At IBM's October 2007 Analyst Briefing it became clear that the company will be one of the most vociferous marketers of green computing, virtualization and data center consolidation. In an already crowded field, it simply makes too much sense for IBM not to lead the charge as the firm's core competencies in data center best practices line up very well with these initiatives. Consider the statistics provided at the meeting:
Comparing 1997 resources to today, IBM has taken the following actions internally:
- Reduced the number of CIO's from 128 to 1
- Cut host data centers from 155 to 7
- Reduced the number of Web hosting centers from 80 to 5
- Reduced the number of enterprise networks from 31 to 1
- Rationalized applications from 15,000 down to 4,700
IBM will be flashing these statistics at every customer briefing along with impressive customer ROI metrics that demonstrate less-than-one-year paybacks on several relatively cost effective data center and green initiatives. Further, IBM will be touting the fact that it has 3,000 specialists dedicated to server and storage virtualization within the company. The IBM marketing machine will be advertising successes in Fortune, Forbes, BusinessWeek and the trade pubs and senior executives will become more aware of these issues.
Action Item: Be prepared for the conversation with senior level management about a new wave of IT infrastructure rationalization. Anticipate the phone call and demonstrate motion in these areas. Engage IBM where end-to-end system and data center expertise is fundamental to understanding the opportunities but do your own ROI assessments to complement IBM's.
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