The Chinese manufacturer Lenovo will be manufacturing IBM xServers now that IBM has licensed the xServer technology to the company. Lenovo will be making its own Intel-based servers, but there is much speculation by resellers over the move.

IBM Moving Away from Hardware?

One of the most commonly voiced questions regards the future of IBM manufacturing. In 2005 IBM licensed out laptop and PC technology while still creating their own line as well. Now, in 2008, IBM is once again licensing out hardware development prompting many to wonder if IBM is moving away from hardware all together. Manufacturing is an expensive business, and IBM might find that development and concepts are more profitable than actually creating the end products.

But for now, IBM is keeping speculators guessing by continuing to manufacture their own xServers. Lenovo will be making one and two processor servers for the upper echelon of small business clients. IBM, on the other hand will focus their manufacturing interests on sets of servers that range from the most basic to the zSeries mainframes. (more…)

In mid-January, Sun Microsystems surprised the high-tech communities by announcing its intent to purchase MySQL AB for one billion dollars. The original announcement was an informal blog post, but it was almost immediately followed by a formal press release the following day. Regardless, the end result is the same. MySQL, one of the most popular platforms for building networks will soon be owned by Sun, and the MySQL developers are thrilled.

On January 14, 2008, My SQL’s Vice President for Community Kaj Arno posted on the company’s blog that Sun was in the process of buying the company. Arno went on to explain his feeling on the acquisition which were overwhelmingly positive despite apparently also feeling anxious.

It appears that his high regard for Sun Microsystems was well founded. In continuing entries on his blog, Arno has explained in great detail what is happening with the acquisition and tries hard to put the anxious minds of employees, customers and investors at ease. In his latest entry dated January 31, Arno expounds on what will happen to MySQL as closure to the sale is negotiated by the heads of the commercial firm noted for selling enterprise database products. (more…)