Edit: Some links no longer work.
Originally posted January 22, 2013 on AIXchange
Jay Kruemcke recently posted this image on Twitter, and I love it.
The quotes are terrific: “In a world where so many things can go wrong, one machine made a difference” and “not one second of downtime in this thriller” are my favorites.
Given the references to both the IBM RS/6000 and the 1992 Academy Award winner for best picture, this was likely created sometime ago. (On the other hand, did they have Photoshop back then?) In any event, I’d love to learn any specifics about its origins.
In some ways though, not that much has changed. Like its RS/6000 forerunner, POWER7 systems are renowned for their reliability. And how often is unplanned downtime an issue in your AIX environment?
I don’t believe that the image Jay posted was ever part of an ad campaign, but IBM has marketed its systems and software systems in a number of distinct ways over the years. For instance, IBM once used its Fiesta Bowl sponsorship to push OS/2. Much more recently, IBM’s latest and greatest innovations are all over YouTube (here, here and here). And of course Watson’s appearance on “Jeopardy!” was a tremendous vehicle for raising awareness of and visibility for our modern platform.
As Watson moves from game shows to healthcare and the financial industry to dealing with natural language in computing, we will continue to see IBM market its solutions.
But if it was your call, how would you promote IBM Power Systems and AIX and educate the public about their capabilities? It may seem like a superfluous question, but then again, some of the best marketing is word of mouth. Do you tell others about how your machine makes your job easier? Have you ever made your own ad?
Many of us have questioned IBM marketing over time, but effectively getting the word out is a challenge, and now more than ever. So how would you tell the world that our hardware is better, and that our operating system is unparalleled? How would you explain virtualization, or the fact that 0.05 of a core can now be allocated to an LPAR in a customer’s environment? How can you quickly and easily communicate this information in a way that people, customers and the general public alike, understand? And where would you broadcast your message? TV ads? YouTube videos? Podcasts? Twitter?