From: Mark Shearer - IBM System i General Manager             July 19th, 2007
 
Dear iSociety Members:

Thank you for your continued partnership and outstanding
leadership in the System i community.  I'm writing to share
some important announcements with you.
 
During the past few years, the System i business has diverged
into two distinct client segments – large enterprise and small
and medium business – each with its own set of requirements.
We’re making important changes to better address these client
needs and position IBM to be a leader in both large enterprise
and SMB.  This is the next logical step in a journey we’ve been on for several years and is based on feedback from clients and Business Partners to simplify our offerings and put greater focus on their unique requirements.
 
We've created a new Business Systems unit, led by Marc Dupaquier, that going forward will be responsible for SMB integrated systems including the low-end System i products and will focus on the SMB client segment.  This new unit will extend the System i capabilities to ensure continued relevance to small and medium businesses, and will build on the integrated, easy-to-use value proposition of i5/OS.
 
We’re also establishing an enterprise-focused Power Systems unit, led by Ross Mauri, that will include all of today’s System p product line as well as our high-end System i 570 and 595 products.  This reaffirms our commitment to delivering leadership POWER systems, including delivering the value of the i5/OS operating environment and applications in our large enterprise clients.
 
Next week, the Power Systems unit will unveil a flexible new POWER6 processor-based System i 570 offering to help medium and large enterprises achieve new levels of operational efficiency for their business applications.  We’ll also make a product preview of i5/OS V6R1, a major new version of IBM’s integrated i5/OS operating environment coming in 2008 that will deliver significant enhancements to clients in security, business resiliency and virtualization capabilities.
 
These changes will help us continue to secure your investment in your i5/OS applications by keeping them in the mainstream of IBM’s future systems investments.
 
I'm delighted that I will continue to work with the entire System i community as I assume the product responsibility for IBM's high-end POWER systems,  modular & blade POWER systems, as well as i5/OS, AIX, and Linux on POWER.  COMMON and iSociety are unique and special aspects of the i5/OS world, and you have my personal commitment to continue to promote and build upon the outstanding working relationship that we share.
 
Thank you again for your continued support of the System i business.  I look forward to continuing our relationship.