It was interesting to read in the news of a company T3 complaint of IBM’s abusive dominant position in the European mainframe market.
IBM’s actions are counter to the promises it made to both the European Union and the US Department of Justice when it settled past actions for anti-competitive behavior. I was a bit shocked on how aggressive IBM’s practices are and how the livelihoods of smaller companies have been destroyed. The question is where will it stop with no other options in the mainframe market, IBM is able to leverage its monopoly position and charge customers above-market prices for mainframe hardware, software and services.
I found a link on this issue called OpenMainframe.organd amazed how critical mainframes are in the functioning of air traffic control, financial systems and global finance and many important government systems like your tax. The facts from the website outlines from a recent report by IDC how over 99% of the worldwide installed base of mainframes is licensed from IBM and in 2006 how IBM was the only remaining supplier of new mainframes.
Regards, Per
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