LV 1871 Uses IBM Virtualisation For Consolidation, Cost Savings And Productivity Improvement

LV 1871 And IBM Virtualisation Highlights Q211

• LV 1871 is a medium sized mutual insurer which has consolidated, improved services and reduced costs through advanced virtualisation
• IBM has simplified the way it talks about virtualisation, outlining a series of small to large options with associated benefits
• Claims advantages in the number and cost of virtual machines running on its x86 and RISC servers
• Has learnt from decades of experience in virtualisation from mainframe, through Unix to x86 and Cloud
• Believes IBM will be a fierce competitor with the likes of Dell and HP as users invest in virtualisation and Cloud

IBM’s Revenues Grow 7% In Q410 – Maintains Great Profitability Despite Acquisitions

IBM Q410 Highlights

• revenuues up 7% to $29 billion
• maintains high profitability
• System z revenues grow 69%
• many Cloud Computing announcements
• acquisitions account for $5.9 billion in 2010
• Watson challenges Jeopardy! champions

IBM announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2010 last week. As usual we thought it would give us an opportunity of looking at the company’s success and challenges in a rapidly changing market.

World ITC 2009 Market Share And Forecast – EMEA Weak, Double Dip Coming

ITCandor 2009 Market Share And Forecast Highlights

• The Credit Crunch led to an unprecedented fall in ITC spending beginning in Q4 2008
• A fall in microprocessor sales preceded the overall market decline – something important to remember for next time
• Many vendors experienced their strongest ever quarterly revenues in Q4 2009
• A number of vendors grow their revenues by more than 30% in Q4 2009
• Asia Pacific has performed worst of the regions during the recession
• EMEA business, although shallower in 2009, has shown no real signs of improvement in Q3 or Q4 2009
• ITCandor predicts a ‘double dip’, or W-shaped forecast for ITC revenues in 2010
• Samsung led the $1.1T ITC hardware market in 2009 with a 8.3% share
• IBM led the $1.4T IT Service market in 2009 with a 4.1% share
• AT&T led the $3.0T Telecom Service market in 2009 with a 2.7%
• Microsoft led the $643B Software market in 2009 with a 4.3% share

Fujitsu Technology Solutions Strategy Offers Cloud Computing And Dynamic Infrastructures

FTS Visit 09 Highlights

• The strategy is based on moving to offering busines and infrastructure service and Cloud Computing
• FTS has taken over from FCS but has not merged with Fujitsu Services
• FTS has engaged in major restructuring – especially in hiring services staff
• The Augsburg plant will shift in status away from manufacturing towards data centre hosting
• The newly announce global alliance with NetApp is the first Tight Alliance, but is pre-dated by close relationships with other vendors
• As yet there is no ‘One Fujitsu’ for European Enterprise customers

IBM’s Q109 Results – The Benefits Of Big Customers and Long Contracts

IBM posted an 11% decline in quarterly revenues (Q109 compared with Q108), achieving $21.7B. While for some this would seem disappointing, but for me it demonstrates a comparatively strong position in the teeth of the gathering storm of the current downturn. In addition IBM’s net income stood at $2.2B, down just 1% on the previous year.
When looking at its business by the age-old divisions of hardware, software and services it may be a surprise to many the extent to which it succeeded in driving the ratios towards the latter two classes. I remember well the days in the 80s and 90s when IBMers dreamt of pushing hardware below 50% of revenues. Well (believe it or not) in Q109 hardware was just 16% according to my calculations. See Figure 1 for a picture of IBM’s revenues by category and quarter from 2003 until Q109.