LinuxPlanet: IBM’s eServer Strategy Strong on Linux and UNIX

“‘So the first question for Michos has to be, with all
of these different offerings, not all of them Linux, how does IBM
balance the sales of its servers? The answer was textbook customer
service 101: by focusing on the customer’s needs. But the added
twist was that operating systems do not necessarily play a factor
in what the customer really needs.

“”We have very focused strategies,’ Michos explained, ‘We look
at the workloads of the businesses we deal with and determine
what’s the best solution for them.’ As Michos went on, it became
clear that in IBM’s worldview, the operating system, and even the
hardware, was not the main touchpoint of selling to a customer.

“‘To get to this point, IBM examined the market and determined
who was buying Linux and why. From there, they could determine how
to tailor their product offerings to meet those needs. Since they
had Linux working on all of their platforms, they could concentrate
on hardware configurations more than operating systems.’

“And there the first draft of the article ended. Already, the
implication that IBM was not focusing on any one operating system
in its server strategy was alluded. The actual quote would have
come later in the story.

“Now the rest of the piece will be written, in the context of a
reporter who has 20-20 hindsight and a interviewed Michos for whom
the SCO lawsuit was still in the future. The slant of the story, as
one might guess, will take a different course than it would have
had the article been finished on March 6…”

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