I’m not sure if this will help ‘un-mix’ the signals for you, but in the UK, Julian Fielden from OCF expects that IBM’s new HPC services will strengthen OCF’s partnership with IBM and extend the “coopetition”. Julian certainly doesn’t view it as a challenge to the established channel.

In the UK at least, OCF will continue to support the vast majority of current and potential HPC customers with its own services. It will continue to provide the “close-to-the-customer experience and high levels of expertise”. OCF will also draw on IBM’s new HPC services if it needs to – enhancing its own services and filling the narrow gap in services that OCF doesn’t currently offer. IBM will also continue to support the small number of much larger HPC customers who tend to demand direct Vendor engagement itself – and to do that, it will need its own services line.