From typewriters to cloud computing for centuries IBM

Foreign media recently wrote, praised IBM from the successful transformation of hardware, become another hundred years of enterprise, and mentioned IBM for the last hundred years of the secret is its rapid adaptation to the market. The following is the full text of the article:

Referring to the International Business Machinery Company (Analysys Business Rogue, hereinafter referred to as IBM), you may still think of computers. Now, however, the company that once relied on hardware has been transformed, relying on technology that is more intangible than hardware.

With the advent of its centennial, IBM showed the world how to accelerate innovation and how quickly to stay ahead.

The company, known as the "Blue Giant", was the dominant force in early business computing. When truck fleets arrived at IBM's mainframe computers, IT managers often said, "Nobody gets fired for buying IBM machines."

But it was a long time ago.

"As the curator of the museum, I think 1992 is an inflection point for IBM, and it's very, very difficult to describe what IBM was doing at that time," Trie Mourdoux Terry Muldoon said. Trie Mours, an engineer who worked for more than 30 years at the IBM UK Research Center, now runs a small museum that records IBM's history.

First personal computer

The story begins with calculators, factory clocks and weighing scales, and the four companies that produce the three products merged into IBM in 1911. After that, IBM entered the innovation outbreak period from the 1960s to 70, and introduced products such as disk drives, floppy disks, barcodes and magnetic strips for each credit card.

IBM has prospered in the era when only large groups or public projects such as NASA's space program can be used in computers. Mainframe computers at the time were made by IBM, with IBM microprocessors and software.

But after the computer personalized, IBM's Day is sad.

IBM made its first personal computer in 1981. Fatally, IBM is handing over the operating system and microprocessor to Microsoft and Intel respectively. This "Wintel" (Microsoft Intel)--rather than IBM--has become the dominant force in the home computing world. Even so, over the next few years, IBM continues to innovate and sell millions of computers.

The Museum of the Huxley Research Center (Hursley study Pew) has the first personal computer, IBM 5100, who wants to put it on his lap and bend over.

Software and services

Eventually, IBM dumped the PC business in 2004 and sold it to Lenovo.

Trie Mourdoux said: "All along, when the product has not become a mass product, the merchant can charge a premium." And once the commodity is popularized, China becomes the World Manufacturing Center. ”

Today, IBM has made huge profits on software and services.

We visited the Huxley Research Center with about 1500 employees, led by Dr. Andy Stan Clark (Dr Andy Stanford-clark). A few years ago, all the breakthroughs in computer hardware were made here. During World War II, Vickers Aerogem made aircraft here. Today, the atmosphere is more like a university campus than an industrial place, mainly as a software development lab.

When we left Dr. Stanford Clark's office, the LED nameplate on his door showed Clark's outgoing text because the nameplate detected Clark's cell phone leaving the office.

This is part of a research project for a colleague of Kara, and the research project is affiliated with a broader research program that explores ways to use sensors to share information among devices.

At the Huxley Research Center, many rooms have been used to showcase IBM innovations, from analog supermarkets that can change the price of electronic paper via remote controls, to living rooms that control household appliances and monitor energy use via mobile phones.

Cloud

However, most of the hardware and software used in the show is not developed by IBM. IBM scientists see their skills as a way to integrate the best technologies to provide solutions to the problems that customers encounter.

"20 years ago, IBM will develop some of the technologies that they think are needed for the market and then sell them," Andy Stan-Clark said: "But now we are customer-driven, customers tell us what they need, we offer solutions, not manufacturing specific products to meet customer needs. ”

IBM is also pushing for cloud computing technology, developing software to help big business customers move to the cloud and building large data centers for the hosting cloud. It is also looking for ways to make technology shine in the medical field by using sensors to monitor patients remotely.

But these are highly competitive areas, and it will be difficult for IBM to dominate the mainframe market as before. Still, Trie Mourdoux has seen the continuation of the innovation tradition in terms of changes in IBM's development direction.

He pointed out that Watson (Tom Watson), who led IBM's growth, was still running the strategy. "When Watson became general manager of IBM in 1914, he realized that there were a lot of good products that were not being applied, so he invested heavily in research and development to improve the product and showed customers the benefits of using these products." This spirit of research and development is still in, and is still being used by IBM to solve problems after 100 years. ”

But going on for another 100 years means adapting to changing markets more quickly. And as technology becomes more and more invisible, it will be increasingly difficult to describe IBM's business.

(Responsible editor: admin)