IBM PC

I got a chance to review the new IBM security offerings on their ThinkPad line of laptops this week. The offerings included a security chip, fingerprint reader, password manager, and connection manager. From a system administrations standpoint, it was impressive. From a practical standpoint, it was a mess. We have hundreds of PC's and laptops in use, and most of these offerings were only available on new IBM laptops. There is not a desktop or server solution and there is no integration with non-IBM equipment. I offered my private opinion to a collegue: "Smells like Microchannel. Sounds really cool, but only works with the few IBM machines we have."

Fast forward to this morning and I read (via NYT and a bunch of blogs) that IBM is considering selling its PC division. One of the best things out of IBM in the last ten years is an internal attack on the "not made here" bias that hampers large companies. Perhaps once IBM no longer has its own PC's to sell, it will focus on promoting ESS chips in most PC's, including Dell, HP, etc.. IBM can then make money selling and integrating software that will allow us to manage the entire range of equipment we have. Rather than a cool feature that is not really usable because we are not going to switch our entire install base over to new IBM laptops; instead we will have tools that help us manage what we have better.