IBM Revved Up For Showdown

Linux middleware

While Microsoft preached its enterprise message last week at Tech Ed, IBM unveiled a host of tools and programs including a grid computing-based virtual hardware loaner program that lets ISVs virtually test their applications online using IBM resources. The new program is part of a multibillion-dollar IBM offensive against Microsoft.

IBM Vice President Scott Hebner said the differences between the two vendors are "stark," noting that partners have a "lot to lose" if they commit to Microsoft's scattershot midmarket effort rather than IBM's sharply focused vertical industry go-to-market strategy. "Microsoft has very little industry capability," said Hebner.

Partners and ISVs are going to have to make a fundamental strategic decision on whether to partner with IBM or Microsoft in the midmarket, he said.

The IBM--Microsoft war is being waged on many fronts in the partner and direct-sales trenches, including on the desktop where IBM is quietly promoting IBM Workplace against Microsoft Office.

Some channel sources say IBM sales reps are advising large accounts to use IBM Workplace on the desktop or continue with their existing Office rather than re-signing new Microsoft Software Assurance licenses. Many of these SAs are due for renewal at the end of June.

Evan Walters, president and CEO of Innovative Information Solutions, a Waterbury, Conn., IBM and Microsoft partner, said Microsoft can't hold a candle to IBM in the enterprise. Microsoft products are relatively unstable and insecure compared with the bulletproof IBM offerings, said Walters.

"Customers don't look at Microsoft and Great Plains as enterprise solutions," he said, pointing to the security and scalability issues that plague Microsoft.

Walters says he finds claims that businesses are willing to bet on Microsoft in the enterprise laughable. Referring to a Microsoft commercial depicting an enterprise running smoothly using Microsoft products, Walters joked: "What part of the day was that? The rest of the day, was everyone running around pulling their hair out?"