The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple - Oscar Wilde
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EC opens two investigations against IBM
THE EUROPEAN COMPETITION COMMISSION has opened two investigations of IBM looking into whether it has engaged in anti-competitive practices.
The Commission is concerned that Biggish Blue might have abused "a dominant market position" in the mainframe computer industry.
The first probe was sparked by complaints from T3 and Turbo Hercules about IBM's alleged tying of mainframe hardware to its z/OS mainframe operating system. The second is an investigation launched by the Commission itself regarding alleged discrimination toward competing suppliers of mainframe maintenance services.
Biggish Blue has hit back at the claims claiming that it is all cunning plan by Microsoft and its other competitors.
In a statement it said, "Certain IBM competitors which have been unable to win in the marketplace through investments in fundamental innovations now want regulators to create for them a market position that they have not earned."
However the rivals say that tying the mainframe hardware and OS software shuts out providers of emulation technology that would allow critical business applications to run on non-IBM hardware.
The Commission said it also has concerns that IBM is engaging in anticompetitive practices by restricting or delaying access to spare parts that only IBM can provide. µ
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Any company that has ever had IBM inhouse for any reason knows how they close out any competitor and start embedding their application/systems. If you have anyone mention Tivoli or any other IBM based solution throw them out of the room and dont sign any contracts not matter how much of a hissy fit IBM throws. There is no easy backout solution one IBM has dug thier claws into your company. Try walking away from IBM backup solutions and still have access to your data. I knew of a company who's IBM bill tripled what was quoted and was so out of control that they put in a company layer to filter what gets sent to IBM to complete because IBM made so many layers to get even the simplest of jobs done. If they are your service desk your service desk will turn into a call center. There is so much wrong with hiring IBM im surprised this had not occured sooner. Google no one was ever fired for hiring IBM to see an accurate description of how IBM embeds itself and triples the cost of IT.
It was about time!
But I have to admit I didn't know that MS is an active player in the mainframe OS market. Despite my 20 years experience in the field, I've never heard of MS-DOS for z/system (or s/360-370-390-s/9000). (Before you start yelling at me: I didn't mention windows because... well.. you cannot run a GUI on character based terminals!).
The only thing that MS and Big Glue may have in common about mainframes is that a few years ago someone enabled z/os to run on Itanic... so one might have had z/system running along Windows on a (mighty) IA64 server. However, someone decided to sue and eventually buy the firm who did the trick. And, of course, since then no-one ever heard of z/system on Itanic again. (guess who incorporated the guys who managed the task.... it's big and sticky).
Despite that, you only WISH your operating system were as stable and reliable as z/system. I've witnessed a couple of z/machines recovering from hardware failure and EVERY little piece of data was consistent: no "orphan" rows in databases, no "weird" flat files, nothing. They even managed to alert IBM support before failing....
Who cares who is behind it? Anti-competitive behavior is anti-competitive behavior. If Microsoft, or IBM, or Sun, or Mozilla, or Osama bin Laden, or *whoever* is "behind" anti-competitive investigations, GOOD! And especially good if it reveals illegal commercial activities as a result!