The investment is more about being a thorn in IBM's side
It was reported earlier this week here on Network World that Microsoft has made in an investment in open source mainframe emulator TurboHercules. Back last April I wrote about TurboHercules and its complain to the EU about IBM trying to stifle competition in the mainframe emulator space. So is Microsoft really starting to invest in open source business models here or is there something else a foot? I am afraid to say that this investment is more about an enemy of my enemy is my ally. Microsoft wants in on the mainframe market that is still dominated by IBM. This investment is about being a thorn in IBMs side.
Microsoft also invested in T3 another company that has filed an anti-trust compliant against IBM in Europe. So it would appear this investment of an undisclosed sum is more about mainframes than open source. Microsoft issued this statement about the investment:
“Microsoft shares TurboHercules’ belief that there needs to be greater openness and choice for customers in the mainframe market. Customers tell us that they want greater interoperability between the mainframe and other platforms, including systems that run Windows Server. For that reason, we continue to invest in companies like TurboHercules to develop new solutions for our mutual customers.”
As the Network World article details this is identical to the statement it made about the T3 investment. Nothing at all about open source. TurboHercules allows users to emulate mainframe OS on Windows (and Linux too). In this way, people can run mainframe software on a Windows platform.
IBM which is generally very supportive of open source gets very touchy when anything threatens its very lucrative main frame business. They have tried to stymie both TurboHercules and T3. It seems Microsoft wants in on this market and is even willing to invest in an open source company to get there.
