Technology - the secret to winning F1

Technology events have never gotten more exciting!  We had a total sensory experience at IBM ASEAN’s Xcite event with Infiniti Red Bull Racing Team.

Al Peasland (Head of Technical Partnerships, Red Bull Racing) was our speaker who gave us a TED-style sharing of the partnership between IBM and Red Bull Racing.  We experienced the Infiniti Red Bull spirit of fun and philosophy of “performance and reliability” with Al’s passionate delivery and interactive presentation.

 

Performance is great but if it doesn't happen when you need it, you cannot consistently win the race.  If it is just  about reliability, you may not become the best without pushing performance.  Both are important to keep staying ahead and winning.

Al shared, “Platform Computing is the back bone infrastructure for high performance computing, which helped Red Bull Racing with the design of the car, the analytics and the race strategy.”  It is used to plan into the future, to create all the what if scenarios and to predict what may happen in the two hour race.

When the single focus is to win races and championships, every element of the design and manufacture of Formula One racing cars is critical. With Formula One regulations becoming more stringent each year, Red Bull Racing is designing the entire car in a virtual world and parts are machined directly from 3D CAD models. Red Bull Racing also collects massive amounts of data from wind tunnel testing and from the car during races. These processes demand extensive use of simulation and data analytics, and a first class IT infrastructure.

Infiniti Red Bull Racing is ahead of the league that is embracing Platform Computing, a software from IBM Systems & Technology Group.  Also sometimes known Elastic Storage for Software Defined Environment. It helps to maximize the potential of computing power by pooling resources, managing them efficiently across multiple groups, so that one can run many iterations, simulations and analytics to get business results fast.  This is the winning formula to harness the benefits of unstructured data and data explosion.

We are glad to be the technology innovation partner that drives the winning Formula One car.  Technology - platform computing technology - is the secret to winning!

Catch Al's interview: https://plus.google.com/101708759635909645335/posts/MmgQDhqx3Yj
Read more: http://www.slideshare.net/annephey/blog-2014-1016-infiniti-red-bulls-secrets-to-winning-f1-races

HP Splits Up. Is Two Better Than One?

The IT industry is just getting more exciting.

Hot off the heels of IBM’s sale of its x86 server business to Lenovo, providing the momentum for Lenovo to repeat its success in 2005 when it acquired IBM’s PC division to become the number one vendor, HP makes a major announcement to spin off its PC and printer division into a separate company.

1.WHAT IS THE SPLIT
 

Former chief executive Leo Apotheker had proposed the move in 2011, 6 years after IBM sold its PC business.  It happened at the same time that HP’s disastrous acquisition of the British software company Autonomy.  Eventually, HP held on to its PC business amid shareholder pressure, resulting in Apotheker’s departure and Whitman’s appointment.  Meg Whitman who joined 3 years ago to turn HP’s fortunes around had dismissed her predecessor’s plan to carve up the firm but has now changed her mind in the fourth year of her five-year turnaround plan.

HP expects to complete the  split of HP into two public companies by end of 2015 fiscal year.  Shareholders will automatically own shares in both companies.

• Hewlett-Packard Enterprise to cover corporate hardware and services, which Whitman will head up, and
• HP Inc to comprise the PC and printer units, to be headed by Dion Weisler (the current executive vice-president of HP's printing and personal computing division). Whitman will be the chairman of the HP Inc board, thereby retaining influence in both businesses.

2.WHY SPLIT

"The decision to separate into two market-leading companies underscores our commitment to the turnaround plan," said Whitman. "It will provide each new company with the independence, focus, financial resources, and flexibility they need to adapt quickly to market and customer dynamics, while generating long-tern value for shareholders."

3. IMPACT OF SPLIT 

HP’s role in the IT market has been becoming increasingly unclear – with parts of its business moving toward growth areas, while others are being optimized to compete on the last era’s competitive battlefield.  This left the company in a tough spot, where new innovation efforts were often overshadowed by large legacy challenges.  HP has been addressing this through aggressive restructuring, ultimately shedding as many as 55,000 jobs by the end of FY2015. 

Whether HP’s efforts to reduce complexity and be more nimble with two large companies remains to be seen.  There are still many of the HP businesses that are not synergistic with different levers for success or where potential partners are unable to fit strategically with the company.

4. WHAT'S NEXT

Just when HP struck out at IBM by blatantly advertising that IBM customers and business partners should be worried about the x86 business sale to Lenovo, HP has now plunged into deeper uncertainty with their own company split.

It would be important for HP to quickly establish how different they will be after the split and what is the desired perception of HP to the world.

Managing a business divestiture. IBM closes sale of x86 server business to Lenovo.

Managing a business divestiture. 

IBM closes sale of x86 server business to Lenovo on 1st Oct.

 

On 1^st October 2014, the initial closing of the sale of IBM’s x86 server business to Lenovo started in most of the markets, including Asia Pacific. The 7,500 employees that work within the x96 unit across the globe will make the move to Lenovo’s Enterprise Business Group headed up by ex-IBM executive Adalio Sanchez.  This divestiture is a significant, strategic milestone for IBM and STG. 

1. WHAT CHANGED

The IT world has seen this x86 server become a fast-growing and lucrative technology that lifted sales at companies like HP and Dell, which still relied on them for billions of dollars in sales. As when IBM sold its personal computer business to Lenovo in 2005 which sparked success at both companies, this sale signals a change in the computing market.

