Paul Krill
Editor at Large

Microsoft takes aim at IBM in Web campaign

news
Apr 30, 20092 mins

Company touts Windows Server as outperforming Big Blue's OS and hardware

Microsoft will take aim at IBM Thursday in a Web campaign touting Windows Server on Intel-based hardware as a better, more economical performer than IBM’s AIX and RISC server platform.

Key to the effort will be data derived from Microsoft-conducted tests that the company said show Windows Server 2008 on Intel-based HP blade servers outperforming an IBM Power server with Power processors and IBM’s AIX Unix OS. The application used in the testing was an IBM stock trader application. Also used in the tests was IBM’s WebSphere application server. Windows also outperformed IBM when the application was written as a Microsoft .Net application, according to Microsoft.

[ Server face-off: Windows versus Linux. ]

“We find that there’s lots of customers that are running WebSphere and we want to have a simple message for them: that they can save significant money on hardware and increase their performance by running WebSphere on Windows,” said Steven Martin, senior director of product management for the developer platform at Microsoft.

Microsoft will feature its data on a Web site to be called www.websphereloveswindows.com, in a campaign entitled, “Who Knew?” A white paper documenting test configurations will be featured as will a capacity planning tool and information on mainframe migrations.

IBM on Thursday noted that Microsoft’s own white paper features a disclaimer about the tests, in which Microsoft states it cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information presented.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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