IBM so confident in supply chain, it's frozen storage prices and has freebies for late shipments

IBM is truthful assured successful its hardware proviso concatenation that it's promised to vessel retention arrays by nan extremity of 2022 – and if it's precocious you get free package arsenic compensation.

The Big Blue connection applies only to 5 models of its FlashSystem arrays, but is nevertheless notable arsenic nan institution will judge orders until December 16 (December 1 successful Latin America). That leaves it conscionable 8 aliases 9 business days to get an array connected nan road.

If nan array doesn't vessel earlier it's clip to singing Auld Lang Syne, customers get a one-year freebie licence for IBM Storage Insights Pro.

Big Blue's moreover offering to waste you this kit pinch 3 years of monthly payments, and nan first 3 months waived. Again, you gotta bid by nan extremity of 2022. The company's besides promised not to hike prices betwixt now and nan extremity of nan year.

That's a suite of offers that stands successful marked opposition to different endeavor hardware vendors.

In its astir precocious quarterly net report, HPE advised of grounds backlog for retention products. Dell said request for retention is outstripping proviso and it must truthful walk connected value rises. Cisco has advised that customers look not only months-long waits for products but that prices will person to rise.

Big Blue hasn't explained really it tin make nan offers above, different than to opportunity "the hard-working proviso concatenation squad astatine IBM has erstwhile again successfully positioned america to walk connected our optimizations to you."

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Well played to that squad … but it's possibly a shame they're moving for a retention vendor that our related tract Blocks and Files believes has mislaid marketplace stock successful nan past 5 years and is astir apt nan sixth-largest retention vendor by revenue.

Shipping fixed-price kit quickly mightiness thief IBM to get up of immoderate rivals.

IBM besides precocious shunted Red Hat's retention products into its ain portfolio. Red Hat's wares are software-defined – an attack felt to beryllium much useful than arrays for illustration nan FlashSystem successful these days of hybrid cloudiness.

Suggesting that IBM is offloading nan arrays arsenic it goes deeper connected software-defined retention is astir apt nasty cynical journalistic thinking, particularly arsenic Big Blue still rakes successful billions from its mainframes and POWER systems businesses. ®