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IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

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Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#81

Post by wmf »

vidarh wrote: post #60
josh2600 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IBM can't build a cloud of their own or they wouldn't have needed to buy SoftLayer. Since they don't have this expertise, they pay a ton of money for a company that their perceive as knowing "the cloud". This is doubly ironic because its IBM that introduced the mainframe to the world, but that's another story. SoftLayer and everyone not named Google or Amazon can't drop their prices 40+ times every 5 years because th…

In 2000 , Telia got a single IBM G6 mainframe hosting 1500 virtual Linux images. You'll note that's a tiny, "ancient" model. IBM currently quotes ability to present "thousands" of virtual Linux images on a single current zSeries mainframe. These servers have virtualised storage IO, virtualised network interfaces etc. and management interfaces older than most of the developers on the hipper cloud platforms. So to clai…

There's a lot that you're misunderstanding here. A z mainframe can support a ton of VMs as long as the VMs are completely idle. A VMware cluster could do the same thing. The performance of z is so "good" that it will never be disclosed publicly.

But that has nothing to do with the cloud, because the cloud is all about automation. Mainframes are about manual provisioning and management. IBM does have experience with automated provisioning of HPC clusters, but that's also fairly different from the cloud.

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#82

Post by justincormack »

danielrhodes wrote: post #36
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…

There is one major problem to starting what are to become big tech companies outside of the Bay Area: labor supply. Very few places in the world can feed the labor needs of a fast growing tech company. Even the largest companies in the Bay Area have to go to New York, LA, and elsewhere to hire more people. What that means is that you are welcome to start a company wherever you like, but when it comes time to hire a l…

If the largest bay area companies have to go outside the bay area to hire, then why start in the bay area?

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#83

Post by pbreit »

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…

I suppose if it's Valley vs The Field and quantity vs value, you might be right, but then you're not making that insightful of a comment. Off the top of my head, I see these getting bought or IPOing in the next few years: Twitter, Square, Eventbrite, Zendesk, Palantir, Pinterest, Stripe, AirBnB, Box, DropBox, Evernote, Practice Fusion, SurveyMonkey, Path, Twilio. And those are just the higher profile ones.

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#84

Post by banachtarski »

AJ007 wrote: post #19
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.

I can't believe you're even talking about the same company. This runs contrary to everything I believe.

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#85

Post by xradionut »

air- wrote: post #75
xradionut wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DFW has much more than energy. Corporate HQs, semiconductor, banking, technology, etc... (Although the traffic is starting to suck worse than ever with all the folks from the coasts being lost and construction going on...) There's a large number corporate data jobs in the area needing to be filled. (Analyst, programmer, DBA, warehouse, BIG DATA superstars, whatever...) The Dallas Morning Snooze is not exactly a great…

> There's a large number corporate data jobs in the area needing to be filled. (Analyst, programmer, DBA, warehouse, BIG DATA superstars, whatever...) Curious, how are you hearing about these jobs needing to be filled? Asking as I am also based in Dallas and looking to move my career that direction.

I'm on the mailing list for a bunch of user groups/Meetup groups that get a ton of positions posted and recuiter traffic. Lots of SQL DBA/Developer/.NET jobs and stuff of that ilk.

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#86

Post by xradionut »

jborden13 wrote: post #65
xradionut wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DFW has much more than energy. Corporate HQs, semiconductor, banking, technology, etc... (Although the traffic is starting to suck worse than ever with all the folks from the coasts being lost and construction going on...) There's a large number corporate data jobs in the area needing to be filled. (Analyst, programmer, DBA, warehouse, BIG DATA superstars, whatever...) The Dallas Morning Snooze is not exactly a great…

I'm by no means arguing that the DMN is a great source for any tech or business news. I am arguing that it is the most read publication in the area and it is representative of what is deemed important by our populous. And what is deemed important by our populous is not startup and tech information. Now if you want to vote for the best burger/margarita/whogivesafuck in town, then you are in luck. There is not enough i…

There's plenty resources, (people, money, schools, tech, etc) in DFW/Austin for startups. Mark Cuban made his beans here almost two decades ago. It's just that the majority of the vultures and technically hip decided that the Valley was place to be. The main issues with North Texas are lack of decent climate/geology, political and cultural issues.

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#87

Post by chc »

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?

The term "startup" does have the connotation of aspiring to high levels of growth rather than steady, possibly mediocre profitability.

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#88

Post by mindcrime »

rudhir-secpanel wrote: post #72
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…

Texas has been a magnet for data centers for years.

Interesting. I wonder what the factors are that lead to that? Cheap energy? Absence of severe weather? Something else?

NC is now becoming know as something of a magnet for data centers[1], and the "cheap energy" part is one of the reasons that's often cited here.

[1]: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/01/04/north...

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#89

Post by tensor »

darkarmani wrote: post #44
forgotAgain wrote: post #11

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 buil…

> 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. Doesn't that make sense though? They are trying to use the people and experience of SL to enter the market of small businesses. It didn't work for Cisco/linksys, but it does make…

At the same time, if IBM came out with a decent ad campaign for a new IBM service targeted at the little guy, a lot of people would take notice I'm sure.

Re: IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

#90

Post by lanstein »

pbreit wrote: post #83
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…

I suppose if it's Valley vs The Field and quantity vs value, you might be right, but then you're not making that insightful of a comment. Off the top of my head, I see these getting bought or IPOing in the next few years: Twitter, Square, Eventbrite, Zendesk, Palantir, Pinterest, Stripe, AirBnB, Box, DropBox, Evernote, Practice Fusion, SurveyMonkey, Path, Twilio. And those are just the higher profile ones.

FireEye, New Relic, AppDynamics
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