IBM Slashes Some Power7 Processor Prices
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The new year is well under way and IBM, as we report elsewhere in this issue of The Four Hundred, has closed out last year and is facing whatever new challenges it has. The big one is that new Opteron 6200 processors from Advanced Micro Devices and Sparc T4 processors from Oracle are out, and the even bigger problem is that the Xeon E5 processors from Intel are shipping under NDA to selected customers and are expected to launch this quarter. READ MORE >

Power Systems Eating Into Mainframe Sales
by Timothy Prickett Morgan

IBM closed out 2011 on a somewhat somber note in terms of hardware sales, but not because of the Power Systems line. That's good news for any customer that relies on Power Systems, and so is the fact that Big Blue is stealing away business from Unix rivals Hewlett-Packard and Oracle, and so is IBM's frank admission that Power7-based machines are also taking share away from System z mainframes in the enterprise segment of the server racket. READ MORE >

IBM Unveils New Social Media Solutions at Lotusphere
by Alex Woodie

IBM is moving its LotusLive hosting service for Notes onto its SmartCloud infrastructure and calling it SmartCloud for Social Business, the company announced at last week's Lotusphere. The company also unveiled several new software and services that will be sold under the SC4SB umbrella, including new releases of its flagship social networking platform IBM Connections; an embeddable version of the Lotus Notes social networking features; a new productivity suite called IBM Docs; and new clients for Blackberrys and the new Windows Phone. READ MORE >

As I See It: The Second Concern
by Victor Rozek

Recently, I contacted a number of colleagues around the country to find out what concerns occupy their quiet moments. Not surprisingly, at the top of the list was keeping or, in one case, finding a job. Most reported working for years with no prospect of a raise, and several whose spouses were no longer employed had been forced to make lifestyle adjustments. But close behind employment was the desire to maintain or find affordable healthcare. READ MORE >