IBM’s Flirtation with Sun: The Next Volley in the Data-Center War - Digits - WSJ

It’s the logical consequence of the all-out war for the data center — the large computer rooms that keep businesses and the Internet running — that the industry is suddenly in the midst of. Businesses will spend about $100 billion on equipment and software for data centers in 2009, according to research company IDC.The data-center land grab is starting to coalesce around three companies: H-P, IBM and Cisco.

Cisco, the smallest of the three, announced this week that it will start selling its own “server” computer that will compete with ones from H-P and IBM.

H-P made its ambitions clear when it bought information-technology services giant EDS last year. Now H-P goes head-to-head with IBM on giant outsourcing contracts, and their already tight competition on blade servers — the one piece of the server market that’s still growing – has been publicly combative.

IBM’s Flirtation with Sun: The Next Volley in the Data-Center War - Digits - WSJ