After combining its System i and System p servers, IBM is reaching out to ISVs to make it worthwhile for smaller organizations.IBM wants a larger community using and supporting its newly minted Power System and expects to build it by reaching out to small business customers in specific vertical markets and the ISVs that develop applications for this sector.
To get there, IBM plans to expand its Vertical Industry Program of 750 ISVs and to have more ISVs write more applications for IBM’s Power Systems, its BladeCenter S servers and the company’s System Storage products, said Mark Shearer, vice president of strategy IBM’s Business Systems Division. IBM is also looking to offer small businesses complete packages that integrate applications with its server, storage and networking products and make those packages easier to use for companies with limited IT staffs.
The new outreach also focuses on getting more local ISVs and channel partners to work with small businesses in order to meet the specific needs of each company. One example that IBM is highlighting is an Australian company that creates applications for farmers and other small businesses in that specific part of the country.
“These types of markets are pretty unique and they are just as sophisticated as a large enterprise, but they have limited IT staffs and they have a hard time integrating easily with the applications they get from their local business partners,” said Shearer, adding that IBM is working with more local ISVs to bridge that gap by creating applications that work across servers, storage and networking.
The push into the midmarket comes after IBM decided to combine its System i and System p servers into one offering—Power Systems—that are unified through common hardware architecture and now can use IBM’s Unix operating system, the new “i” OS and Linux.
For years System i has had a presence within the midmarket for companies that needed to run critical, back-end applications. When it announced that it would combine the two server lines into one, IBM signaled that it would continue to support older System i applications for some time in order to preserve its customers who rely on the hardware.
Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and Dell are already players in the space.
HP recently announced a number of low-cost servers specifically aimed at this market and has been pushing a new blade enclosure product—the BladeSystem c3000—that makes it easier for small businesses to deploy and use. HP and IBM control about 75 percent of the worldwide blade market and each is looking to expand its share of that market by reaching out to midmarket customers.
