs with Big Blue, including the development of remote journaling, which has had a big impact on the OS/400 high availability market this decade.

Alan Arnold, president and COO of Vision Solutions, says the granting of premier partner status to Vision for 2006 highlights "a broad, mutually beneficial relationship" with IBM. "From development to marketing and sales, IBM and Vision Solutions collaborate and team worldwide to expand high availability in this market," he says.

Mark Shearer, general manager, IBM System i, explained his company's decision to grant Vision the highest status an IBM business partner can achieve. "Vision Solutions has once again achieved this status due, in part, to their worldwide customer support and powerful lineup of high availability solutions," Shearer says.

Meanwhile, Vision announced the appointment of Mads Toubro to the newly created position of vice president of IBM business development. Toubro was most recently in charge of IBM's OS/400 global business development partnership with Oracle. Before that, he held international sales, business development, and consulting positions at IBM.

"Mads' extensive experience within the IBM organization and with its partners make him ideally suited for this very strategic role," Arnold says.

This article has been corrected. While at IBM, Mads Toubro worked in business development with Oracle. He wasn't an Oracle employee. IT Jungle regrets the error.