I recall when they were a huge, massively successful computing company 1980s, then struggled but made it back in the 1990s, then basically were all but wiped out in the 2000s; if I recall right, they did a reverse split a couple of years ago, since the stock was in the territory of being delisted. It's amazing how corporate fortunes can transform radically in less than a generation.
They basically co-wrote the Datacenter edition of Windows with Microsoft. They have some monster Windows boxes... We had two 32 CPU boxes. Each "computer" was basically a rack of components. Granted, they were emulating the old Unisys midrange computers (custom CMOS CPUs) they replaced - but they were impressive machines. Everything, including CPU's, RAM and backplanes were hot swappable. Stuff Sun used to brag about (back when their engineering tech meant something <sniff>) Unisys was doing with Windows Server 2003 (!!)
Also, interesting to note even with their acquisition of EDS HP is third. I thought EDS was #2 behind IBM? I guess the acquisition wasn't that beneficial after all?
It wouldn't be that surprising of a purchase... as most of Apple's acquisitions seem more transformational than evolutionary (for the acquired). Apple needs more feet for Enterprise penetration, and UIS trades at a significant discount to CSC, HP, and IBM. Would be interesting to see what happens in time.
One thing is for sure... it isn't an expensive acquisition for Apple... and it should offer some opportunities for long-term expansion.
in the enterprise space they have / had about a third of the market share for Windows boxes that cost in the low six figures. although this may sound impressive, i believe this to be quite the niche footprint nowadays because who in their right mind would drop, for example, $100K on a 32-core x86 Windows 2008 R2 box? for much less you can get a decent multi-core machine running a few dozen VMware VMs. i suspect Unisys is selling services and using their legacy brandname / accounts to stay relevant.
This is big. I think it's big. Anyone else think this is big? I do.
Oh yea. This explains the cloud, plus the respect that Jobs brings to the table, that comment about what he wants to do with the 50 billion and his hang'in out with Larry the Ellison and what they talk about while they light up while the kids are swimming off the fantail of that big boat Larry owns.
For people claiming that Macs can't be used in large corporations, here's what I'd like to see. I'd like to see Apple publish a case study of its own IT infrastructure including total number of servers, types of servers, and operating systems used. Also, what type of database systems, ERP and CRM they use, such as Oracle or SAP, and what platforms they run them on. And what do they use for their web servers. Also what is their backup strategy for all their servers. Same for their end user machines including percentage of Macs vs PCs. I would also like to see how they set up things like directory services, authentication, user management, email, calendars, remote access.
I recall when they were a huge, massively successful computing company 1980s, then struggled but made it back in the 1990s, then basically were all but wiped out in the 2000s; if I recall right, they did a reverse split a couple of years ago, since the stock was in the territory of being delisted. It's amazing how corporate fortunes can transform radically in less than a generation.
Go back farther, back to the 1950s and 1960s. Go back to Presper Eckert and John Mauchly and the Eniac. Go back to Sperry Gyroscope, Remington Rand, and Univac. Sperry-Univac was once a competitor to IBM in the 'big iron' market. IBM was so big in those days, they were referred to as 'IBM and the seven dwarfs' (Univac being one of them, along with RCA, NCR, Honeywell, CDC, Burroughs and GE).
Like many of those companies, they got side-swipped by the PC revolution (which was launched by Apple and IBM and a few lesser companies).
I would assume that price comes with a significant debt burden.
Agreed.
Personally, I see this entry point as a jump off point for Apple, once it's been received they will then expand internally their presence with those new contacts, in the Federal System, directly.
This is big. I think it's big. Anyone else think this is big? I do.
This is the first I can remember, since the return of Mr. Jobs, that Apple has partnered with any one like this. I would also imagine that Unisys has some interesting patents developed over the years. I also believe that Apple has developed some technology for its new data center, and that technology would be of interest to other enterprises.
