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Comment by byefruit | Hacker News Reader

https://www.google.co.uk/finance?q=NYSE%3AIBM&fstype=ii&ei=A...

If $16bn in net revenue is IBM falling, I'd love to see what Cringely defines success as.

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.

Source: former IBMer.

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?

My current employer threw a real party when we switched off the last IBM server.

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.

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 the RS/6000 and System Z lines are anything to go by, then, yes?

IBM hardware is awesome. IBM is not (anymore).

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.

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