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IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

www-03.ibm.com

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Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#11

Post by forgotAgain »

Seems a bit on the desperate side for IBM.

Softlayer customer profile (small to medium) seems the exact opposite of IBM (very large to huge). Does IBM take the Softlayer expertise and apply it to large accounts or do they try to service a class of customers they know nothing about.

On one hand IBM is selling dev-ops services to its customers. On the other, it finds itself without sufficient in-house expertise to build out its own cloud services. It's not like this is a new need for IBM. They've been talking cloud for years yet still found themselves needing to buy this capability.

It seems IBM has found out that after years of shedding higher priced operations staff they were nothing but a paper tiger when it came to cloud offerings.

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#12

Post by blantonl »

I wonder what these means for all the resellers of Softlayer's infrastructure? Will they join the IBM business partner community or will they be phased out.

This is going to be very interesting...

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#14

Post by ihsw »

josh2600 wrote: post #6

IBM is buying SoftLayer to try to go head up with AWS. It's not going to work. Personally I won't buy an IBM product because I know it's just like Oracle: software entrapment. Nothing wrong with that business model it's just not one I want to be involved with. In other news, great job by SoftLayer to exit as pricing pressure from AWS and GoogleAppEngine was going to steadily erode their margins over time. I feel the…

> Personally I won't buy an IBM product because I know it's just like Oracle: software entrapment.

Nobody buys IBM or Oracle products, they become 'partners' and negotiate license agreements. The entrapment is different in that your software (and hardware!) decisions now involve lawyers.

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#15

Post by nknighthb »

dewitt wrote: post #5

Worth observing that for all the excitement about the recent crop of billion-dollar Silicon Valley startups, SoftLayer is based in Dallas, TX (and founded only in 2005). I suspect, and this will be easy enough to prove one way or the other after a few years so feel free to call me on it, that we'll see a disproportionate number of successful exits come from /outside/ the valley. My gut tells me that high-cost of livi…

SoftLayer is in Dallas because The Planet, a company dating back to the late 90s, was in Dallas and SL was founded by TP's stupidly-fired COO Lance Crosby.

SL ultimately merged with/took over TP after TP had merged with EV1 (another company dating to the late 90s), Crosby continuing as CEO.

None of these were startups in the ordinary Silicon Valley sense. They were, fundamentally, managed datacenters (something their geographical location was well-suited for). The companies were built to survive and turn a profit, not achieve a massive exit in the startup lottery.

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#17

Post by bluechoochoo »

dewitt wrote: post #5

Worth observing that for all the excitement about the recent crop of billion-dollar Silicon Valley startups, SoftLayer is based in Dallas, TX (and founded only in 2005). I suspect, and this will be easy enough to prove one way or the other after a few years so feel free to call me on it, that we'll see a disproportionate number of successful exits come from /outside/ the valley. My gut tells me that high-cost of livi…

Meredith Whitney's book is about exactly this, that U.S. economic gravity is shifting "away from the coasts" for a bit. (It just came out today, so I can't say I've read it, just that I've really been looking forward to it.) For those who aren't from the world of finance: Meredith Whitney was one of the first people on wall street to predict the mortgage crisis. The book: (not an affiliate link) http://www.amazon.com/Fate-States-Geography-American-Prosper...

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#18

Post by levosmetalo »

nknighthb wrote: post #15
dewitt wrote: post #5

Worth observing that for all the excitement about the recent crop of billion-dollar Silicon Valley startups, SoftLayer is based in Dallas, TX (and founded only in 2005). I suspect, and this will be easy enough to prove one way or the other after a few years so feel free to call me on it, that we'll see a disproportionate number of successful exits come from /outside/ the valley. My gut tells me that high-cost of livi…

SoftLayer is in Dallas because The Planet, a company dating back to the late 90s, was in Dallas and SL was founded by TP's stupidly-fired COO Lance Crosby. SL ultimately merged with/took over TP after TP had merged with EV1 (another company dating to the late 90s), Crosby continuing as CEO. None of these were startups in the ordinary Silicon Valley sense. They were, fundamentally, managed datacenters (something their…

You say that as like turning a profit is a bad thing. Are only lottery exit aspires allowed to call themselves startups?

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#19

Post by AJ007 »

josh2600 wrote: post #6

IBM is buying SoftLayer to try to go head up with AWS. It's not going to work. Personally I won't buy an IBM product because I know it's just like Oracle: software entrapment. Nothing wrong with that business model it's just not one I want to be involved with. In other news, great job by SoftLayer to exit as pricing pressure from AWS and GoogleAppEngine was going to steadily erode their margins over time. I feel the…

I've used SL in the past and have had business associates use them as well. I experienced nothing but problems, and regularly hear complaints from those who still use it.

This may just be a case of IBM needing to acquire companies to add revenue to their financial statements.

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#20

Post by nknighthb »

levosmetalo wrote: post #18
nknighthb wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SoftLayer is in Dallas because The Planet, a company dating back to the late 90s, was in Dallas and SL was founded by TP's stupidly-fired COO Lance Crosby. SL ultimately merged with/took over TP after TP had merged with EV1 (another company dating to the late 90s), Crosby continuing as CEO. None of these were startups in the ordinary Silicon Valley sense. They were, fundamentally, managed datacenters (something their…

You say that as like turning a profit is a bad thing. Are only lottery exit aspires allowed to call themselves startups?

> You say that as like turning a profit is a bad thing.

This claim has no basis in any reality I am familiar with.

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