---
title: IBM copies Sun on containers, has the best PR machine
date: 2008-04-25T17:21:31Z
modified: 2008-04-25T17:21:31Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/ibm-copies-sun-on-containers-has-the-best-pr-machine/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 1491
categories:
  - Uncategorized
timestamp: 2008-04-25T17:21:31Z
tags:
  - Uncategorized
---

I keep reading this headline and metaphorically rubbing my eyes/scrubbing my ears.
 **Cloud Computing Gains Steam With New I.B.M. Gear**

What’s up with that? “Cloud” meets “Gear” in a huge [PR triumph](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/technology/23blue.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin). [Cloud…](http://redmonk.com/jgovernor/2008/03/13/15-ways-to-tell-its-not-cloud-computing/) [Gear](http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/)… geddit?

So Microsoft announces [Mesh](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/22/microsofts-mesh-revealed%E2%80%94sync-all-apps-and-all-files-to-all-devices-as-long-as-theyre-windows/), and Amazon cloud growth is exploding. But not when we’re looking at the traditional hardware business.

What I hadn’t realised (the NY Times story has been an open tab all week) was this:

> The I.B.M. systems will mostly be made to order for large customers. One offering involves putting 1,500 server computers into a 40-foot truck trailer, ready to plug in from a parking lot, Mr. Gargan said.
> 
> The corporate customers who have been trying out the I.B.M. systems include Yahoo and other Internet companies. But some large companies in finance and other traditional industries have been testing them as well.”

Sounds like [Black Box](http://www.sun.com/products/sunmd/s20/index.jsp) to me.

As legacy boy I am also very pleased to hear that IBM using water cooling is now “innovative” – company used to get _hammered_ for needing a water supply. Water-cooled mainframes. Remember? What’s old is new again.

The point of this post is not that IBM is doing anything wrong. On the contrary – what a roll its on. But – IBM is not leading in cloud computing, its redefining it.