IBM launched a significant campaign, called LinuxONE, to build on its Linux program for IBM z Systems on Monday, Aug. 17, 2015. While Linux has long been shipping on IBM mainframes – and virtualized Linux has been running on z Systems processors for years – the new offerings are designed to make z Systems more attractive to the widest group of Linux developers worldwide. The announcement, made at LinuxCon in Portland, OR, expands the $1 billion bet IBM made on Linux several years ago – investing more deeply in Linux for z Systems and contributing several key IBM technologies to the Linux open-source community.
Microsoft is changing itself from the tried and true model of selling software product licenses, to a cloud company. While, this is a significant change in delivery for Microsoft, it is very clear that the company is committed to the existing channel strategy including single and two tier distribution. It is doubling down on this commitment with a new Cloud Service Provider (CSP) program that includes clear definitions and requirements for each segment and, additional channel categories. Microsoft hopes to attract new partners while helping existing partners make the business transformation to cloud.
Microsoft is joining a relatively crowded community of software companies also moving to a cloud model. As the market changes and evolves, many partners in Microsoft’s ecosystem are caught in the middle as the market and customers switch to cloud. By ripping off the band-aid rather than prolonging the transformation to cloud services, Microsoft and its partners will ultimately become more competitive and better positioned to meet customers’ emerging needs.
The business press continues to misrepresent EMC as just a storage company. This is doing injustice to the dynamic company EMC Corporation is today.
