ARMONK, NY--(MARKET WIRE)--Dec 9, 2003 -- IBM leads the U.S. Hosting marketplace with 27 percent share, according to a recent report published by Stratecast Partners, a leading technology research and consulting firm.
The report, titled "IBM Application Hosting Solutions Analysis," says IBM Global Services excels in hosting services due to "its expertise and model for delivering hosted application services" and its ability to translate its expertise through its on-demand strategy. IBM's concept of 'flexible hosting,' is a key element to this strategy. This model provides customers with the benefits of "lower overall costs, quicker implementation times, less financial risk, and rapid scaling."
"Its application management capabilities combined with its hosting strategy and growing on-demand capabilities continue to give IBM Global Services a competitive edge," said Diane Myers in the report. "With the consolidation of the hosting market over the past two years, we do not anticipate this advantage to dissipate in the near-term...no other hosting provider has been able to match the breadth and depth of IBM's capabilities."
Last year, Stratecast Partners stated, "The breadth and depth of IGS' expertise and service offerings provides them with a competitive advantage in the hosting market that is hard to replicate." According to the new report, "That statement continues to hold true as evidenced by its development of on-demand hosting infrastructure services such as Linux Virtual Services, and hosted application services such as Onyx. There are few hosting providers that have the ability to offer custom application management and standardized, automated, shared application solutions."
"IBM is very pleased to be recognized by Stratecast Partners for our leadership in Hosting services," said Jim Corgel, general manager, IBM e-business Hosting Services. "IBM combines it expertise and strengths from hosting, infrastructure management and industry consulting to provide businesses with the services, such as Application Hosting and Linux Virtual Services, they need to unlock true business value and transform companies into on demand businesses."
Overall, IBM's leadership position can be attributed to its "application service capabilities, brand, installed base of enterprise customers in which to sell hosting services, professional service capabilities, sales team, partnerships and international capabilities," according to the report.
IBM Application Hosting Services gives businesses an alternative to building and running their technology infrastructure in-house by tapping into computer systems in IBM data centers worldwide to provide sophisticated management of software applications.
In the past year, IBM has announced a number of new Application Hosting services. They include:
-- Siebel CRM OnDemand -- an enterprise-class CRM application, available to everyone on the Web and designed to meet the growing marketplace demand for fast, easy, and affordable CRM. A high-availability Internet utility, Siebel CRM OnDemand enables customers to start with a small CRM project, with minimal start-up time, deploy rapidly, and grow the system as needs change over time. With Siebel CRM OnDemand, individuals and companies can manage contacts, sales opportunities, products, prices, competitors, events, marketing campaigns, and customer service requests. The net result is that companies can close more business with more satisfied customers in less time.
-- IBM Application Hosting -- for SAP -- a flexible, fully managed solution that helps customers obtain the Web-enabled infrastructure they need today -- without a significant up-front investment -- and begin realizing the business benefits of SAP rapidly. Plus, with IBM handling the day-to-day system and application administration, customers can be confident that the mission-critical SAP systems are designed to deliver the performance and availability that their users demand.
-- HRsmart Hosted Services -- designed for medium businesses, this on demand offering delivers human resource applications to customers, over the Internet, for a usage-based charge. This lower, variable price structure significantly reduces the costs for this critical business function, freeing customers to focus on running their business while IBM manages their computing systems. HRsmart software provides a measurable ROI, reducing the time it takes for companies to fill jobs and the cost-per-hire. HRsmart's applications are built on IBM's Linux Virtual Services, a Linux-based application environment hosted on IBM zSeries that provides unmatched scalability and security.
IBM has been providing hosting services since 1995 and has over 100,000 servers under management in 234 data centers around the world. For more information, visit: http://www-3.ibm.com/services/e-business/hosting/.
About IBM Global Services
IBM Global Services is the world's largest information technology services and consulting provider, generating over $36 billion in 2002. Approximately 180,000 professionals serve customers in over 160 countries, providing the entire spectrum of customers' e-business needs -- from the business transformation and industry expertise of IBM Business Consulting Services to hosting, infrastructure, technology design and training services. IBM Global Services delivers integrated, flexible and resilient processes -- across companies and through business partners -- that enable customers to maximize the opportunities of an on-demand business environment.
