IBM Creates Great Technologies, But What Happened to Them?

Today, I found out that IBM engineers created and contributed to adding support for LXC containers to the Linux kernel – a technology that became the foundation of modern containerization. Sounds impressive, right? The problem is that very few people know about it.

This is one of many cases where IBM invents something revolutionary but fails to showcase it properly or is not able to integrate it into its own products. But what frustrates me the most when working with IBM technologies is that they often lock their innovations behind licenses or hardware that regular users can’t access. It seems that IBM has trouble properly managing the technologies it creates.

IBM Creates Technologies, But What Happened to Them?

• PC Computer – IBM created the PC standard, but other companies (Microsoft, Intel, Dell) made business out of it. IBM eventually sold its computer division to Lenovo.
• Watson – IBM’s artificial intelligence was supposed to revolutionize the world, but it never became as popular as the company hoped. Today, OpenAI and ChatGPT dominate the AI market.
• SQL – IBM invented the SQL language, but it was Oracle who turned it into a commercial success by incorporating it into their products.
• Hard Drive – IBM created the first HDD in 1956. But who remembers that today?
• Virtualization in AIX – The Forgotten WPAR – IBM created OS-level virtualization in AIX with WPAR (Workload Partitions), but this technology has not been developed in years and today seems quite outdated. Running a WPAR takes forever because it requires a full OS installation. Yet, a fast and isolated instance of the system for testing purposes would be very useful on AIX.
• AI PowerSystems– IBM pulled them just before the boom of LLMs – IBM had great AI machines in its portfolio, such as the IC922 or AC922, equipped with graphics cards ideal for training and running large language models, but failed to keep them on the market. This was likely due to a fallout with NVIDIA, but they had time to develop their own accelerator technology. Instead, they went with MMA accelerators, which in theory are a great solution, but once again – only a very narrow group of people with access to IBM Power hardware can use and promote them.
• AIX and IBM i – Great systems locked behind expensive hardware – AIX and IBM i are powerful and well-designed operating systems, but they can only run on IBM Power servers, which are expensive and inaccessible to most developers. As a result, very little software is created for these systems because developers simply don’t have access to the hardware to build and test their applications. This significantly limits the ecosystem and innovation around these platforms.

IBM and the “Do Everything Possible to Ensure No One Uses This Technology” Strategy

There are probably many more examples. Continuously, when I find out about something IBM created but failed to promote, I get the feeling that the company stubbornly follows the “Do Everything Possible to Ensure No One Uses This Technology” strategy – for instance, by building them behind paywalls and limiting access to their solutions.

Of course, someone might argue that IBM is a mature company and a model like the one used by OpenAI (free access to AI, then monetization) isn’t the best for them. But Microsoft has shown that opening up to the community, supporting open-source, and providing access to products for testing can bring enormous benefits – even to a large and established company.

Dear Arvind Krishna If You Need promoting your products – I’d be happy to help! 😊 But seriously now, I believe the most important thing is to give the community the opportunity to use these solutions. Open technologies are much easier to showcase and promote, especially to decision-makers. Directors who approve such purchases also prefer to buy technology from a vendor that makes its solutions available for non-commercial use, as they can use them on their own laptops.

Maybe it’s time to stop hiding great technologies behind paywalls and start sharing them so people can actually use them?