IBM Cloud-SAS IT_2025-08-06

Meeting Context & Participants

  • Informal strategy session between IBM representatives and SAS IT (Systems Advisory Services) leadership.
  • Remote attendee: Amanda (newly appointed Marketing Manager, London finance-consulting background).
  • In-room IBM team: Sheldon (Hybrid Cloud & partner enablement lead), Mark (Partner Executive), Videsh (ANZ IBM Cloud IaaS/PaaS lead), Solomon (Power technical sales), Moklas (IBM Cloud partner technical specialist).
  • SAS IT team: Simon (CEO, called the meeting), Zach (COO, off-screen), Carl (technical lead), Bridge (new Business Development Manager).
  • Setting: video-conference room rented with a token system; casual conversation on room logistics, camera angles, and garage-style venue.

SAS IT Branding & Marketing Direction

  • Company re-branding from “SAS IT” toward the fuller “Systems Advisory Services” to emphasize:
    • Systems expertise
    • Advisory consultancy
    • Managed/hosted Services
  • New logo, website, and brand guideline rolled out inside first 34 minutes of Amanda’s tenure (humorous hyperbole to denote her efficiency).
  • Core marketing messages for CIO Summit booth:
    • “Leverage your legacy to drive future outcomes.”
    • “Bringing clarity to the cloud.”
    • Highlight IBM as
    • High-end goal partner
    • Provider of ready-for-AI infrastructure
    • Give-away: branded socks with puns (e.g., “It socks to have a systems outage” – rejected tag-line).
  • Planned events:
    • Monthly “Suite Scoop” sessions (90 min talk, 45 min keynote, free ice-cream/cake) – IBM asked to present.
    • IBM-led technical lunch (13 th) for SAS IT engineers—topic: Power11, AI inference.
    • CIO Summit booth + Ernest’s round-table on “AI-Ready Infrastructure.”

IBM Cloud Portfolio Snapshot

  • ~250 discrete cloud services, sold via flexible cloud credits (currency convertible to PowerVS, VMware-as-a-Service, GPUs, Watson X, Red Hat OpenShift, etc.).
  • Bare-metal still a profit engine despite IBM’s VPC shift; competitive on price/performance vs AWS for dedicated hosts.
  • Multi-vector value: hardware (Power, Storage), software (Red Hat, VMware, AI), hybrid-cloud orchestration.

VMware Story (Post-Broadcom Acquisition)

  • Broadcom mandatory shift to VCF full-stack raised licensing fees 3\times –10\times.
  • NZ shrank from ~100 VMware partners to 2 Broadcom-certified sellers.
  • IBM Cloud response spectrum ("T-shirt sizes"):
    1. **BYO License (Customer-Managed