Despite the competition, buying IBM’s x86 server business is a boon for Lenovo. Enterprise products are generally a higher-margin business than consumer gadgets. Lenovo’s own manufacturing capabilities and sales channels could help squeeze out more profits from the server sales.  


2. THE BUYER'S VIEW

 
Yang Yuanqing, Chairman and CEO of Lenovo said, “Lenovo will add a world-class business that extends our capabilities in enterprise hardware and services, immediately making us a strong number three in the global server market. By combining Lenovo’s global reach, efficiency and operational excellence with IBM’s legendary quality, innovation and service, I am confident that we can drive profitable growth.”


3. THE SELLER'S VIEW

On the other hand, IBM is turning its focus to higher end systems where it can generate competitive advantage.  “IBM will intensify the focus on our Power, mainframe and storage systems, where we can apply IBM’s valuable research and development capabilities to differentiate our offerings.  As we innovate in areas such as big data and cloud, allowing clients to capture value from opportunities in these segments.”says Tom Rosamilia, Senior Vice President of IBM Systems & Technology Group.

4. THE TRANSITION

 
Over the nine months, IBM has been preparing for this transition with a few key investments, including $3 billion in new chip technology to help IBM remain the systems innovation leader, $1 billion investment in Linux and open source technologies for Power Systems, $1 billion investment in Flash storage technology, and billion dollar investments in Watson ad cloud. These investments will help fuel renewed vitality and growth in our core STG businesses.

At such critical times, one server competitor who was fearful of the combination of IBM’s size and Lenovo’s profitability, showed their true colours with blatant competitive ads to undermine the confidence of customers and business partners on the server business.  We have chosen to ignore these ungentlemanly acts as baseless.


5. STEADYING THE TROOPS

I am privileged to be involved in the transition of the x86 team to Lenovo.  We have been going through a lot of planning for the integration of the business and a quick transition turnover of the business systems that supports how we operate.   IBM will continue to provide maintenance services to existing System x customers to ensure the transition between IBM and Lenovo is seamless.  IBM marketing has also been designed to support Lenovo marketing to ensure that our strong demand generation capabilities are transferred.

To the departed x86 colleagues, remember the “I love System x” campaign where you have demonstrated team work and confidence in our technology, regardless of the fear of the unknown new company.  Here’s a encouraging quote “Sometimes what you’re most afraid of doing is the very thing that will set you free.”  I wish you success in your new company.

To the IBM Systems & Technology Group team that remains, I wish you what I have experienced in supporting the transition. I have learnt so much more about the business, processes, people, differentiation and competitive advantage.  “A smooth sea never made for a skilled sailor.”

Catch Serena William's Victory Jump at US Tennis Open!

US Tennis Open Fans All Over The World Caught Serena Williams' Victory Jump Real Time!

Wow Moment Made Possible By Cloud And Software Defined Storage

Just last week, International Data Corp. (IDC) [1] has ranked IBM as the top ranking supplier of Software Defined Storage Platforms (SDS-P) [2].  The ranking reflects widespread adoption of IBM’s SDS-P technologies by companies looking to gain faster, more reliable access to their growing data volumes.

Why are clients making the switch? New era cloud environments and applications such as analytics, mobile and social are driving huge growth in data volumes, making data the new natural resource. But cost-effectively optimizing your current storage environments while at the same time exploiting new opportunities is straining storage budgets. IBM software defined storage is the solution.

Take the example of the United States Tennis Association (USTA).  Each year, USTA teams with IBM to deliver a dynamic online and mobile experience to fans of the US Open tournament. The cloud-based infrastructure consistently generates increasing amounts of data, as well as a corresponding increase in demand for greater access and analysis. During the 2013 US Open, the USTA churned out 2.9 million hours of live-streaming video and served more than 400 million page views on its tournament web site over the course of just two weeks.

“The versatile and reliable IBM infrastructure that supports the US Open enables us to provide fans the tournament data and insights they need, no matter where they are located,” said Nicole Jeter West, Senior Director of Ticketing and Digital Strategy at USTA. “The dynamic IBM cloud helps us ensure that we are able to immediately serve the right content to tennis enthusiasts around the globe.”The reliable digital platform that provides US Open fans constant access to real-time scores, statistics, video, etc., is supported by IBM’s Elastic Storage, part of the Software Defined Portfolio.

IBM has revolutionized the marketplace with our Software Defined Storage solutions [3], helping clients optimize current storage environments so they can unlock the potential of their data by exploiting new opportunities provided by cloud, analytics, mobile and social. I’m so proud to be part of the winning team in Systems Technology Group.

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[1] International Data Corp. (IDC) has ranked IBM as the top ranking supplier of Software Defined Storage Platforms (SDS-P) in its latest Worldwide Storage Software QView for the second quarter 2014, based on software revenue.

[2] IDC describes SDS-P as, “platforms that deliver the full suite of storage services via a software stack that uses (but is not dependent on) commodity hardware built with off-the-shelf components.” 

[3] IBM has hardware agnostic software technologies code-named Elastic Storage that automatically manage data locally and globally.  It provides breakthrough speeds in data access, easy administration and the ability to scale technology infrastructure quickly and more cost-effectively. 

In addition to Elastic Storage, the portfolio includes IBM’s storage virtualization software, SAN Volume Controller, which enables clients to virtualize storage infrastructures for fast, reliable data movement across heterogeneous storage systems. SAN Volume Controller is also available as part of IBM's Virtual Storage Center which provides additional capabilities for storage management such as backup, restore, and visual administration.