But Wait, There's More

IBM Launches New iSeries Ad Campaigns

If you were not able to get to the COMMON iSeries user group meeting in Orlando, Fla., last week, you might not know that IBM has rolled out a new server advertising campaign that is aimed at taking out "server sprawl," and the iSeries is featuring prominently in that campaign.

At the COMMON opening session, Peter Bingaman, vice president of marketing for the iSeries Division, showed two short television spots that showed the antics of being in a data center that has been overrun by servers and how the iSeries, with its virtualization capabilities, can cut down on the number of servers in the data center and rein in costs and reduce complexity. I am not able to describe the spots accurately, because I was laughing too much, but I do recall that they ended with the phrase "aye yi yi," emphasizing the "i" in iSeries, which as we all know is short for Integration. Let's hope IBM actually runs these ads, and not some generic ad that touts IBM servers, in your town and mine. As a funny and unrelated aside, in medical parlance (according to my sister-in-law, the surgeon), this "aye yi yi" noise that people make is also known as the "tachy-i syndrome," and is an indicator of pain, like when you are getting stitches. Or, in the case of Microsoft and Intel, when you are looking at OS/400 shops ditching Windows and consolidating down to Linux partitions on an iSeries. Let's hope Microsoft and Intel start making those noises at the 200,000+ OS/400 shops in the world.

As part of the new ad campaign, IBM has launched a new Web site with the theme "Take Back Control with IBM Systems," which you can go to by clicking here. IBM also launched a companion print advertising campaign, and put a three-page spot in major business and trade publications, starting with the Wall Street Journal. You can see a PDF copy of the WSJ ad by clicking here.

A Short Meeting with Mark Shearer on Small iSeries Servers

Having just talked to iSeries general manager, Mark Shearer, a few weeks ago and listened to his presentation at the COMMON iSeries Town Hall meeting a week ago, I didn't think either he or I would have much to say to each other, particularly since IBM is in its quiet period as it winds down its third quarter. So I didn't schedule a meeting with him. But Shearer is a friendly guy and we did chat briefly between our meetings.

He told me that 10 different readers of The Four Hundred had personally sent him copies of my story two weeks ago for the development of the i5 System for SMB, an example of the kind of low-cost, low-end iSeries platform that I and many of you would love to see Big Blue put into the market. He remarked that such things do not go unnoticed, and that IBM was not only contemplating its options, but had scheduled a Birds of a Feather meeting at COMMON for people to come to so they could give IBM their ideas. He invited me to join that meeting, but I was swamped with things and explained that I had said all I could think of in the last few years to make the case for an entry, feeder system into the iSeries line. And, being somewhat hardheaded, I explained that the people at the Birds of a Feather meeting would undoubtedly say things that I have been saying, that the iSeries Division has some momentum on its side, a vast base of existing and potential SMB customers, and that Shearer and the iSeries team should just go for it.

Shearer looked at me calmly and was absolutely inscrutable. The IBM general managers have a lot of talents, and one of them is keeping their real thoughts to themselves. All I know for sure is that Shearer, to his great credit, understands what we are saying and is soliciting ideas actively from the iSeries community--and that is a big change. We'll see what happens, or doesn't happen. I think there are some interesting possibilities, and I also think that if customers don't lean on IBM, the business partners who are always leaning on Big Blue to keep the starting iSeries price high are going to win this argument yet again. IBM and its partners have to find a way to make, sell, and support an inexpensive iSeries, and do so at a profit. That might mean making them in China, by the way, which IBM is already doing for the Asia/Pacific market. Be careful what you are for.

Oracle Delivers New iSeries-JDE World Solution Edition Bundle

In the middle of July, IBM delivered an entry version of its so-called Solution Edition, which is a special discounted bundle of i5 hardware and software aimed specifically at customers who buy selected ERP software suites from OS/400-based application software developers. Back in August 2004, when the first Solution Edition bundle was launched on the i5 550 (a four-core server), PeopleSoft, which had control of the OneWorld and World software suites through its acquisition of JD Edwards, was first up with a bundle of its RPG-based World ERP suite on the i5 550 Solution Edition. And even though the JDE suite is now under control of Oracle, which ate PeopleSoft in January, the World software suite is still the first box on the smaller two-core i5 520 Solution Edition, and Oracle has also added the OneWorld suite as an option.

