We all know that no one is ever completely safe, but what would you call the safest brands to be in at IBM right now? Which brands do you see IBM investing in and are at least risk for making significant cuts?
I personally would say IoT, Security and Watson?
Maximo = IOT ? WTF. Its no wonder IBM is in decline.
Kubernetes and Docker. I would have previously said Cloud was the safest department to be in, but I was in Cloud and was one of those let go, so that's a nope on that. It does seem like containerization is a bigger deal in the work place than virtualization, though, which is why I say any department that runs Kubernetes servers for clients.
safest is to get out of IBM and RUN to the hills !
IoT has Maximo and TRIRIGA which are dominant in their space
SPSS they have been around for 55 years. IBM owns the market which is exclusively colleges and universities. They also make $160M off a team of less than 200. I would say they are relatively safe.
The safest place is to no longer be (work) at IBM... time to move on IBMers!
I'll take a stab at this: Storage? Customers always need storage - on prem, cloud, hybrid. And IBM is the sole LTO tape manufacturer. And the mainframe nearly always drags storage with it during refresh cycles. And I haven't seen any layoffs in storage. And the IBM offerings are pretty good - just out-marketed by the competition.
When I was still at IBM every new acquisition was done so poorly, brought in house with inadequate planning, poor support, and always inadequate funding after purchase. The result was that the value of the supposedly wonderful products of the acquired company self destructed in very short order. Bureaucracy, soulless greedy execs making short sighted decisions, and a inbred cadre of butt kissing second/third line managers have rendered the company a smoldering wreck at this point. Get out while you can.
When IBM considers it the "latest thing" it's old hat. Look beyond what IBM is doing.
Regarding "IBM Titanic Failure": This about says it all: https://twitter.com/UpskillC/status/1267404279683469312
Safest brand is NOT Watson/IOT/Security. You need to be either on H1B or a fairly fresh graduate.
Watson anyway is a joke and forget about Cloud, iBM has lost the race.
I would say, run away from IBM as far as you can. it's a sinking titanic and Leadership has no direction/strategy. if you don't jump sooner, it will take your career down with it.
I know many people who have been with IBM for over 10 years and got RAed recently. They couldn't keep up with things/changes happening outside IBM and know only legacy technologies and IBM's c-ap methodologies. Now, they are in a job search and the market is not embarrassing them very well.
There are no safe brands right now. Red Hatters were laid off, executives were laid off, people in security (top secret clearance even!) were laid off along with people in cloud. Remember, the "Cloud & Cognitive" business unit encompasses a TON of brands in AI, supply chain, IoT, blockchain PLUS everything cloud. C&C always seems to not meet expectations in the financial results despite alleged increases in cloud revenue. That's because the cognitive/software stuff is high margin–look there for cuts.
It’s like switching seats on the titanic
Watson? What the hell is Watson anyway other than a bunch of marketing copy. Clearly Watson Health is over.
IOT is a dead duck. No money in it and there is little to nothing IBM offers that is useful. More relevant players in that market anyway.
There are no 'safe' spaces within IBM unless you're an executive
Red Hat or Security. Neither one has to do a damn thing and they get 150,000 Services employees at their disposal to sell their third rate products and services!
Not even Security is safe. Trust me.
IBM's cleaners are pretty bullet proof at the moment.
The safest brand is the C-suite.
Redhat is the golden child. Being on a fortune 1000 account isn’t far behind as that’s where AK is taking IBM
Security will always be there, all other technologies/brands will be hot/cutting-edge -> mature/saturated ->Legacy/Tradition
Security, Hybrid Cloud, IoT, anything with supply chain/blockchain I would think
Like you said, no one is safe. With that being said.... The AI Applications group (IoT, Sterling, Weather) seems like the direction Arvind wants to go.