Unless a Federal judge overturns* the deal, IBM is going to be granting amnesty to customers using Power Systems iron who have let their Software Maintenance, or SWMA in IBMspeak, lapse. This maintenance service is available for the systems software, compilers, middleware, and related core software that is used by IBM i or AIX shops, and there are a lot of customers who have falling off the SWMA wagon. IBM wants to get them back on.

In an announcement letter sent to business partners, the Power Systems division and the U.S. Technical Support Services unit of Global Services are jointly

Stretched, strained, and even swamped are words that describe IT resources in a great many companies that are leaning on service providers to advance their IT objectives. This is decidedly true when it comes to implementing new technology, where skills and experience are in short supply. The circumstances occur across all platforms, but perhaps is more apparent among the users of the IBM Power Systems running the IBM i operating system, where IT staffing is known to be light.

IBM recognized this years ago and came up with team of technology specialists who could be called on when

Rainer Ross, the intrepid IBM i developer that we profiled in The Four Hundred a few weeks ago because he had developed a hotel search engine that mashed up the IBM i platform with Big Blue’s Watson cognitive analytics software, has another project he has been working on. And Ross wants to get the word out that all of us need to work to get more applications running on the Power Systems-IBM i combination to ensure the longevity of the platform.

First, here is his sense of what we have to do to broaden the appeal of IBM i.

On February 2 each year, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, a groundhog predicts the duration of winter. If the woodchuck, awakened by handlers, sees its shadow, winter will last six more weeks. But if the animal casts no shadow, winter will soon give way to spring. Shortly before February 2, after three years of financial winter, IBM’s executive handlers elevated CEO Ginny Rometty’s remuneration by $3.6 million, calling the boost a performance bonus. I wonder what aspect of Rometty’s performance was so amply rewarded. IBM reported dismal quarterly results ending yet another year of financial decline.

Notwithstanding the apparent optimism of IBM’s

Power Systems Maintenance Prices Hike In Canada

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Maintenance and support is an important part of any IT vendor’s revenue and profit streams and these services are also what make IT shops more or less comfortable with using a piece of hardware or software for mission-critical work. And generally speaking, maintenance prices tend to rise over time because the cost of people tends to go up, too.

In IBM’s fourth quarter, maintenance services represented about 12 percent of the $13.5 billion in Global Services revenues, or about $1.6 billion, taking a 9 percent hit as IBM divested