The i5 520 Solution Edition box costs $39,500 in a base configuration with i5/OS Enterprise Edition installed, which is about $10,000 off list price for a barebones i5 520 machine. It does not include memory or disk drives or the Oracle application software. For now, IBM and Oracle resellers in North America will sell this new i5 520 bundle; it is unclear when they will peddle it overseas. The i5 550 Solution Edition can also be configured with either the OneWorld and World software suites.

You can see my analysis of the i5 520 Solution Edition by clicking here.

COMMON to Host Spring Show in Balmy Minneapolis

The COMMON iSeries user group was planning on hosting its Spring 2006 meeting in New Orleans in March of next year. And if hurricane Katrina a month ago did not pretty much put an end to that idea, the impending impact of hurricane Rita while the Fall COMMON conference was wrapping up in Orlando certainly did. Even before Rita struck east Texas over the past weekend and caused a breech in the levees in New Orleans, causing flooding in that city again (as I write this over the weekend, the exact extent of the flooding is unknown because Rita is still wreaking havoc), the rumors at the event were that COMMON would switch its spring event back a week in March and a lot further north, to Minneapolis--the other end of the Mississippi River.

Those rumors turned out to be true, and COMMON will indeed host the spring event in Minneapolis from March 26 through 30. The last time COMMON was in that city, which is located pretty close to the iSeries labs and factory in Rochester, was in October 2001 in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Minneapolis is obviously a good place to host COMMON because of its proximity to the people and facilities in Rochester, Minn..

The recent COMMON's have had a theme, and this one will focus on service-oriented architecture (SOA) application development techniques. The other theme could be possible new i5 servers and the forthcoming i5/OS V5R4. These i5 announcements could be timed to COMMON, as is often the case. But IBM has its own product schedules and priorities and will obviously do what suits it best.

EXTOL Stands by New Orleans for Its User Conference in November 2006

iSeries B2B software maker EXTOL International has had to cancel its 2005 user conference in New Orleans this October, since that city will in no way be able to host a user conference within a month's time. EXTOL is not unique in this regard, as many conferences and trade shows in New Orleans have been canceled, and the Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street was unable to host the event this fall. However, EXTOL is maintaining its commitment to New Orleans for 2006, and has worked with the hotel to reschedule the 2006 user meeting for November 7 through 10.

"We are committed to delivering all the benefits of a user conference," explained Dennis Bonagura, EXTOL's president and chief operating officer. "This means a world-class facility that can accommodate a high-tech meeting, an extensive training curriculum, as well as a vibrant environment for those times when we are not in meetings. We are also committed to supporting the restoration of New Orleans as a business and tourist destination. We believe this decision will not only offer our customers an exciting destination and a great education program, but will also contribute to the rebuilding and redevelopment of one of the nation's great and important cities."

This is the kind of commitment that New Orleans is going to need if it hopes to rebuild after hurricane season is over.

IDC Says U.S. Companies Will Double Up on Offshoring by 2009

If you think that offshoring is just a passing fad, the analysts at IDC and Gartner sure do not think it is.

According to a report (that costs a stunning $8,000, mind you) from IDC, companies in the United States are expected to double their spending on offshored IT services contracts between 2004 and 2009, reaching $14.7 billion. That's a compound annual growth rate of 14.4 percent. Financial services companies are expected to account for 28.9 percent of the services offshoring spending by U.S.-based companies, with discrete manufacturers accounting for 17 percent. Retail and communications companies are also expected to be big spenders for offshoring of services. These projections are based on a survey that IDC did with 1,000 companies in the States.

Gartner also released its own offshoring report last week, and said that it expects that total worldwide offshoring from the developed economies in North America, Western Europe, and Japan will reach a combined $50 billion by 2007. Gartner says that India is the current dominant force in the offshoring business, with China coming in a distant second. That said, Gartner is recommending that customers give other offshoring locations a second thought, such as Latin America, Brazil, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Russia. Language requirements are also driving nearshore IT services projects, says Gartner, and with Ireland, Canada, Mexico, and parts of Africa expected to see growth.