IBM has doubled the incentive for users to ditch Sun equipment.
According to a report on InformationWeek, Big Blue is taking advantage of the uncertainty surrounding the Sun-Oracle merger and upped the offering for those willing to switch from Sun to IBM.
IBM’s rewards program was launched last April and applied to Sparc-based Sun hardware, such as the Sparc, UltraSparc, and Sparc 64 servers, as well as Fujitsu systems that run on Sparc chips. Previously the company offered $4,000 in software and services for every Sun Spar processor replaced with an IBM Power server. The company will now offer $8,000 in software or services for every Sun Sparc processor replaced with an IBM Power server. IBM has helped 1,640 customers migrate from other manufacturers' hardware in the last year, thanks to the rewards program.
The aggressive offering comes after IBM made significant movement towards acquiring Sun Microsystems. The company missed out when Oracle swooped in and bought the struggling company in late April. Expected to be stitched up this summer, Oracle will fork out $7.4 billion for the company.
Its just like when you can get a cable TV discount by being a new customer, while existing customers get screwed. Only people getting screwed here are those who already bought IBM servers.