IBM launches Migration Factory

IBM has announced a range of new mainframe services

IBM is pushing to increase its share of the server market at the expense of its competitors - especially HP.

The firm has announced a range of new services designed to tempt enterprises to its System z mainframe servers.

The initiative follows hot on the heels of HP revealing its integration plans for the merger of services giant EDS, which will lead to the loss of almost 25,000 jobs.

IBM's new program, branded the IBM Migration Factory and backed with $200m (£112m) in investment, is designed to lure customers of other providers, such as SAP and HP.

The announcement is an extension of previous work done by the firm in this area, and IBM claims to have migrated nearly 1,200 systems and increased its revenues by more than $1bn (£560m).

To increase these gains the firm will start to offer potential customers resources that include free server assessments and migration services.

"Several years ago we created IBM's Migration Factory for Power Systems," said Humberto Freire, worldwide director of enterprise systems migration at IBM.

"In my opinion, Gartner's worldwide report validates that customers are buying and responding well to this aggressive programme because of the business benefits afforded by IBM systems. Tack on the fact that IBM sold out of the System z10 in the second quarter and you will see that customers are ready for a strategic roadmap to consider the mainframe for their server consolidation needs."

Some of the benefits that IBM will pitch to potential customers are the energy and space savings that a System z server can offer, reduced total cost of ownership, less complexity and improved scalability and security.