IBM Inks $115 Million Flex System Deal With EU
December 16, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan
|
I have been saying for a while that anything that helps the Power Systems line get stronger helps the IBM i platform live longer. I have a new phrase for you. Anything that helps the Flex Systems converged boxes sell helps IBM i as well. With IBM putting money and mouth behind its Flex Systems platform, and Big Blue needing to stay in the X86 system racket to be a relevant system supplier, all of IBM’s customers need for the Flex Systems to compete and win deals in the market. It is with this in mind that we tell you about a $115 million deal that IBM and its business partner Bechtle AG, have won a competitive deal against Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Fujitsu, and Bull to upgrade the systems that run the European Commission. IBM says that the X86 workloads in use by the EC will gradually be moved over to a mix of Flex System and System x iron over the next four years. These systems are in use by more than 52 European institutions, agencies, and bodies that coordinate the politics and policies of the 27 member nations of the European Union. The biggies are the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice, and Europol, which is the EU’s law enforcement agency. Over the four year span of the deal, the 50 different types of workloads, which include database, networking and communication, email, ERP, and disaster recovery applications running on a combination of Windows and Linux (sometimes running on VMware hypervisors), will be moved off the current iron. All told, the deal should account for around 6,100 server nodes. So far, IBM and Bechtle have put $2.6 million of equipment and services into the field. The contract has a two year term with a possible two year extension to reach the full server and revenue level, and includes up to 45,000 man-days of professional services. Maintenance and installation services are also part of the contract. It is not clear if the EU has any IBM i servers at press time, but it is hard to believe that it does not. RELATED STORIES The Sales Pitch For The PureFlex For IBM i Bundle IBM Wraps Up New PureFlex For IBM i Bundle IBM Rolls Out PureFlex-IBM i Bundle With Decent Discounts Power System Tweaks Loom As IBM Offers 25th Anniversary Edition Iron IBM i 7.1 TR6 Updated, Licenses Less Restrictive, And i 6.1.1 Ends On Power7+ Invader II: New Power7+ Machines Take On Entry X86 Iron IBM Beefs Up The Power7+ Midrange With Double-Whammy Sockets Pondering Possibilities With More Power7+ Machines Impending Surprise! Power7+ Chips Launched In Flex System p260 Servers IBM Offers PureFlex Power-X86 Deal Down Under IBM Punts New PureFlex Racks, Offers PDU Deal Power7+ Launches In Multi-Chassis Power 770+ And 780+ Systems IBM Rounds Out Flex Systems With Xeon E5 Iron IBM Tweaks Flex Prices, Offers Flex Services IBM Beats Out Cisco For Modular Server Deal A Closer Look At The Flex System Iron IBM Launches Hybrid, Flexible Systems Into The Data Center
|
