IBM Storage Systems Division

The Basic Story Regarding the IBM Storage Systems Division

IBM is a leading supplier of comprehensive computer storage products that allow people to use, share, protect and manage their information assets around the globe. Through its Storage Systems Division, the company provides storage solutions for IBM and non-IBM systems, offered through IBM as well as a large network of IBM business partners.

Despite having invented magnetic disk storage four decades ago and having pioneered every significant development since then, IBM had fallen seriously behind the competition. Today, its storage business based in San Jose, California is winning again. In 1997 it gained further momentum by introducing leadership products and by growing revenue from hard-disk drives twice as fast as the industry. This success in disk drives highlights another important story: the growth in sales of IBM technology and components to other companies, many of them direct competitors. Five years ago, IBM's OEM revenue was about $1 billion. In 1997 it was $5.6 billion, growing at double-digit rates, driven mainly by OEM sales of disk drives and semiconductors.

A selection of products, including industry-leading hard disk drives and magnetoresistive (MR) heads, is offered for use by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and hard disk drive suppliers. In addition to disk drives and MR heads, IBM's storage portfolio includes: (1) disk-based arrays and subsystems, (2) magnetic tape drives, subsystems and automated libraries, (3) optical libraries, and (4) storage management software.

IBM and the Storage Systens Segment of the Computer Industry

• IBM Corporation Web Page
  
• IBM Storage Systems Division web page
  
• IBM Company History
  
• IBM 1999 Annual Report
  
• Disk Drive Manufacturers
  
• Information Technology Industry Council web page
  
• Disk Drives Take an Eventful Spin (development history)
  
• Disk Drive Definition
  
• IBM Enterprise Storage Server Spearheads Storage Assault
  
• IBM Announces OEM Storage Shipment Milestone
  
• What Is OEM?
  
• IBM Sets Another Disk Drive World Record: 35.3 Billion Bits Per Square Inch with Product-stable Disk Material
  
• IBM Launches Major New OEM Initiative
  
• IBM Cashes In
  
• IBM and EMC Announce Strategic Technology and Business Alliance
  
• Is Storage Systems at an Inflection Point?
  
• Peripheral Research Announces Disk Drive Components Markets are Back in a Growth Mode
  

Other Computer Industry References

• Disk Trend Inc. web page (market research company)
  
• InfoStor Magazine
  
• Seagate Technology Inc. web page
  
• Quantum web page
  
• EMC Corp. web page
  
• Western Digital web page
  
• IEEE Magazine
  
• SAP web page
  
• Data Storage Magazine web page
  
• Do a Google search on Dennis Waid, President of Peripheral Research.

Key People within IBM and the Storage Systems Division

• Lou Gertsner, Chief Executive Officer, IBM Corporation
• Ron Kilpatrick, General Manager, Storage Systems Division
  
• Ranga Jayaraman, SAP Director, IBM SSD
• Zoe Gustlin, Chief Information Officer, IBM SSD

Some Tips on Doing an Analysis Paper on IBM SSD

• This is definitely a funnel down paper as you can and should start with a perspective of IBM as a major player in the compupter industry and then address its role and position in the storage systems segment of the industry.
• Don't let the fact that IBM is in multiple business confuse the analysis. Your focus is on storage systems portion of its business.
• In using the Internet to find information that is pertinent to this analysis remember that commonly used terms are computer peripherals, storage devices and disk files.
• Center the analysis on the redefinition of the business of this division to incorporate and emphasize the OEM opportunity. This shift in business focus was a major change that necessitated the creation of new business processes that were implemented with the support of SAP application software.

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