CA's Mainframe Software Business Stagnant But Stable We believe that investor fears regarding the declining MIPS growth number cited by IBM are grossly overblown. While the IBM number is reflective of the mainframe hardware cycle, it has very little effect on mainframe software sales and is not a good leading indicator for the mainframe software business. (May 2005 Forbes)

IBM mainframe revenues finally slip Following five consecutive quarters of growth, IBM announced zSeries mainframe product revenue decreased compared with the prior-year quarter, which was particularly strong. Throughout 2004, mainframes posted impressive growth, earning a 34% increase in the first quarter and 12% gains for the second and third quarters, consecutively. It is too hard to say whether this dip means mainframe growth is over. (Jan. 2005 search390)

IBM Ends 2004 with Most Profitable Quarter in Its History Within its Systems and Technology Group, sales of zSeries mainframes started to turn south in the fourth quarter, with zSeries sales down 4% and aggregate MIPS shipments only growing 6%. IBM's middleware sales, which includes legacy mainframe products such as DB2, IMS and CICS as well as all the new-fangled WebSphere products, were up 8% in the final quarter of 2004. (Jan. 2005 IT Jungle)

Tech Stocks Not Worth the Risk Disruptive change can happen in non-technology businesses, but technology companies are particularly vulnerable. And disruptive change can demolish companies that seem to have huge competitive advantages. IBM's dominance in mainframes 25 years ago means little now. Its mainframe sales in 2003 were about $4.2 billion, less than 5% of its revenue, and negligible compared with the $178.1 billion PC market. (Jun. 2004 Motley Fool)

IT's Fiscal Squeeze The emerging affordable-IT premise says that while IT investment may hold vast potential, there's only so much IT expense a company can afford and absorb. Most companies are looking for a 15% to 20% reduction in their overall IT spend as a percentage of revenue per year. Indeed, there is a a surprising consensus in direction and expectation for the 2002 to 2006 or 2007 time frame. (Jun. 2004 Optimize)

Server sales rise as users rebuild Worldwide sales of server hardware reached US$11.5 billion in the first quarter of 2004. This represented 7.3 percent growth over the same period last year, and marks the fourth consecutive quarter of overall growth in the server market. Sales of IBM's mainframe server products grew rapidly in the first quarter and helped the company hold on to its overall lead in the server market. (May 2004 ComputerWorld)

Big Blue grows in greener IT grass Chinese companies are now committed to driving down costs and driving up quality. This has caused an upswell of interest in IT services. While 50 per cent of mainland IT spending is still being used on much needed infrastructure involving PCs and hardware such as mainframe computers for advanced data-storage purposes, the IT services sector is expected to grow at a compound rate of 20 per cent a year over the next six years. (May 2004 China Daily)

A Hard Landing For Software Watch out. Those high margins are withering away. Software vendors are migrating from the lucrative business of selling software licenses into the much less lucrative business of supplying programmers and consultants to business customers. (Mar. 2004 Forbes)

IBM's 'T-Rex' bites into server market In the market for servers costing $250,000 and up, IBM's mainframe revenue increased 30 percent to $1.8 billion from the fourth quarter of 2002 to the fourth quarter of 2003. By comparison, HP's sales rose 9 percent to $906 million in the price range and Sun Microsystems' dropped 16 percent to $420 million. (Feb. 2004 CNET News)

IBM Reports Earnings Rise IBM announced an increase of 41% in fourth-quarter 2003 diluted earnings per common share compared to the same period of 2002. Revenues from zSeries mainframes, benefiting from a full quarter of new technology availability on the z990 products, increased significantly as measured in MIPS. (Jan. 2004 Byte and Switch)

IT vendors cast votes with their checkbooks IT hardware and software manufacturers and the industry associations that lobby for them in Washington have donated nearly as much money to the Bush campaign as to all of the Democratic candidates combined. (Dec. 2003 ComputerWorld)

IBM up and optimistic in Q3 IBM is proud to admit that it cuts hardware prices when competitive threats appear. It cut mainframe prices as much as 15 per cent during the period. Next year we see the need for approximately 10,000 new positions in key skill areas, including high-value services, middleware technologies, Linux and open standards-based hardware and software. (Oct. 2003 The Register)

CEOs Predict Robust IT Growth The technology industry is poised to create more than 1.5 million new jobs worldwide (nearly 500,000 in the United States alone) over the next four years. In order to fill these jobs, companies need an educational system that can produce world-class innovators, continued access to the best minds in the world and the ability to attract and retain qualified employees. (survey) (Oct. 2003 CIO Information Network)

IDC Says Server Sales Up a Smidgen in Second Quarter If Unix server sales were down and Windows and Linux server sales were up, sales in the other category - which includes IBM's zSeries and iSeries machines as well as HP's NonStop machines - were down 9% in the quarter. These products are still wickedly profitable, so they are not going to be discontinued any time soon. (Aug. 2003 Computer Business Review)

