This week I wrote about IBM's seemingly suspect announcement of a Chinese-based cloud offering. I suggested that the timing was suspiciously close to Amazon Web Services' (AWS) announcement of their own mainland China operation and I also questioned IBM's commitment to the Smart Cloud Enterprise + platform that was central to their new offering. To their credit, IBM was quick to engage with me and add significant information about what they're actually embarking upon in China, that warrants another look.
On The Timing Of The Announcement
In the words of IBM:
while the timing seems coincidental, we had marching toward this high value cloud delivery in China for some time.....which shows the contrast between IBM and Amazon --- our clients who are some of the major enterprises in china (and the world) are asking for higher value.....greater security, control, performance on maximum workloads....dealing with greater levels of complexity, which IBM is well equipped to help them deal with.....and what IBM SmartCloud Enterprise + is designed for
At the end of the day we simply don't know, but it seems to me that the 21Vianet announcement, when seen in light of the extent of IBM operations in China, was an opportunistic response to AWS' news.
On The Future Of SCE+
I suggested in my post that Smart Cloud Enterprise + was soon to be an orphan product as IBM started moving the entire Smart Cloud family over to their Softlayer cloud platform. That view was one informed by some changes they'd made to the similarly named, but different platform, Smart Cloud Enterprise. Customers of SCE were told recently that they'd be migrated to Softlayer imminently. I was led to believe by informed sources that this approach would be mimicked across the entire Smart Cloud family. IBM stresses however that SCE+ is here to stay - while I'm a little dubious, it would be unusual for a company to come out so vehemently about the future of a product should it be tenuously clinging to life.
IBM also pointed out that SCE+ is built upon OpenStack and hence is an open platform with, in theory, a strong migration story between vendors. IBM is pitching this as a contrast to AWS' more proprietary platform. While that's a fair comment, it has to be said that a raft of new approaches (both in terms of cloud management products like enStratius and containerization approaches like Docker) are meaning that "lock in" is less of an issue with cloud infrastructure platforms than before. Also, OpenStack is a many headed beast and the migration potential between different OpenStack providers is debatable. Add to that the fact that Eucalyptus offers an open source cloud infrastructure platform that is fully compliant with AWS' APIs and you have perhaps a lessening of the "open vs closed" argument.
On IBM In China
IBM was quick to correct the view that AWS is the first US vendor to move strongly into mainland China. Indeed IBM already has six data centers within China that are actively supporting their cloud business. These centers are situated in Beijing, Shanghai Pudong, Shanghai Puxi, Shen Zheno, Su Zhou and Tian Jin. This latest deal allows IBM to establish a point of delivery within a partner's data center and hence simply extends their Chinese footprint.
IBM already has a host of cloud customers in China including CapitolOnline, China Meteorological Administration, ENN Group, Gansu Mobile, Hangzhou Silk Road Telecommunication, Liaoyuan Government, National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China, Nationz Technologies, Ningbo SmarterLogistics Cloud, SoftStone, and Xiangyang Government.
On The Battle With AWS
The press release has an extensive list of reasons that IBM is a safer bet for enterprises than AWS. Breadth of service, enterprise pedigree, openness, existing cloud revenue (something that many have questioned when it comes to IBM by the way) and R&D spend. While all of these are arguably valid points, my assessment is that organizations looking for a vendor will decide on which they believe is the safest bet for their particular needs - many large, established and traditional organizations will see significant value in the IBM badge and go that way. Many younger, higher growth and more agile organizations will look to AWS' successes with companies like Netflix and go that way. One thing is certain however, this battle for the hearts and minds isn't going to abate any time soon. I'd much rather see IBM move on from the childish and damaging competitor criticism strategy that it seems to be using right now but either way expect more bruised egos and revenue figures going forwards.
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