IBM tops in x86 server business

IBM has for the first time topped the x86 (Intel) server and x86 Blade server
business in the country. According to IDC India figures, the company was first
in the second quarter and first half of 2004. It had a revenue growth of 1831%
year-on-year in Q2 2004 and 2737% in H1 2004.

"This shows that the strategy we adopted was right and working very well
for all of us," said Anil Sethi, Country Manager, eServer xSeries, IBM
India. Its readiness to boldly position a complete portfolio of mid-range
servers in the SMB segment did the trick for IBM. The strategy also involved
ensuring availability of products and services through its partners across the
country.

"While partners had a key role in this achievement, it was the schemes
that worked very well," he quipped. Channel partners typically sold 80% of
the servers. Of these, only 20% of them were sold by solutions providers, the
rest by box movers.

The next big task for IBM is to maintain this lead. With HP not far behind in
this space, it is going to be a tough fight to sustain the leadership. The gap
between the leader and the second spot is just 7.2% in terms of revenue and 1%
in unit terms.

According to Anil, any competition is a threat, but he is confident of
maintaining this lead with a host of technologically superior products and
service offerings in the remotest corner of the country. "We have executed
the whole thing well. We will not let this momentum die," assured Anil.

According to Anil, IBM is the only company to offer three -years warranty on
all its x86 servers. Most of the growth for x86 Intel servers came from the
financial services sectors. x86 Blade servers did well in the high performance
computing segment.

Meanwhile, IBM has announced the launch of its server based on the Intel
Nocona 32/64 bit processor. The Nocona processor will allow workstations and
servers to run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications on the same system, provided
the server uses a 64-bit operating system. AMD was the first to introduce such a
processor with the launch of the Opteron chip in April 2003. Nocona is Intel's
answer to Opteron.

NELSON JOHNY