fostering an open alliance among competitors the itanium solutions alliance

Copyright © 2009, Itanium® Solutions Alliance. All rights reserved.

From Playing Poker to Winning as a Team

How to Foster an Open Alliance Between Competitors

Joan Jacobs

Andrew Masland

DELIVERING A NEW ERA IN MISSION-CRITICAL COMPUTING

Copyright © 2009, Itanium® Solutions Alliance. All rights reserved. 2


Who Are We?

• Joan Jacobs

– President and Executive Director of the Itanium® Solutions Alliance

– Previous experience at Hewlett Packard (HP), Compaq, Digital

Equipment Corporation, Raytheon and Data General Corporation

– Most recently at HP, Jacobs led partner development for HP Integrity

Servers, which included working with ISVs to port their applications

to the company’s Itanium®-based platforms

• Andrew Masland

– Itanium Solutions Alliance Marketing Chairman

– Director, Strategic Alliances, NEC’s Redmond Technology Center

– Previous experience at Wall Data, Spacelabs Medical, Digital

Equipment Corporation, and the Pennsylvania State University



What is the Itanium® Solutions Alliance?

• Launched in September 2005

• Intel and Itanium-based platform providers plus over 200

leading ecosystem providers (OS vendors and ISVs)

• Goal: Utilize the Alliance’s unique value to leverage sponsor

marketing investments to facilitate Itanium sales worldwide



What Led to the Formation of the Alliance?

• Need for increased momentum for chip technology

on a global basis

• Desire for expanded application ecosystem

on Windows and Linux

• Negative coverage from press and analysts

questioning longevity of the processor and the

commitment of OEMs

• Shared competitive vision among sponsors



Significant Impact

• Virtually eliminated “Itanic” noise

• Demonstrated broad and deep investment in the Itanium-based

platform ($10B announcement)

• Over two dozen press and analyst tours

– Approximately 500 tier-1 Press/Analyst briefings and articles

• 90 commit wins including highly visible successes

(e.g., Microsoft, Sun Java, Symantec etc.)

• Halo effect and developer programs contributed to accelerated

application availability

– From approximately 5,000 to over 13,000

• IDC: Itanium is the fastest growing platform in the world


Itanium®-based Platform Momentum and ChoiceItanium System Revenue Compared to RISC Architectures

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

$0

$1

$2

$3

$4

$5

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%Itanium System Revenue

Bil

lion

s $

US


Itanium achieves solid market acceptance

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, Q4’07 and Q3’08

% of all SPARC* System Revenue

% of all POWER* System Revenue

Q3’08

Itanium is

99% of

SPARC and

71% of

POWER



What Attracted Sponsors?

• Common goals

– Increase application availability

– Improve market perception

• Common partners

(Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat, SAP, Oracle and others)

• Common competitors (IBM and Sun)

• Intel as a common partner

• Desire to leverage individual marketing investments

• Opportunity for leadership, influence and increased visibility



Initial Common Concerns

• No lead generation (no sales programs)

• No violations of any anti-trust provisions

• Avoid domination by large sponsors

(equal participation opportunities and share of voice)

• Balanced investments between Windows and Linux

• Keep customer data confidential for joint investment opportunities



The Right Structure Was Critical

• Engagement at a variety of levels

– Executive League for high-level strategy

– Steering Committee for goals and direction

– Marketing and Enabling Teams for tactical programs

– Regional Committees for unique local requirements and programs

– Workgroups form and disband to address short-term needs

• Agreed-upon goals and scorecards

• Regularly scheduled calls and face-to-face meetings to stay “front of mind”

• Third-party contracted administrative and marketing resources

– Help maintain neutrality

– Reduce time commitments



Ongoing Keys to Success

• Encourage sponsor involvement

– Executive commitment

– Participation opportunities

– Leadership opportunities

• Nurture common goals

• Create opportunities for external visibility in press/analyst relations,

web presence, success stories, etc.

• Schedule with awareness of time-zone challenges

• Remain sensitive to cultural differences (company and national)

• Provide sufficient face-to-face meetings and long-term

networking opportunities to build trust

• Maintain neutral facilitation and back channel communication

to build consensus, work issues and concerns



Adapt Over Time

• Survey members to ensure satisfaction

• Keep priorities current

– Enabling work completed

– Marketing efforts continue

– Evolve the web site and build social networking capabilities

• Change leadership to provide new opportunities for participation

• Adapt budgets and work levels to economic realities

• Allow members to support Alliance with in-kind services

as an alternative investment model

• Evolve programs to maintain active involvement



What the Sponsors Say

“I think one of the biggest benefits we get from the Alliance

is the whole ecosystem, and the ecosystem is about

application software solutions.”

“The Alliance provides NEC a vehicle for us to communicate

our shared common goals with the other Alliance members

as well as a vehicle for us to communicate our unique value-

add attributes.”

“The Alliance helps to drive a broader ecosystem of both

infrastructure applications as well as actual end user

applications, and that viability is critical for customers

who are going to adopt an SGI system based on Itanium.”



For More Information

For more information, please visit our Web site:

• www.itaniumsolutions.org

• blog.itaniumsolutions.org/

Or please contact us by email at:

• [email protected]

• [email protected]

http://www.itaniumsolutions.org/

http://blog.itaniumsolutions.org/

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


Questions?


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