IBM is building its multibillion-dollar footprint in India with a
new autonomic computing technology centre in Bangalore.
Big Blue is promoting the centre as more proof of its resolve to
do business in one of the world's fastest-growing economies. The
company announced last year that it will
invest $6b in India by 2009. The new centre
employs about 35 developers and engineers, who will work in
conjunction with
IBM laboratories in
New Delhi and Bangalore, as well as IBM research facilities
in North Carolina's Triangle Park and Toronto.
 | | | | | It reflects a growing trend on IBM's part to
be seen there as a good corporate citizen and that they want to
take advantage of the current market situation there.
Richard Ptak
analystPtak, Noel &
Associates |
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Analysts familiar with this latest IBM development in India say the
new technology centre reflects IBM's determination to push
autonomic computing globally. Autonomic computing technology is
designed to make it easier for companies, including small and
medium-sized businesses (SMBs), to utilize IT.
"There is a
competition going on between IBM and
Hewlett-Packard to establish their international
credentials. I think it's getting more serious and aggressive as
both of them start to compete more heavily against one another,"
said Richard Ptak, partner at Ptak, Noel & Associates in
Amherst.
The quest makes sense. India's rapidly growing middle class has
discretionary income and is educated, entrepreneurial and eager to
embrace new technologies, Ptak said. "This is a big growth market
for IT and IT services for consumers and businesses both."
IBM chairman and CEO Samuel Palmisano's high-visibility trip to
India, joins other recent pilgrimages of other IT bosses from
Microsoft's Bill Gates to Cisco Systems's John Chambers,
underscores the interest in doing business there.
"The announcement was for 35 jobs for autonomic computing in
India. It is not a whole lot, but it reflects a growing trend on
IBM's part to be seen there as a good corporate citizen and that
they want to take advantage of the current market situation there,"
Ptak said.
But the venture is more than a goodwill gesture.
Autonomic computing, IBM's term for
technologies designed to manage and heal themselves, is fairly
complex, Ptak said. The decision to open a centre in Bangalore
makes business sense. "The buyer tends to be more technical there,
and interested in that. Having their development team there isn't
going to hurt them at all," he said.
Promising investment for SMBs
Autonomic computing is also well suited to a growing economy
and, in particular, a nation of SMBs because a self-managing,
self-healing IT infrastructure will, in theory, free-up companies
to focus on technology that gives them a competitive advantage.
Autonomic computing makes the infrastructure more reliable, less
risky and easier to apply, Ptak said, likening it to what Windows
did for desktop computing.
"Windows, with all of its warts, even today, made it much easier
for masses of people to use the computer, and that is what
autonomics is about," Ptak said. "Now you could do autonomics
development work anywhere in the world, but I think obviously
Palmisano has an interest in India. I think the interest is driven
by pure economics and the drive that India has to become a
developed nation in the next 10 years."
Autonomic computing has been incorporated into IT hardware for a
long time, said Julie Craig, an analyst at Boulder, Colorado-based
Enterprise Management Associates. Autonomic computing in software
is a more recent development, and IBM is not the only company doing
it, she said. Microsoft, with its Dynamic System Initiative, HP and
others have variations of it.
"IBM mainframes, HP mainframes, storage area networks, all
hardware systems have basically for years been able to do this.
They watch their own health, if a component starts to fail, they
can actually call IBM or HP and the service man walks in the door
with the part before anybody knows it's bad," Craig said. "What's
happening now with this autonomic focus is that vendors are
extending it to software, and particularly to management software,
and that is where things get complex because software is difficult
to develop."
What is new and different about the IBM announcement, beyond the
ribbon-cutting value, Craig said, is the concentration on autonomic
computing. "I have not heard of other vendors making an investment
in a specific autonomic centre which focuses on software," she
said.
This is important because the field is still in the early
stages. Much will depend on vendors to work together to develop
standards, but autonomic technology will become more and more a
part of IT systems. Craig said she expects adoption to increase in
the next five to 10 years, and even be pushed by users who will
make it a standard item on their requests for proposals.
"Small business are going to reap the same benefits as larger
businesses do, as vendors incorporate more and more of this into
their technology," Craig said.
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