IBM Sweetens Migration Program To Tempt Rival Users

IBM continues its aggressive pursuit of customers using rival products after it announced new resources to help customers migrate from competing hardware platforms.

IBM also claimed that it recorded nearly 2,400 competitive displacements in 2011 for its servers and storage systems.

Luring Customers

IBM said nearly 40 percent of the 2,400 displacements came from HP and more than 25 percent came from Oracle/Sun. In addition, IBM said it gained 570 competitive displacements in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Meanwhile, IBM also announced new initiatives for its Migration Factory to continue helping clients quickly and securely migrate core applications and databases to a new IBM-based environment. New resources include workshops to facilitate the transition from competing servers to IBM systems, and migration to a cloud computing solution built on Power Systems. In addition, customers who want to migrate from HP or Oracle/Sun technologies to a Power Systems-based infrastructure are now eligible for new funding services for the migration process.

IBM also announced a zero-percent financing offer involving two key IBM systems families: IBM Power Systems and IBM System Storage. Available through March 31, 2012, the 12-month full pay-out lease allows clients in the United States and Canada to finance between $5,000 (£3,161) and $1 million (£632,000) in Power Systems and/or System Storage technologies.

More information about Fast Start Financing is available here.

Over the past five years, the IBM Migration Factory has helped complete more than 7,200 competitive migrations, IBM officials said. The new services in the migration initiative include a Workload Discovery Workshop, which is a first step in the server-transition planning process. This workshop is used to gain a general understanding of the computing workloads targeted for transition, including function, operating environment, software components and dependencies. Workshops can typically be completed within one day. Upon completion, IBM delivers a workload summary and recommended next steps for transition to an IBM solution.

Funding Assistance

IBM also now offers a “Migrating to a Power Cloud Workshop,” which defines an approach to a cloud computing transformation. This workshop focuses on client and IBM strengths to guide the migration approach, budget, time and risk of deploying a private cloud using IBM Power Systems. Workshop components include inventory verification, transformation planning and design, implementation and testing.

In addition, IBM offers Post-Sales Migration Factory Funding. Customers who want to migrate from HP or Oracle/Sun technologies to a Power Systems-based infrastructure are now eligible for funding assistance for the costs of Post-Sales Migration Factory services in addition to previously offered pre-sales migration assessment funding. Post-sales migration services include consulting, workshops and training services from the IBM Migration Factory, which help clients avoid any migration risks.

IBM officials said companies around the world are grappling with the rising challenges of exponentially larger data volumes, server sprawl, increasingly complex infrastructures and flat budgets. Smarter Computing, the core of the IBM Smarter Planet effort, brings companies increased intelligence and lower costs through the use of optimised systems and analytics managed with cloud technologies. As a result, companies can start reducing their data centre footprints and management costs, increasing system performance and overall efficiencies, and freeing up more of their IT budgets to invest in innovation, IBM said.

For more information about the IBM Migration Factory click here.

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