¶ … IBM Competitive Forces

Competitive Forces Analysis

There are a number of potential factors that increase the competitive rivalry for IBM and other competitors in the field when looking specifically at cloud computing. There are a wide variety of both large and small companies providing cloud services. In addition to major companies like Microsoft and AT&T, there are also new entrants like Amazon, Rackspace, Google, and Salesforce.com (Konstantinos et al., 2009). These new entrants or offering limited cloud storage, but much cheaper prices, sometimes even free as in the case with Amazon and Google. IBM could have the choice of purchasing smaller players that were or the working within the cloud computing market. However, "acquisitions could also delay IBM's response because of the time needed for integration and coordination purposes. Going it alone would keep the bulk of value created in-house," (Konstantinos et al., 2009, 207). However, in 2008, IBM made a deal with Google "declaring their joint intention to promote commercial cloud-based services" (Konstantinos et al., 2009, 223). This was a huge step for IBM, as it did manage of one of the new entrants in order to generate mutually beneficial results. According to the research, "IBM's reputation could help drive sales of Google apps (Google's cloud offering), while IBM would provide the infrastructure and services to offer an integrated solution for customers around the globe" (Konstantinos et al., 2009, 224).

Still, IBM has long been the leader in developing new products. The company has an incredible number of patents held above competitors. This illustrates how the company can easily bounce back from new developments of substitute products because it has the innovation and capability to continue to create and patent even newer and more creative products than what the competitors are coming out with. Also, the sheer number of Limit the capabilities of competitors developing new products because they have to follow the laws and respect the patents that IBM has.

Additionally, IBM has great relations with its suppliers and authority capable of producing consumer electronic products on a massive scale, both for personal and competitive advantage above smaller new entrants, like Google and Amazon. Their sheer production capabilities help provide them a clear competitive edge.
Here, the research suggests that "at the infrastructure level, cloud computing allow data centers to achieve higher utilization rates by providing services to a larger and more dispersed client base, resulting in enormous economies of scale" (Konstantinos et al., 2009, 216). Thus, the company is in a prime position to develop new products and market them efficiently to these new potential consumers.

Moreover, the company is forecasting a growth in market share that will continue strong into 2014. According to Delta Consultants (2010) the company expects to see constant growth and market share with about a 3% growth percentage in 2014, netting in close to $600 billion dollars of the current market share. This does also provide a competitive advantage above IBM's competitors. Delta Consultants also suggest that "new software in video game development will receive an additional 20 million per year into research and development," which will ultimately ensure the continual growth of cloud systems within the company (Delta Consultants (2010). Growth is always excellent for a company, and with the introduction of more products using cloud computing systems, this growth will only continue.

CPM

(Asif, 2013)

The CPM is meant to "identify strengths and weaknesses…