IBM's Cloud Initiative Targeting Microsoft

IBM’s Open Cloud Manifesto, an attempt to create technical standards for Web-based computer services, has been received with a great deal of suspicion in some circles, and with good reason. While IBM is trying to project itself as the grown-up in the discussion, many observers see the manifesto as opening a new front in Big Blue’s decades-long death-struggle with Microsoft.
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IBM is arguing that it’s intentions are simply to help develop technical standards to which vendors creating Web-based applications and infrastructure should adhere. That, they argue, will allow customers to choose vendors without worrying that the various products and services they pick won’t function well together.

But while big-name vendors, including Cisco, EMC and AT&T, have signed on to IBM’s clarion call, Amazon, Salesforce.com and Microsoft are conspicuous by their absence. Google also decided to abstain from the manifesto after initially signaling its intent to sign. This unspoken alliance between Microsoft and its erstwhile rivals may seem surprising at first blush, but they are quite simply unwilling to relinquish what they see as their head start in the battle for platform supremacy.

They argue that they have already gone down the path of open standards by publishing the code that allows different applications to work together. Chris Barbin, CEO of Web application integrator Appirio, noted that those companies have already proven they can make their applications function smoothly in the cloud, while IBM is trying to protect its investment in data centers built using proprietary code. Now, Barbin told me, “IBM is trying to catch up and get back in the game.”

Thanks to the size of its market share alone, Microsoft can easily become the dominant Web-based enterprise software vendor. While it has only recently, and grudgingly, come to the conclusion that the future of software is in the Web, or cloud, it can use its formidable advantage in desktop productivity applications to steer customers towards Azure, its cloud-based services platform. Not only does Microsoft have the dominant share in desktop applications, it controls the code used to connect that software to other applications, including Web-based software. That advantage could allow it to create a more friendly Web-based environment for Office and other productivity applications than other vendors could match.

Microsoft employed the same strategy in the 1990s, giving third-party developers access to code that allowed them to create applications that connected to Microsoft Office. But it also kept some of that code to itself, allowing it to trump those developers when it wanted to promote its own applications.

IBM has already been down this road, having seen Microsoft use its dominance on the desktop to propel its software stack at the expense of its Lotus Notes and Domino suites. Open source advocate Gary Edwards told me, “Microsoft is about to make one of the greatest transitions in history… IBM is trying to surround Microsoft and get inside that transition.”

So IBM is trying to step in Microsoft’s path the only way it knows, which is to throw up roadblocks in the form of technical discussions around standards. Microsoft is itself quite adept at playing that game, having led standards battles when it suited its needs.

It’s also possible that IBM’s intention is exactly what it says — to begin a conversation. More likely, though, it’s trying to win a public relations battle, hoping that its posturing will convince developers to create programs for its own cloud platform at the expense of Microsoft and its allies of the day.

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BY Michael Hickins
Source：BNET

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