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IBM Targets Big Data Space with POWER 8 Processors

IBM's 4Q and FY14 Earnings: Transition Has Yet to Yield Good Results (Part 6 of 17)

(Continued from Part 5)

POWER 8 provides 20% better price performance than its predecessor

In August 2013, IBM (IBM) unveiled its POWER 8 family of processors. Reflecting the changing IT environment towards the cloud, IBM’s POWER 8 Systems were designed to get big data insights and hybrid cloud deployment.

The unique aspect that accompanied the launch of POWER 8 processors was the company’s announcement that other companies can freely license the POWER architecture to produce processors and hardware based on IBM’s design. In October 2014, IBM launched its first servers based on its new POWER 8 CPU architecture. IBM claimed that its POWER 8-based systems provide 20% better price performance than x86-based systems.

To gain diversified exposure to IBM, you can invest in the Technology SPDR (XLK). XLK invests 3.51% of its holdings in IBM. According to a study by Network World, security, cloud computing, and mobile devices were found to be the top three initiatives that IT executives plan to have their organizations focus on in the next year. As we have seen in this series, IBM continues to focus on these growth areas, both through investments as well as partnerships with its peers.

OpenPOWER technology is gaining acceptance

Started in 2013, OpenPOWER Foundation is a technology initiative that was started by Google (GOOG), IBM, NVIDIA (NVDA), Mellanox (MLNX), and Tyan. Now, it is backed by 111 companies with a presence in 22 countries. In fiscal year 2014, IBM announced that it signed a contract worth $350 million from the US Department of Energy. As a part of the contract, IBM would create supercomputers based on OpenPOWER technology. Suzhou PowerCore also signed a deal with IBM to use its POWER architecture for use in big data and cloud computing applications in China.

Continue to Part 7

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