Mainframe No Monopoly, Silly! Says IBM

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Trashing the recently released report sponsored by Openmainframe.org, Big Blue says that systems based on Wintel and other distributed platforms actually dominate the market, pose a threat to the mainframe segment.

As we reported earlier, the The Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) in its study on The Issues of Competition in Mainframe and Associated Services in India had claimed that IBM mainframe posed a threat to the inclusive growth of the IT in India. Professor Rajat Kathuria, who had spearheaded the study, sponsored by Openmainframe.org had said that the proprietary nature of IBM\'s systems and closed standards posed a threat to interoperability of systems. He even went on to explain that this proprietary nature of the operating systems running the IBM mainframes also meant that the clients have to cede some power over data to the company, which can pose a big business threat.


Reiterating this, Kathuria said to IT VAR News, We have shown what reality is and Industry demands unbundling of software and underlining hardware. We know IBM will not take this initiative so we proceeding through election commission of India. We want to create aw

areness among consumers.


But this has raised the heckled of IBM, which owns the lion\'s share of the server infrastructure market - about 50 percent. The company has hit back and called the report silly and without basis. The company statement said IBM servers face vigorous competition. In fact, only a decade ago, the IBM mainframe was on the verge of extinction because of competition from Wintel and other distributed platforms that still heavily dominate the market. But by investing billions of dollars in research and development, IBM improved the mainframe platform and enhanced its competitiveness.


In fact the company spokesperson actually came out and accused the report to be a paid for study by its competitors. The person said,\"The research agency is not independent source. It is incredible. Openmainframe.org is bought and paid for by Microsoft and other IBM competitors, so its hardly surprising that it would be making an anti-IBM argument. This r

eport has no credibility. It is interesting to note that at site of openmainframe.org, special thanks have been given to Microsoft, T3, and other for their support.


The report also highlighted IBMs revenue in mainframe business. IBMs India-specific revenue is estimated at Rs 57.83 trillion from domestic business for Fiscal 2009, up from Rs 42.42 trillion in Fiscal 2008 and Rs 33.80 trillion in Fiscal 2007. Whereas IBM denied commenting on how authentic these figures are.The statement came from IBM in media said,\" The accusations in this report are not being driven by the interests of clients, but rather by some of IBMs competitors. To call the IBM mainframe a \'monopoly\' is silly.IBM servers face vigorous competition.IBMs System z servers constitute less than 10 percent of all server revenue and 0.03 percent of total server shipments.In fact, only a decade ago, the IBM mainframe was on the verge of extinction because of competition from Wintel and other distributed p

latforms that still heavily dominate the market today.But by investing billions of dollars in research and development, IBM improved the mainframe platform and enhanced its competitiveness.


Even while doing so, IBM regularly has lowered the prices paid by clients for doing work on the mainframe.As a result, IBMs clients have benefited from innovation on the platform, and an alternative to Unix and Windows has been preserved.Continuous quality improvements and reduced prices are not what one would expect from a so-called monopoly.\"