UPDATED 01:18 EDT / APRIL 29 2014

IBM throwing down the gauntlet before Intel and Amazon | #ibmimpact

Sulu with SwordOne of the interesting aspects of SiliconANGLE’s theCUBE is that we often are able to discuss in depth with the executives of the company putting on the conference some of the keynote topics brought up earlier in the day. theCUBE co-hosts John Furrier and Paul Gillin welcomed the Senior Vice President and Group Executive for IBM Software and Systems, Steve Mills to discuss the Power Systems and Blue Mix announcements as well as detail IBM’s position as the Enterprise makes the shift to hybrid solutions.

Right off the bat, Furrier pointed out that most of the buzz on this day centered around IBM Power Systems and BlueMix. “Is that what you guys were aiming at?” he asked.

“Clearly those are two of the more important focus areas,” Mills began. “Blue Mix is ready to come out in the marketplace in a real way. It’s an open source platform for DevOps but with backend integration into your environments.”

Watch the interview in its entirety here:

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IBM vs. Intel

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Power Systems is, as noted earlier in the day, going head to head with Intel. Gillin noted that Google’s endorsement of OpenPower must be a satisfying feather in IBM’s cap.  “Power is a big business for us,” stated Mills. “There are 100,000+ users out there. Clearly, the server market has compressed to the last standing. We are looking at our position in the marketplace,” he continued. “Google was attracted because it is a very high performing chip. The compute power is outstanding.”

IBM’s natural language AI computer system is able to take advantage of the new Power8 processor. “Watson runs on Linux on Power today,” Mills offered. “All deployments are being done on Power. With Power8, we have a level of optimization and a set of customizations specific to Watson.”

Certain industry sectors are set for major deploys of the Watson system and, according to Mills, several universities will begin instruction in the fall centered around the technologies in Watson.

IBM vs. AWS

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Confidently asserting IBM’s position opposite Intel, the conversation turned to another leviathan, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Gillin mentioned that the buzz in tech circles is that Amazon’s AWS is the de facto provider for the new customer getting into Cloud compute solutions. Mills challenged that assertion.

“First off, with our acquisition of Softlayer, we have more URLs running on Softlayer than AWS has,” Mills stated. “We start out with a good base with all the classical tools and techniques. We have over 100 SaaS offerings available. So, I don’t know how those rumors came about.”

Citing IBM’s century of operation, Mills claimed another win over Amazon thanks to their audit process. “The enterprise requires complete transparency. If it’s 100 percent traceable, I can give peace of mind to my customers,” Mills claimed.

Amazon’s audit system is hampered by their intense secrecy with regard to where their physical storage resides. “The corporate environment has a lot of requirements and Amazon will have to do a lot of evolution to get to that point,” said Mills.

Cloud success, according to Mills, is tied to economics. “You can’t deny that. IT is a tool you use to power a business,” he said. “When the economics are right you can do more with technology. The excitement around public cloud is centered around economics.”

Frequent viewers of theCUBE may be familiar with Furrier’s wrap-up question where he asks the guest to put the bumper sticker on the back of the car that is leaving Las Vegas and IBM Impact. Mills responded, “This event is showing people how rapid, agile, flexible invention and innovation can take place by taking advantage of the tools we are bringing to the marketplace.

“We are overlaying new things into existing infrastructure and it renews that business,” he continued. “If you can bring that renewal around the newest technologies, your customers will want to stay with you because they already have invested time, money and trust in you.”

photo credit: JD Hancock via photopin cc

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