IBM to Acquire SoftLayer

Post by dsl » Wed, Jun 05, 2013, 3:33 AM UTC

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.

Post by wmf » Wed, Jun 05, 2013, 4:32 AM UTC

jacques_chester wrote: post #99

porker wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The performance of z is so "good" that it will never be disclosed publicly. Is that true? I know nothing about mainframes, so it's an honest question

Maybe he's referring to the way the mainframes are sold with performance-limiting logic. When you want more performance, you ring IBM and they remotely activate more cores or upclock them. IBM often writes "performance test" periods into their contracts -- you get x weeks per year to trial the higher levels of performance. This is a sop that realises that mainframes are busiest at financial reporting times, especiall…

Post by bradleyjoyce » Wed, Jun 05, 2013, 4:34 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #79

bradleyjoyce wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Dallas startup scene is exploding right now, especially for B2B companies. Geographic convenience to both coasts, low taxes, low living costs, high concentration of Fortune 500s and a lot of good talent itching to leave their cubicles. http://launchdfw.com/

And tons of oil money flowing around Texas right now and into venture capital, courtesy of the fracking boom.

Post by shangomoons » Wed, Jun 05, 2013, 5:20 AM UTC

jborden13 wrote: post #24

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…

Normally I would agree. But with regards to Dallas, we are a large corporation (and usually energy-focused) first town. The Dallas Morning News, our largest rag here locally, isn't even covering this acquisition: http://www.dallasnews.com/business/ Hard to unseat or even compete with SV if you can't even get local attention or coverage for a big tech/startup win.

Post by jacques_chester » Wed, Jun 05, 2013, 5:24 AM UTC

wmf wrote: post #103

jacques_chester wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe he's referring to the way the mainframes are sold with performance-limiting logic. When you want more performance, you ring IBM and they remotely activate more cores or upclock them. IBM often writes "performance test" periods into their contracts -- you get x weeks per year to trial the higher levels of performance. This is a sop that realises that mainframes are busiest at financial reporting times, especiall…

No, I mean the relative performance and price/performance between z and Power or z and x86 is not public and never will be, so any performance comparisons between mainframes and normal servers have to be treated as rumor or speculation. This is not relevant if you're actually buying a mainframe because IBM will probably let you try before you buy, but it makes armchair architecture (HN's favorite sport) difficult.