why?
IBM largely only ever sold storage to IBM customers.
IBM customers have been decreasing -= from a hardware perspective - for many years.
This accelerated with the decline of Unix (AIX, PSeries), iSeries (System I), upon which IBM storage sales were dependent.
This accelerated further with IBM getting out of the x86 server business.
Those customers that remain have multiple choices in the market and some very aggressive competitors.
IBM storage solution set has many features and functions - some of which are innovative - but a lot of those innovations have now been surpassed in application software, virtualization software and so on, negativing the value prop of choosing IBM storage over a lower-priced alternative.
Pricing: IBM always sold storage at a premium to market, partially because of the markets they were selling into but "cheaper but good enough" now has the panache over "premium brand".
Changes: IBM's storage is facing tech changes from industry - virtualization, all-flash, hyper-convergence - and the traditional SAN sales are going to continue to decline.
What did I miss?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