For people claiming that Macs can't be used in large corporations, here's what I'd like to see. I'd like to see Apple publish a case study of its own IT infrastructure including total number of servers, types of servers, and operating systems used. Also, what type of database systems, ERP and CRM they use, such as Oracle or SAP, and what platforms they run them on. And what do they use for their web servers. Also what is their backup strategy for all their servers. Same for their end user machines including percentage of Macs vs PCs. I would also like to see how they set up things like directory services, authentication, user management, email, calendars, remote access.
This is the first I can remember, since the return of Mr. Jobs, that Apple has partnered with any one like this. I would also imagine that Unisys has some interesting patents developed over the years. I also believe that Apple has developed some technology for its new data center, and that technology would be of interest to other enterprises.
They "partnered" with HP on the iPod in much the same way.
I doubt Unisys has patented much in the last 10-15 years.
(But, I think this might be a very good move for Apple...)
Go back farther, back to the 1950s and 1960s. Go back to Presper Eckert and John Mauchly and the Eniac. Go back to Sperry Gyroscope, Remington Rand, and Univac. Sperry-Univac was once a competitor to IBM in the 'big iron' market. IBM was so big in those days, they were referred to as 'IBM and the seven dwarfs' (Univac being one of them, along with RCA, NCR, Honeywell, CDC, Burroughs and GE).
Like many of those companies, they got side-swipped by the PC revolution (which was launched by Apple and IBM and a few lesser companies).
Let's see, General Douglas MacArthur became CEO of Sperry-Rand after he was fired by President Truman. Some claimed that this was the beginning of the military-industrial complex that Ike railed against.
The only Sperry-Rand machine I saw was at Kaiser Steel in Fontana, CA -- along with punched cards with round holes (over-punched to oval, when verified).
That was replaced by an IBM 1410, AIR.
Later, Kaiser closed the plant and itis now a NASCAR racetrack.
I worked for IBM, but in today's environment, UNISYS is a big hitter too.
I think your last sentence addressed a key issue -- Apple must be willing to take requests and feedback from others and use it to enhance and expand the product line... else the users will stop asking and turn to others.
This is the biggest criticism I have (and have always had) in years of dealing with Apple -- their NIH attitude.
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I was thinking along the same lines when I was reading the article. This partnership has the potential to give Apple product feedback that they might not normally get or pay attention to. For example in Leopard there were numerous networking bugs that took Apple a very long time to fix. I gotta believe that if Unisys started finding serious problems in the field Apple would expedite correcting them. This could be good for all Apple users.
They don't have much a footprint where I live, except for contracting out PC service and the like. Certainly don't have the same recognition here as EDS (now HP), IBM and CSC, etc who all compete in the same space. They tend to partner with other companies to win work as far as I can see.
On the other hand, it's a more logical choice for Apple as Unisys don't appear to have an alignment with a particular platform.
I used to work and develop on an OS 1100 machine (a 2200 actually). It was quick and lightning fast for transaction work. However the office I worked in was largely batch based so many of its benefits were lost.
They're not really an outsourcing company, though they do a bit of it. EDS makes most of its income from that. They're more in the integrator/support business.
Hmmm... Apple could buy these guys out with pocket change. Maybe Apple is just testing the water. If things go well then maybe a buyout could be in order.
Different sorts of businesses. In theirs, Unisys is pretty big.
They basically co-wrote the Datacenter edition of Windows with Microsoft. They have some monster Windows boxes... We had two 32 CPU boxes. Each "computer" was basically a rack of components. Granted, they were emulating the old Unisys midrange computers (custom CMOS CPUs) they replaced - but they were impressive machines. Everything, including CPU's, RAM and backplanes were hot swappable. Stuff Sun used to brag about (back when their engineering tech meant something <sniff>) Unisys was doing with Windows Server 2003 (!!)
Also, interesting to note even with their acquisition of EDS HP is third. I thought EDS was #2 behind IBM? I guess the acquisition wasn't that beneficial after all?
EDS is very big, but most of their work is outsourcing, which is different from the bulk of what Unysis does.
