System z figured prominently in IBM's 1Q2008 earnings presentation. You can find that presentation here:
http://www.ibm.com/investor/1q08/index.phtml Specifically, System z hardware revenues in Q1 increased 10% globally year-over-year and was the star hardware performer. The United States mainframe market was particularly strong. MIPS growth was well above the revenue growth, so customers are growing System z workloads aggressively. And IBM gained marketshare. The new System z10, available for 34 days during the quarter, was credited for this excellent performance. CFO Mark Loughridge highlighted some key customer wins during the earnings conference call, including an Egyptian telecommunications company implementing a System z-based data center with reduced energy consumption for its growing business. Loughridge said IBM expects System z growth to continue into the second quarter and second half. In many parts of the call Loughridge highlighted what seem to be long-term, secular trends concerning "green" data centers which take less space, require less energy, and have the most cost-efficient operations profile. Server demand is skewing heavily toward the most highly virtualized servers, of which the System z is the ultimate design. The low-end System x business was weak for the quarter, but BladeCenters, POWER6-based servers, System z, and high-end storage (particularly the DS8000 family) all performed. IBM's services businesses experienced strong demand for green data center design, installation, and operations. Customers are focusing on where they can reduce their costs soonest, and these areas are significant drivers. IBM does not break out System z software separately in its earnings report. Overall, Software Group reported 14% revenue growth. Information Management was the strongest brand, with a major contribution from Cognos during its first quarter as part of IBM. But all brands grew, with WebSphere growing at a whopping 20%. Loughridge said that IBM thinks Lotus gained marketshare. Lotus, unlike its competitors, takes full advantage of the most highly virtualized environments customers are implementing in their modern, green data centers. Weak spots were few in the quarter. In addition to low-end System x, the OEM Microelectronics business had a tough quarter. (This is IBM's business supplying integrated circuits to other companies.) Loughridge emphasized that this revenue line item does not include ICs supplied to IBM's own hardware businesses. Japan (total business) was up 11% in dollar terms but down 3% in yen terms, so IBM has more work to do in Japan. As a reminder, the views I express are solely my own. I do not speak for IBM. You should visit the Web site above if you want the official IBM view. - - - - - Timothy Sipples IBM Consulting Enterprise Software Architect Specializing in Software Architectures Related to System z Based in Tokyo, Serving IBM Japan and IBM Asia-Pacific E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
