Two weeks ago, IBM made its usual grand entrance at the LinuxWorld conference and exposition by bringing several of its largest servers running everything from firewalls to full-blown ERP systems on Linux. In the process, the computer giant made some important points about the role of Linux in its overall strategy for mid-market organizations.
For the second LinuxWorld in a row, IBM showcased its largest iSeries server to demonstrate how it could flexibly manage multiple Linux applications in logical partitions. There was also a zSeries 800 Dedicated Linux Server, two large pSeries boxes, and a 48-node cluster of xSeries servers. On the software side, IBM demonstrated Linux-based products from all four of its software families--WebSphere, DB2, Lotus, and Tivoli--to promote the idea that it has an integrated, end-to-end set of middleware and management tools for the operating system.
What I found most interesting about this LinuxWorld, however, was IBM's choice of the executive to send as its keynote speaker: Doug Elix, the General Manager of IBM Global Services (IGS). As you might know, IGS is the division that is in charge of IBM's computing utility (or as IBM likes to call them, e-business on demand) services. As such, I hoped that Elix would speak about the role of Linux in a future where most companies rely on utilities for much of their IT capacity. Fortunately, he did not disappoint me. Of the four reasons Elix cited as why IGS is committed to Linux, the last one was that it is "...becoming the operating system of choice for next-generation computing models, like the grid."
IBM believes that a new computing model is emerging in which utilities will deliver commercial IT services over the Internet via Web services technologies. As I explained in Part 3 of this article series, however, this Internet-based model has a long way to go before it is as fast, reliable, and manageable as a private network. That's why IBM is promoting grid technologies that can, as Elix put it, transform the Internet from "a passive library...into a living, interactive, interconnected, virtual supercomputer."
To transform something as massive as the Internet into the medium for computing utilities, however, IBM needs help from a huge and highly enthusiastic developer community. Since the Internet depends on open standards for its very existence, that developer community must also adhere to open standards. Clearly, the Linux community is the perfect fit for this task, and that is one of the most important reasons why IBM is courting that community.
While Elix and the rest of IBM's senior executive team would never say this in public, the company intends to dominate the utility computing model like Microsoft has dominated the client/server model. For years, IBM has been studying Microsoft to understand how it came to lead the client/server revolution and, in the process, replaced IBM as the standard bearer for an entire generation of IT technologies. It now understands that to successfully dominate a computing paradigm, an IT vendor must follow Microsoft's example by doing two things:
- Owning or having significant control over the standards for an entire software stack, including the operating system, network services, systems management, middleware, database, and development tools
- Gaining the fervent support of a massive developer community that continually builds on the stack
With these objectives in mind, IBM went out to control a software stack and recruit a developer community. It knew that it would have to base its stack on widely accepted standards if it was to recruit a large developer community, so it embraced Java and won over the developer community in the process. Then, it invested heavily in Linux. In the process, it has won significant control over one thing that the Java community couldn't give it: an operating system. Now, IBM is working with the Java and Linux communities to build an end-to-end, grid-enabled software stack on Linux that is peppered with IBM products and technologies. Such a stack would rival that of Microsoft's in its integration, its support for Web services, and the power of its development tools. At the same time, it could be more scalable and cost-effective than anything Microsoft offers.
In short, IBM has embraced Linux not because it wants to hurt Microsoft but because it wants to become the next Microsoft or, in its thinking, return to being the dominant IT vendor that it was in the in 1960s and 1970s. For IBM, Linux represents two things: a vital piece in a grid-ready software stack and a development community that can help it build that stack. When the utility computing wave hits the market, it intends to be the vendor with the ideal hardware and software platform to ride that wave. As that wave is building, IBM has no problem supporting the Windows stack with its servers and middleware. Indeed, by doing so, IBM believes it will be in the best position to migrate customers from Windows to its Linux-based stack when they decide to do so. The computer giant is content to wait for that to happen, for it believes that computing trends are on its side. Just as Microsoft took computing workloads away from IBM one Windows server at a time, IBM it will take those workloads back one Linux server partition at a time.
Does this mean that IBM intends to move all of its mid-market customers to Linux as part of its long-term strategy? Not at all. IBM will continue to support its existing operating systems by enabling them to deliver Web services and participate in computing grids. However, it will position its middleware running on Linux as the ideal platform for workloads that leverage the utility computing model. If it succeeds in that positioning, chances are good that the utilities that provide your company with IT capacity will be running on Linux servers and software that have IBM written all over them.
Lee Kroon is a Senior Industry Analyst for Andrews Consulting Group, a firm that helps mid-sized companies manage business transformation through technology. You can reach him at
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