I know it gets confusing here. There are so many different kinds of services offered to companies these days that unless you've been following it for a while it can be different to sort out.
Comments
I recall when they were a huge, massively successful computing company 1980s, then struggled but made it back in the 1990s, then basically were all but wiped out in the 2000s; if I recall right, they did a reverse split a couple of years ago, since the stock was in the territory of being delisted. It's amazing how corporate fortunes can transform radically in less than a generation.
They basically co-wrote the Datacenter edition of Windows with Microsoft. They have some monster Windows boxes... We had two 32 CPU boxes. Each "computer" was basically a rack of components. Granted, they were emulating the old Unisys midrange computers (custom CMOS CPUs) they replaced - but they were impressive machines. Everything, including CPU's, RAM and backplanes were hot swappable. Stuff Sun used to brag about (back when their engineering tech meant something <sniff>) Unisys was doing with Windows Server 2003 (!!)
Also, interesting to note even with their acquisition of EDS HP is third. I thought EDS was #2 behind IBM? I guess the acquisition wasn't that beneficial after all?
One thing is for sure... it isn't an expensive acquisition for Apple... and it should offer some opportunities for long-term expansion.
Unisys?! They're still around?
in the enterprise space they have / had about a third of the market share for Windows boxes that cost in the low six figures. although this may sound impressive, i believe this to be quite the niche footprint nowadays because who in their right mind would drop, for example, $100K on a 32-core x86 Windows 2008 R2 box? for much less you can get a decent multi-core machine running a few dozen VMware VMs. i suspect Unisys is selling services and using their legacy brandname / accounts to stay relevant.
This is big. I think it's big. Anyone else think this is big? I do.
Oh yea. This explains the cloud, plus the respect that Jobs brings to the table, that comment about what he wants to do with the 50 billion and his hang'in out with Larry the Ellison and what they talk about while they light up while the kids are swimming off the fantail of that big boat Larry owns.
Unisys?! They're still around?
I recall when they were a huge, massively successful computing company 1980s, then struggled but made it back in the 1990s, then basically were all but wiped out in the 2000s; if I recall right, they did a reverse split a couple of years ago, since the stock was in the territory of being delisted. It's amazing how corporate fortunes can transform radically in less than a generation.
Go back farther, back to the 1950s and 1960s. Go back to Presper Eckert and John Mauchly and the Eniac. Go back to Sperry Gyroscope, Remington Rand, and Univac. Sperry-Univac was once a competitor to IBM in the 'big iron' market. IBM was so big in those days, they were referred to as 'IBM and the seven dwarfs' (Univac being one of them, along with RCA, NCR, Honeywell, CDC, Burroughs and GE).
Like many of those companies, they got side-swipped by the PC revolution (which was launched by Apple and IBM and a few lesser companies).
I would assume that price comes with a significant debt burden.
Agreed.
Personally, I see this entry point as a jump off point for Apple, once it's been received they will then expand internally their presence with those new contacts, in the Federal System, directly.
This is big. I think it's big. Anyone else think this is big? I do.
This is the first I can remember, since the return of Mr. Jobs, that Apple has partnered with any one like this. I would also imagine that Unisys has some interesting patents developed over the years. I also believe that Apple has developed some technology for its new data center, and that technology would be of interest to other enterprises.
For people claiming that Macs can't be used in large corporations, here's what I'd like to see. I'd like to see Apple publish a case study of its own IT infrastructure including total number of servers, types of servers, and operating systems used. Also, what type of database systems, ERP and CRM they use, such as Oracle or SAP, and what platforms they run them on. And what do they use for their web servers. Also what is their backup strategy for all their servers. Same for their end user machines including percentage of Macs vs PCs. I would also like to see how they set up things like directory services, authentication, user management, email, calendars, remote access.
It's all done on a Mac Classic with a Hyperdrive.
.
