HP: Customers, partners are fleeing IBM x86 since Lenovo System x bid HP claims it has bagged hundreds of IBM x86 customers worldwide following Lenovo's $2.3bn bid for Big Blue's System x. The Channel cannot verify whether this is linked to the pending sale of IBM's volume server business, or just par for the course in a competitive environment, but HP is keen to talk up the effects of the deal …
They are all as bad as one another. IBM support is now farmed out to Egypt in a lot of cases. Next it will be Syria because nothing like a good civil war to drive down wages right? (It is IBM think) I have an open case and the people I now deal with make the Indian support staff look bloody good. (This is on a contract worth several million a year in support.)
However HP at the end of the day, are on the way out. Few large orgs are buying anywhere near the same amount of tin as even five years ago and a lot are now going to cloud. Cloud providers don't use HP AFAIK.
HP used to be a byword for good quality hardware and decent service, but on my sample size, it seems to be getting worse, the parts getting shittier and the service, well...
Then there is the "entitlement" to HP BIOS software, ie the BIOS. I for one won't buy HP personally ever again.
The Chinese ODMs will massacre HP. I mean what value add to HP really bring to the party?
"However HP at the end of the day, are on the way out."
IBM are a lot further down the same road though. Their midrange boat anchor business is being slaughtered by Wintel and the billions that IBM have thown into Linux hasn't done much to stem the tide.
Given the choice between HP and IBM for x64 server hardware, it's usually a no brainer to buy HP. I don't expect that to change anytime soon with the purchase by Lenovo.
There has no doubt been an impact on IBM's business since the deal was announced. Ultimately - even if Lenovo take the flag and run with it - people and organisation don't want to make a long term investment (3-5 years for the average server) in a dying brand. I can't remember the last time anyone asked me to price an IBM machine for them.
In other news: winning the deal doesn't specify that the customer was a previous IBM house. It could have been IBM prospecting into HP turf and the home team winning, or they both could have been playing in someone elses' garden (Dell or Cisco, for example).
Resellers and vendors bid for business against each other all the time. 'Winning against IBM' is not the same as 'taking IBM customers'. It's common practice to bid even if you know you don't have a chance, just to keep your name in the game. Happens all the time.
Lenovo has been just barely treading water for a decade. Yet somehow they have enough cash to buy both IBM's x86 server business and Motorola Mobility from Google at the same time. Is it just me, or is there some magic accounting going on?
The combined price of the two is more than 12 years of Lenovo's profits at the current rate.
Almost all the channel partners are planning their transition to Lenovo for their server provision. That includes key HP and Dell partners. A genuine 100% channel model is very attractive to the channel - doesn't take a genius to work it out. Perhaps Dell and HP will wake up to it at some point in the not too distant future. They keep saying it and never deliver it.
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