They don't even count the latest ("secret") wave at all
https://www.ntd.com/us-layoffs-up-53-percent-in-september-from-previous-year_1020923.html
14 replies (most recent on top)
IBM has decided to partner with the big 3 vs compete with them
We had no choice and no chance, as Palmisano and Rometty completely missed the cloud.
IBM's partnerships are a drop in the bucket to the big 3.
Every cloud company defines their cloud revenue differently. Amazon defines their cloud revenue around first mover (essentially they are a commodity player). Microsoft defines their cloud revenue around SW monopoly products centered on Intel HW. Google seems to be trying to define their cloud revenue around small business solution running on Intel. IBM on the other hand is defining their cloud revenue around enterprise solutions running on enterprise HW. This is IBM exploiting their monopoly in enterprise. What’s interesting about IBM is they have completely switched their strategy in cloud from Softlayer (being an Intel commodity player) to exploiting what they do best (eg enterprise). NOTE Softlayer has morphed several times since its 2013 purchase.
First it was seen as an IBM entry into cloud to compete with Amazon
Second it morphed to ISV solutions after the 2014 selling of commodity Intel servers
Third it morphed to LINUX solutions with the 2019 purchase of Redhat
Fourth its slowly being phased out with IBM adopting in 2022 a purchase of innovation infrastructure SW strategy. (net net IBM only wants to invest money on enterprise solutions) The cloud commodity offerings profit margin doesn’t justify the commodity HW and people costs. IBM has decided to partner with the big 3 vs compete with them
https://www.philstar.com/business/2024/08/22/2379737/microsoft-tweaks-how-it-logs-cloud-revenue
"Microsoft on Wednesday lowered its cloud computing unit revenue forecast in a bookkeeping move, shifting money to its "productivity" software business.
The accounting change comes as investors are wary about whether the billions Microsoft and tech rivals are spending on artificial intelligence will help or hurt bottom lines."
Because IBM has more debt than cash, this is why we will never be competitive in cloud or AI or anything that requires deep pockets and loads of cash.
"Google’s Numbers Also Show Azure Had a Roughly $3 Billion Operating Loss"
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/21/google-leaked-doc-microsoft-azure-losing-money-on-29-bln-in-revenue.html
“ Microsoft loses 3 billion a year on "cloud" and Microsoft basically lies to investors by classifying more things as "cloud". Months ago it changed how it reports "cloud" to hide the losses.”
Is there a link to the source? This is big news if true.
Who cares, the blue economy is doing awesome ! Unemployment is at a historic low, there are tons of jobs out there ! forget IBM and just go get a better job.
The "cloud" market is a bubble and a trap. Unless they do price-hiking moves, like AWS did, it would just lose billions every year (like AWS did for years). According to Google, Microsoft loses 3 billion a year on "cloud" and Microsoft basically lies to investors by classifying more things as "cloud". Months ago it changed how it reports "cloud" to hide the losses.
That sounds real good in theory, but do you really see mainframes as a service-only offering? I know that has been IBM's dream ever since the invention of the mainframe (have customers rent time-share services on IBM-premised hardware without customer ownership), but I've never seen the company be completely successful at it.
I think a more realistic scenario would be IBM shrinking even further than it already has to handle legacy and extremely large enterprise customers. Infrastructure would sell as usual, software would sell as usual, and consulting would provide services as usual. The only caveat would be that the company would be much smaller and much more focused.
The remaining customer base would simply go elsewhere, for IBM would have nothing to offer them. ISVs would do everything they could to migrate customers off of IBM platforms.
The case can be made for IBM to absorb “enterprise” infrastructure (approx 35-40% of infrastructure) into consulting and offer it as a service. The rest of infrastructure could easily be partnered off. A win/win for the CFO
IBM As usual always late
Cisco and every other major cloud player is just throwing in the towel and exiting the public cloud market place. IBM did the same two weeks ago with the layoffs. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google (the big three) have won this space and are now pursuing all of the “other” also ran players via partnerships and front end marketing offers. The partnership offers play directly into IBM’s consulting divisions offerings, and indirectly into SW divisions unique SW distribution strategy. Infrastructure division has nothing to offer public cloud customers, and as such they will shed their public cloud customers to a partnership offer as it benefits IBM’s bottom line. First mover advantage(amazon) and SW monopoly offerings (Microsoft and Google) Trump the value IBM public cloud could offer and IBM has restructured appropriately pursuing the front end incentives offered via the big 3 vs investing in a commodity.
Cisco laid off 5,600 employees in August, not 56,000.
/cisco-systems is in deep trouble