Thread regarding IBM layoffs

It feels like IBM is getting ready to become a slow motion Train Wreck

It's happened to many a powerful company before. They miss a few product cycles. They miss an industry transition and all of a sudden they become a slow motion train wreck. Nokia did this when they missed the smart phone revolution. RIM/Blackberry did this for a similar reason. And other strong and mighty corporations bit the dust due to forgetting to or not being able to innovate and reinvent themselves.

Now we have IBM jettisoning their main GTS division and, it appears, starting to do some serious restructuring and downsizing with their GBS division. What's left after they tear apart the company looking for the magic formula for growth? Is IBM going to be a niche provider of hybrid cloud services? What will be their flagship product? It appears to be Red Hat. But the competition is ramping up on this area of the market and Red Hat is not a significant revenue source for a company the size of IBM anyway. Who is IBM after they dismantle their former self? Why should the market even care that IBM is in business now that they are dismantling themselves?

Could the once mighty IBM, once, arguably, the most powerful IT company in the world be turning into a slow motion train wreck?

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @OP+17GEwvqP
Comment! It's anonymous!

6 replies (most recent on top)

Anxiously waiting to see this head on collision

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @7spn+17GEwvqP

IBM been a slow motion Train Wreck ever since Sam promised $20 return to investors before retiring and never reached the $20 return Just a lot of
RA'ing and offshoring the jobs

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @2huk+17GEwvqP

Agree with 1kpi based on first hand experience.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @1qbq+17GEwvqP

Not true any more.

Cloud vendors have figured out mainframe has tremendous potential revenue opp. for them. They are now in the process of unlocking it to move it over to their platform. That is, they are actively migrating mainframe legacy code to Java and their platform. I am speaking from first hand experience. Mainframe base has already started to shrink and the trend will only acceleate once the Cloud vendors gain mainframe code migration experience.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @1kpi+17GEwvqP

You are starting to figure it out IBM has a monopoly in mainframe, and they are finally building a cloud strategy around it. Redhat is just an extension of that as it compliments the mainframe SW stack. It may not be what “other” cloud providers consider cloud, but who cares if folks are willing to pay for IBM’s expertise. As far as the mainframe going away. NOT going to happen!!! Everyone has said mainframe is going away since 1980. It’s still here, and will continue to be here. Why? Because it works. Mainframe has 70 years of investment in its legacy code, and most shops if they have not switched by now, have adopted a “let’s just live with it”, and modernize the presentation layer. Most new applications are certainly modern, but they have ties to the legacy (systems of record) which keeps feeding the machine. Learn to live with it, because what’s the definition of a legacy system? One that works

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @1ijv+17GEwvqP

You said it. A "niche provider" serving existing mainframe customers, with a marketing veneer called "hybrid cloud". It will be smaller but profitable for a while, until the mainframe customer base disappears.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @dix+17GEwvqP

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