This is the first I can remember, since the return of Mr. Jobs, that Apple has partnered with any one like this. I would also imagine that Unisys has some interesting patents developed over the years. I also believe that Apple has developed some technology for its new data center, and that technology would be of interest to other enterprises.
They "partnered" with HP on the iPod in much the same way.
I doubt Unisys has patented much in the last 10-15 years.
(But, I think this might be a very good move for Apple...)
..... the PC revolution (which was launched by Apple and IBM and a few lesser companies).
Very nice one.
So true.
Go back farther, back to the 1950s and 1960s. Go back to Presper Eckert and John Mauchly and the Eniac. Go back to Sperry Gyroscope, Remington Rand, and Univac. Sperry-Univac was once a competitor to IBM in the 'big iron' market. IBM was so big in those days, they were referred to as 'IBM and the seven dwarfs' (Univac being one of them, along with RCA, NCR, Honeywell, CDC, Burroughs and GE).
Like many of those companies, they got side-swipped by the PC revolution (which was launched by Apple and IBM and a few lesser companies).
Let's see, General Douglas MacArthur became CEO of Sperry-Rand after he was fired by President Truman. Some claimed that this was the beginning of the military-industrial complex that Ike railed against.
The only Sperry-Rand machine I saw was at Kaiser Steel in Fontana, CA -- along with punched cards with round holes (over-punched to oval, when verified).
That was replaced by an IBM 1410, AIR.
Later, Kaiser closed the plant and itis now a NASCAR racetrack.
... Useless trivia.
.
Yes!
I worked for IBM, but in today's environment, UNISYS is a big hitter too.
I think your last sentence addressed a key issue -- Apple must be willing to take requests and feedback from others and use it to enhance and expand the product line... else the users will stop asking and turn to others.
This is the biggest criticism I have (and have always had) in years of dealing with Apple -- their NIH attitude.
.
I was thinking along the same lines when I was reading the article. This partnership has the potential to give Apple product feedback that they might not normally get or pay attention to. For example in Leopard there were numerous networking bugs that took Apple a very long time to fix. I gotta believe that if Unisys started finding serious problems in the field Apple would expedite correcting them. This could be good for all Apple users.
They don't have much a footprint where I live, except for contracting out PC service and the like. Certainly don't have the same recognition here as EDS (now HP), IBM and CSC, etc who all compete in the same space. They tend to partner with other companies to win work as far as I can see.
On the other hand, it's a more logical choice for Apple as Unisys don't appear to have an alignment with a particular platform.
I used to work and develop on an OS 1100 machine (a 2200 actually). It was quick and lightning fast for transaction work. However the office I worked in was largely batch based so many of its benefits were lost.
They're not really an outsourcing company, though they do a bit of it. EDS makes most of its income from that. They're more in the integrator/support business.
Hmmm... Apple could buy these guys out with pocket change. Maybe Apple is just testing the water. If things go well then maybe a buyout could be in order.
Different sorts of businesses. In theirs, Unisys is pretty big.
The problem is their market cap value is around $1.33 Billion but they have > 25,000 employees. That's a poorly managed enterprise.
It's not. And marketcap has nothing to do with the number of employees. They do integration.support. That's a manpower driven business.
They basically co-wrote the Datacenter edition of Windows with Microsoft. They have some monster Windows boxes... We had two 32 CPU boxes. Each "computer" was basically a rack of components. Granted, they were emulating the old Unisys midrange computers (custom CMOS CPUs) they replaced - but they were impressive machines. Everything, including CPU's, RAM and backplanes were hot swappable. Stuff Sun used to brag about (back when their engineering tech meant something <sniff>) Unisys was doing with Windows Server 2003 (!!)
Also, interesting to note even with their acquisition of EDS HP is third. I thought EDS was #2 behind IBM? I guess the acquisition wasn't that beneficial after all?
EDS is very big, but most of their work is outsourcing, which is different from the bulk of what Unysis does.
I know it gets confusing here. There are so many different kinds of services offered to companies these days that unless you've been following it for a while it can be different to sort out.