Yeah they're still making tons of money but consider that they haven't grown revenue in years, all their best talent is leaving in droves, they're selling off everything that isn't bolted down, and they're betting the future on cloud and Watson. They're late to the party for cloud (and in typical IBM fashion, overpriced) and Watson ain't all it's cracked up to be. They have massive problems going forward.
I can tell you’ve been at IBM too long, because you say “cloud” rather than “the cloud” or “cloud computing”.
I have a friend who sends me quotes from their work sometimes, like “Good clarity on Data, Cloud, Engagement! Loved your passion about IBM’s competitiveness with Cloud!” or “My key takeaway is to evaluate how I can use information to stay engaged in analyzing data!”.
Whatever are they so happy about, I wonder. Cocaine stipend?
I find that surprising; of all the systems we're maintaining (hospital), our AS/400 is the one system that's been pretty much rock solid. I've generally been a fan of IBM's hardware.
As a sysadmin, I can't think of anything more exciting then the Power and Z stuff but keeping that hardware around is not realistic anymore for a lot of companies. IBM kind of screws up with prices, contracts, service level, etc.
Disclaimer: I have been on both sides of the fence.
Yes, but when was AS/400 first introduced? 1988. Do you think that twenty-five years from now, people will say the same thing about the new IBM products they purchased today?
If $16bn in net revenue is IBM falling, I'd love to see what Cringely defines success as.