Gerstner Sends Valentine to Open Systems

IBM CEO pledges cooperation with Unix community

By Richard Cole

In a special address appropriate for Feb. 14, Louis Gerstner, IBM chairman and CEO, spoke to a packed auditorium at UniForum '96, apologizing for IBM's proprietary past, praising the virtues of open systems and pledging a new union of Unix system suppliers. Gerstner pointed out that he was the first CEO of IBM ever to address a UniForum audience, and he admitted that IBM had fought open systems as a "bastion of closed, proprietary computing."

In a firm but conciliatory tone, he spent much of his time stressing the importance of open technologies. He also delivered what sounded like regret concerning IBM's proprietary past. "We came to this party very late," he said, referring to IBM's slow start in open systems and related developments such as the Internet. "But once we got our head out of the sand, we moved fast, and we are proud of our contributions to the Unix environment."

To anyone familiar with IBM's past efforts to dominate the industry, these remarks came as something of a surprise, but Gerstner did not hesitate to praise openness. "I'm here to talk about a truly open, universally connected world, a vision that is shared, perhaps created, by the entire Unix community." He added, "AIX and Unix are strategic to IBM." (AIX is IBM's Unix implementation.)

According to Gerstner, Unix and open systems are key to the "next great phase" in the information technology industry, "network-centric computing." This includes client/ server environments, the Internet and corporate, internal intranets. "Networks are going to change the way computing is bought, sold and delivered," he predicted. "Computing will be purchased on a subscription or per-click basis." He cautioned that this shift will create "discontinuous change" with "new winners and losers," but he emphasized that the network-based future is both inevitable and rapidly approaching.

Gerstner played to his UniForum audience in regard to developing network computing. "I have come to say, congratulations. Some of you were in the delivery room when the Internet was born. You have seen to its care and feeding when it wasn't quite the phenomenon it is today." He reminded everyone that "80 percent of Internet solutions are Unix-based" and that Unix is the leading platform for Internet tool development.

Down to Business

In addition, Gerstner made it clear that he saw open systems also as an effective way of doing business. After explicitly endorsing both open systems technology and the choices it provides to customers, Gerstner warned the audience about being too involved in its own achievements. "The open systems community is in love with its science and technology, but the network is about what people and institutions can do with it," he said. Customer solutions will have to be based on ease of use and open standards. The World Wide Web, he pointed out, only became popular with the advent of simple, easy-to-understand interfaces. "No important technology becomes ubiquitous until it is easy to use, affordable and conforms to standards."

Gerstner criticized the current fragmentation in the Unix marketplace with its many interfaces at the application and user levels. "This is the single greatest threat Unix faces today. Our different systems force customers to learn and relearn. This is intolerable for customers and will be deadly for Unix."

Without mentioning Microsoft by name, Gerstner alluded to "a new competitor" that could take advantage of a fragmented Unix community. "They don't call themselves open, but they are spinning a story of ease of use and shrink-wrapped, client/server consistency. The danger is real, and the signs are troubling." Only by standardizing interfaces and focusing on easy-to-use customer solutions, Gerstner warned, can the open systems community overcome the Microsoft challenge.

He ended on a note of support and collaboration. "Our industry is a lot better at weddings than we are at marriages. But we are a lot smarter now. Open systems is about competitors working together." Reavowing IBM's belief in open systems, he added, "It is often said that converts are the truest believers. Believe me, we are the truest believers in open systems at IBM, and in Unix specifically. IBM will join in any effort with any vendor, with any customer around the world to pursue greater consistency and to give our products even more of an open identity."

As analysts have pointed out, IBM is known for issuing "statements of direction" that do not necessarily translate into specific actions. The audience at UniForum followed Gerstner's remarks with interest. He encouraged them to watch what IBM actually does in the months and years to come with even closer attention.