IBM VP: Our Search Technology Is Better Than Google's

Page 1 of 2

IBM may be teaming up with Google on a joint initiative centered on highly scalable internet software application development, but IBM's top software sales executive says when all is said and done IBM has better technology, even search technology, than Google.

"Other than their search is something that is enviable, we have technology that we think is probably better but Google has just the dominant market share here," said Mike Borman, IBM vice president, worldwide sales for the IBM Software Group in a wide ranging 90 minute interview at the CMP XChange Conference in Miami, Fla. "But we want to use Google to the advantage that we can to sell our software to partner with us in certain areas that will advantage us in the marketplace."

Borman, who oversees worldwide software sales for IBM's $20 billion software business, said he even believes IBM has better search technology than Google. Some of the IBM search technology is not sold outright as a product "individually," he said but IBM has provided what he calls "some of our (search) algorythms from research" on a customer by customer basis integrated into world class solutions.

Borman made the comments the same day that the two technology powerhouses announced an initiative to improve what they called "computer science students' knowledge of highly parallel computing practices." It's all aimed at helping students and universities address "the emerging paradigm of large-scale distributed computing." The pact calls for the two companies to provide hardware, software and services to bolster university curricula. Colleges participating in a pilot effort include the University of Washington, Carnegie-Mellon University, MIT, Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Maryland.

Borman said there will likely be more Google IBM collaboration. He noted that one of IBM's "coolest announcements" was a move to drive instant messenger collaboration on everything from IBM's own Lotus Sametime to Google Talk to AOL Instant Messenger. "I think you'll see more of us collaborating with Google in those ways," he said.

Borman said he is confident that the IBM software has the best technology - bar none - given the computer giant's enterprise legacy. "Rather than compare some of the desktop technology or cool stuff you have to realize that businesses run their business based on IBM software," said Borman. "These businesses need the IBM software to be scalable and reliable."

Borman pointed out that some of the software business technology breakthroughs IBM is making, such as putting a technology wrapper around CICS so it can work in SOA environments, often doesn't get the attention it deserves. "That's not a big (news) flash as you say in the newspaper (business)," he said. "But guess what: it was very successful for us and for customers. Customers loved it because now they can take all that legacy code and keep using it."

Among the most notable recent IBM software achievments, Borman said, are DB2 Version 9.0 with XML capabilities and faster performance. "We are 18 months ahead of where Oracle is," he boasted. "That was just tremendous technology the DB2 team came out." Borman also cited WebSphere Process Server, a key product to integrate applications; Tivoli Storage Manager, Notes 8.0 and Sametime 7.5. "We have great software," said Borman. "We have 3,000 products and it is tough to keep every single one of them on the front mind of business partners. What I've encouraged business partners to do is: focus."

NEXT: What Solution Providers Think

1 | 2 | Next >>

Tweet

   

More Applications & OS