IBM sets sights on EMC

Big Blue has replied to its rival's storage strategy with a new plan of its own.

In a classic case of life imitating art, IBM storage chief Linda Sanford called an emergency meeting with the firm's technical and research teams in response to a potential crisis of company strategy.

Just as in the IBM TV adverts, an anxious chief executive (in this case, Sam Palmisano) stalked the floor, seeking assurance that his technical team could respond to a brilliant plan devised by a top-drawer strategist.

Except that in this case, the "millions of dollars of pure strategic thinking" came from rival EMC, which has set the pace in thought leadership in the storage industry.

Naturally, the meeting turned out quite differently to the one in the advert. If Palmisano had asked whether the company could respond, given its current technology, none of his technical staff would have been stupid enough to say no.

On 23 April, IBM unveiled its new storage virtualisation plans, aiming to reply to EMC's storage automation and management strategy.

Confused? You will be

It seems that the firm is drawing on some of the components of its StorageTank virtualisation project, attempting to eliminate the confusion of activity within IBM, where software groups, such as Tivoli and the Storage System Group (SSG), seem to be in competition.

At best, this is duplication of effort; at worst, it is counter-productive. It makes it difficult to get a clear idea of where IBM is going with its storage strategy.

If Sanford is to reposition IBM's storage strategy, she needs to co-ordinate its efforts more efficiently. Two IBM events on consecutive days in April didn't do much to inspire confidence that a coherent strategy is in place.

One day, in London, IBM was announcing new products and a simplified portfolio for its Tivoli systems management product line. The next, in Mainz, Germany, SSG was hinting at a new set of products for storage virtualisation.

The fact that neither camp was in any way aware of what the other was doing, or how their products would work together, does not inspire confidence in a company that markets itself on its ability to offer a consistent and joined-up set of products.

That is all about to change, promised Kathy Smith, IBM's worldwide vice president of storage solutions. Mike Zisman, the new general manager of SSG's software group, will have responsibility for any software projects that are strategic to SSG.

One careful owner

This is the climax of a power struggle that has gone on for a year. Most importantly, StorageTank is now under SSG ownership, where previously it had been associated with Tivoli.

StorageTank was first unveiled in 2000 as a file system for heterogeneous storage infrastructure management and virtualisation. Last week, Big Blue finally announced that the software would be released in 2003.

IBM has filled the gap by sourcing virtualisation technology from DataCore, whose SANsymphony software is one of the few available offerings.

But EMC's AutoIS storage management initiative has clearly rattled IBM, according to IDC analyst Zarah Damji. Indeed, IBM's executives spoke of little else at the launch of the IBM Total Storage Executive Briefing Centre in Mainz.

Denise Buonaiuto, vice president of business partner sales, used all of her time explaining IBM's anti-EMC storage strategy.

"We are taking market share from EMC," she said. "We planned to steal two per cent, but in the end we got six per cent, all at the expense of EMC. We are now number two in disk storage, number two in storage area networks and third in network attached storage."

IBM gaining market share could be good news for resellers. These days, 55 per cent of IBM's storage turnover comes through the channel, a 20 per cent rise on the figure in 2000.

This is thought to be a result of initiatives like 'You Pass We Pay', under which resellers were given a rebate on training once they had gained IBM accreditation.

More recently, IBM sponsored half the salary of anyone hired by a reseller to sell and install IBM storage in a scheme called 'The 50/50 Project'.

These have helped generate revenue growth for IBM and its channel, although some believe that the firm's organisational problems are hampering these efforts.

Mike Zisman was appointed as head of SSG in January, with orders to bring StorageTank to market. Whether he does this with the aid of DataCore is another question.

SUMMARY

• IBM has set out its new storage virtualisation vision, with which it hopes to seize EMC's market share.
• IBM is attempting to put organisational difficulties behind it and establish a coherent strategy.
• The firm will focus on its StorageTank virtualisation project, and expects to release the software in 2003.