IBM looking to pinch EMC's customers
IBM looking to pinch EMC's customers
IBM has embarked on a mission to poach EMC's customers, with the vendor having designed a device that allows users to migrate data held on EMC boxes to IBM devices without any downtime occurring.
The move has come just weeks after the companies announced that they were to work closer together to extend interoperability between their respective storage systems (see related article), which suggested that relations between the pair were thawing somewhat. IBM appear to have dispelled any such notion of a lovefest happening between the two rivals anytime soon, while EMC could be forgiven for thinking that IBM have taken the interoperability them a bit too far with this latest ploy. The vendor has also assigned more than 100 consultants and technologists across the globe to the initiative, supplying them with the tools to help transfer customers from EMC to IBM storage products.
"This migration program is designed to help customers realise the substantial technology and cost benefits offered by IBM storage products," said Dan Colby, General Manager of IBM Storage Systems.
IBM is hoping that the zero downtime aspect of the initiative will woo those customers who have identified increased storage needs within their IT department but have postponed or cancelled migration initiatives due to concerns over network disruptions and downtime.
EMC seem unperturbed about IBM's latest strategy. Company spokesman Greg Eden pointed to both companies' most recent quarter's financial results, noting that IBM's storage hardware revenue increased by six percent year-on-year, whilst EMC's storage hardware revenue jumped by 21 percent over the same period. These statistics, suggested Eden, demonstrate that EMC has momentum over IBM.
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