Speaking Out: IBM's Sam Palmisano It's going to be increasingly difficult to provide value and competitive advantage in basic hardware. Value is migrating up the stack. We see continued growth prospects for enterprise software that sits above the operating system -- middleware -- particularly software that enables integration of business processes. (Aug. 2003 BusinessWeek)

New IT Equipment Leasing Report Projects Market Will Turn Around By 2003 Year End While IT equipment vendors and leasing companies report a slow recovery this year, the consensus is that a more meaningful recovery will occur in 2004 and 2005. The mainframe and server leasing market in 2002 amounted to nearly $7 billion. Equipment acquisitions in this segment were particularly hard-hit by the pullback in corporate IT spending. (Jul. 2003 Equipment Leasing Association)

Global software market still in decline The market declined by a massive 5% in 2002, when it was worth $152 billion. In real terms, the figures are even worse. In fact, in real terms, it’s unlikely that the market will grow again until 2007! Winners in a mature market will be either cost leaders, or those with a defensible niche. Those who are stuck in the middle will find it increasingly uncomfortable. (Jul. 2003 Ovum)

Only Five Percent of Overall IT Spending Is Still Up For Grabs At mid-2003 IT spending budgets are weaker and below planned budget levels. Executive sponsors and project champions take note: Most firms won't commit to funding beyond 11 months, on average. Justifying funds every six months is common. (Jul. 2003 Forrester Research)

IBM's New Hook What CIOs need today is the ability to share computing resources across a heterogenous infrastructure comprising everything from legacy mainframes to 15-year-old PCs to cutting-edge blade servers. by acknowledging, albeit humorously, the IT nightmare that their customers face, and by articulating the industry's most ambitious vision for fixing it, IBM is attempting to make lemonade out of today's lemons. (Jun. 2003 CIO)

ROI, Security Driving IT Employment Trends It appears that the growing demand for IT professionals will be driven in part by the same cost-cutting impetus that led to the previous reductions in the IT workforce. The biggest driver, however, is the need to find applications that will reduce costs, as well as ways to integrate existing software systems and improve overall security. (Jun. 2003 Datamation)

UK Software and IT Services industry reaching the nadir Last year we warned the industry that it was in denial when talking about "when market conditions improve". Any money being earmarked for IT is now primarily to make existing systems (both hardware and software) work better together and last longer. (Jun. 2003 Ovum)

CIOs: Down the gym Collectively, the 15 CIOs account for about half a percent of global IT spend. In 2003, their IT spend will reduce by about 5%. Many organisations are in their second or third year of cost reduction. More importantly, they expect cost reduction to continue into the future. (Jun. 2003 ComputerWeekly)

IT spending plans are cut after Q1 US technology spending will grow just 1.3 percent in 2003, down from the 1.9 percent forecast in a similar March survey. Cutbacks by manufacturing and technology companies led to the downward revision. (Jun. 2003 ZDNet)

IT Spending For 2003 Looks Slim CIO’s participating in the survey prioritize their increases in spending toward security products/services, storage hardware/ software and computers (desktop/mobile/server). There was also increased interest in spending for big ticket infrastructure software products. (Apr. 2003 Amy Wohl)

Rising profits hide the pain Almost half of the nation's biggest tech companies reported quarterly financial results during the past two weeks -- and those results show that companies generally are doing a bit better than expected. But it's not because they're selling more goods; it's because they're cutting costs. (Apr. 2003 Silicon Valley)

Software's Life Of Quiet Desperation Of the 549 publicly held software companies, only 15 have at least $1 billion in sales. The majority of those companies focus on complex software for large corporate customers. IT buyers reported that software discounting became more pronounced as the quarter came to an end, suggesting a growing level of desperation to hit sales targets. (Apr. 2003 Forbes)

IT spending outlook 'extremely volatile' While hardware spending is expected to post a slight decline of 0.5 per cent this year, the software sector is likely to grow 4.5 per cent and services 3.7 per cent. Europe is expected to fare the best with two per cent growth, followed by the United States with 1.5 per cent and Japan with 1.4 per cent. (Apr. 2003 silicon.com)

Time for a High-Tech Shakeout The technology industry badly needs a shakeout: a consolidation of the myriad providers that sprang up in the 1990s would benefit both the industry and its customers. Yet because of the interlocking interests of executives and board members, this catharsis probably won’t come from within. (Apr. 2003 The McKinsey Quarterly)

CIOs Are Less Optimistic About IT Spending Outlook The top three technology infrastructure categories in terms of executives' intent to purchase are application development tools, security gateways and services and enterprise application integration software. With the exception of mainframes, CIOs plan to increase spending in all hardware categories. (Mar. 2003 TechWeb)