Everyone knows that IBM has been having a terrible time competing in the public cloud/hyperscaler market. It would be a stretch to think their revenues in this specific public cloud marketplace are even a fraction of the $24 billion claimed annual cloud revenue. How can IBM say they have $24 billion in Cloud revenues? Have they reclassifed all their legacy managed services as cloud services? Is everything in an IBM managed data center now considered cloud? It seems like this $ 24 billion Cloud revenue is suspect. Why doesn't IBM call out their real public cloud revenues instead of trying to fool everyone into thinking they have such large "cloud" operation by redefining what is cloud services? Why isn't Wall Street asking these hard questions?
8 replies (most recent on top)
Smoke and mirrors. The IBM way.
All those servers GTS runs for other companies (in their original data centers)... that counts as hybrid cloud revenue.
Really, who gives a c-ap about Cloud Revenue going up? At the end of the day the TOTAL revenue still goes down every year... Once day IBM will claim that total revenue is ALL CLOUD... yet the TOTAL revenue will be in the range of 20-40 Billion... current revenue is about 77 Billion.
How does that make IBM a winner?
The reason the cloud number is inflated is because all internal usage for cloud is counted as revenue. Back in the System X days we could buy servers at cost with a minimal mva but now in the days of cloud the price we get is like what we offer to a mid range customer. There are customers that get a better price for Softlayer cloud computing than internal teams.
They don't break out the number, so the revenue could be associated with anything. Say legacy software for example.
How can a car dealership offer a $1,000 on a pile of metal you trade-in?
AK is "dressing the the old girl for a big date", no doubt.
For him, like an IBM executives, it is all about maximizing is compensation while he is at IBM.
He was the SVP of Cloud & Cognitive for years... he never showed any results.
IBM has never made a secret that they count their cloud revenue differently vs the hyperscalers. Just google cloud revenue and you will find plenty of data. AK is counting on the decision makers of the fortune 1000 (think Z) to give him all of the cloud revenue when he makes the case to outsource the Z data. It’s not a bad strategy if your legacy is built on Z. Use Monopoly Z to catalyze your Commodity Hybrid cloud. Want to bet Google, and Aliyun have taken notice? Aliyun is at a disadvantage due to being off shore. Google on the other hand? The real question is AK charting a new strategic course for IBM, or is he dressing the old girl up for a big date