IBM

History

Main article: IBM History

The corporation originated from the conglomerate of tabulators and chronometers formed before the First World War. Gradually, it turned into an international technological colossus, became a pioneer in the development of electronic computers, and then, in the era of mainframe computers, an absolute monopolist. Until the 70s, the corporation was led by icons of American capitalism Thomas Watson Sr. and Thomas Watson Jr.

Today, IBM has a tremendous number of patents and innovative developments in a wide range of areas: punched cards, processors, transistors, storage systems, text editors, databases, operating systems, etc. As one of the most prominent corporations of the 20th century, IBM was also going through difficult times for itself. The US government conducted a series of antitrust cases against the corporation, critics suspected it of ties to repressive regimes.

In 1971, Thomas Watson Jr. resigned, and the corporation began to lose its power over the market when mainframe computers had competition from smaller modular systems. Due to bureaucratic red tape, a number of mistakes were made during the personal computer revolution, and in the early 90s IBM suffered losses for several years in a row. Then, during the reign of Lou Gerstner, which began in the mid-90s, the corporation became profitable, a course was taken on software development, as well as on system integration and other services, and this strategy still allows IBM to grow.

Timeline of events in IBM history to the present day here

Structure

As of January 2016, IBM operates the following divisions:

• Global Technology Services
• Global Business Services
• Software
• Systems and Technology
• Global Financing

Compared to the beginning of 2015, the structure of the company has not changed.

IBM in Russia and the CIS

Main article: IBM Russia

The first IBM representative office in the USSR appeared in the early 1970s. Currently, IBM's interests in Russia are represented by IBM Eastern Europe/Asia LLC.

Since 2006, an IBM development center has been operating in Russia.

Main article: IBM Ukraine

Aktivs

Data centers

As of the end of 2014, the number of IBM data centers serving the cloud infrastructure is 49.

Performance indicators

White Paper: IBM Financial Performance

2021: Revenue - $57.35 billion, profit - $5.74 billion

IBM's revenue in 2021 reached $57.35 billion against $55.18 billion a year earlier. IBM's software business (this includes Red Hat solutions and software for automation, information security, Big Data, artificial intelligence, etc.) amounted to $24.14, and in 2020 - $22.93 billion. Sales of cloud solutions for the year increased by 20%, to $20.2 billion.

Chief Financial Officer Jim Kavanaugh emphasized that the cloud solutions and consulting segment saw a "healthy acceleration" in financial growth.

IBM cloud revenue up 20% in 2021

At the end of 2021, IBM's consulting division showed revenue growth to $17.84 billion from $16.26 billion a year earlier. In the direction of infrastructure solutions (it is based on IBM Z mainframes), revenues fell slightly - from $14.53 billion in 2020 to $14.19 billion a year later. In the financial services market, IBM's revenue fell from $975 million to $774 million.

IBM's net profit in 2021 was $5.74 billion, which exceeds the one-year-old figure of $5.59 billion. It also follows from the IBM report that the company's profit in the consulting services sector in 2021 amounted to $1.45 billion against $1.03 billion in profit a year earlier. In the software division, profit increased from $3.34 billion to $4.72 billion, and in the infrastructure division - from $1.65 billion to $2.03 billion.

In 2021, the flow of cash from IBM's main activities will amount to $12.8 billion, and free cash flow - $6.5 billion. These and other results include the performance of Kyndryl (separated from IBM) for 10 months of 2021.

By the end of 2021, IBM had accumulated cash in the amount of $7.6 billion against $6.7 billion a year earlier. The company's total debts for the year decreased by $9.6 billion and amounted to $51.7 billion. Most of this amount comes from funds raised to buy Red Hat.^[1]

Acquisitions of companies and sale of assets

Main article: IBM (company acquisitions and asset sales)

Work and Human Resources at IBM

White Paper: Work and Human Resources at IBM

R&D

2018: 26-Year-Old Patent Leadership

In early 2019, patent research firm IFI Claims Patent Services published an annual ranking of the largest patent recipients. IBM leads for 26 years in a row. Next are the, Samsung, and Canon Intel - LG Electronics the same five as in 2017.

Companies with the most patents received

According to data from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (​USPTO), IBM received 9,100 patents in 2018, of which almost half are related to the most discussed technologies in the IT market, such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, information security, blockchain and quantum computing. IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginny Rometty said the inventions showed the company's commitment to "solving problems that many have not even thought about yet."

IBM has led the way in patents for 26 years

Among the patents issued by IBM in 2018 are solutions aimed at improving communication between AI and humans (Project Debater); improving the quality of control of aquatic ecosystems to protect marine life; systems for combating voice phishing schemes. Hybrid Cloud Senior Vice President and IBM Research Director Arvind Krishna said in an IBM blog post that there was a focus on climate change mitigation in 2018.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a total of 308,853 patents in 2018, down 3.5% from 2017, according to IFI Claims Patent Services. Chinese companies increased the total number of patents issued by 12% compared to 2017. Bloomberg notes that the steady growth in the number of patents issued to Chinese companies reflects the intensification of their own technology development.

With 9,100 patents, IBM received 6.4% of the total number of patents issued to companies in the United States. New patents have been issued to more than 8500 IBM inventors in 47 different states and 48 countries.

A noticeable decrease was shown by Sony (15th in the ranking, a decrease in the number of patents received by 21% compared to 2017), Google (11th place, minus 16%) and Qualcomm (8th place, minus 12%). Facebook, which hit the top 50 for the first time in 2017, dropped out of the shortlist altogether.^[2][3]

2016: Leadership in the number of new patents

In January 2017, it became known about the preservation of IBM's leadership in the number of new patents for 25 years in a row. This was reported in the research agency IFI Claims Patent Services.

In 2017, IBM registered USA more than 9 thousand patents, while the next Samsung Electronics one - 5.8 thousand. The top three included (Canon 3.3 thousand patents).

Leading companies in the number of patents registered in the United States in 2017, data from IFI Claims Patent Services

According to IFI Claims Patent Services, in 2017, the US patent office issued over 320 thousand patents, which is 5.2% more than a year earlier. Over the past 10 years, the number of registered patents in the country has doubled, Bloomberg notes.

Although patents are registered in other countries, it is the United States that is the absolute world leader in this regard. All major international corporations are striving to patent their developments here.

In 2017, most of IBM's inventions related to artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing, cloud technology, cybersecurity and other strategically important areas. For example, AI accounted for more than 1,400 patents. Some of them describe technologies for analyzing human speech and machine learning for self-driving cars.

From 2012 to 2017, IBM received more than 5,600 AI-related patents, which is 1,000 documents higher than Google.

In the field of information security in 2017, IBM patented about 1,200 developments. Among them is anti-hacker technology, which forces cybercriminals to disclose their websites and email addresses used in cyberattacks.

IBM retains the first place in the number of new patents thanks to more than 8500 inventors who live in almost the entire United States (47 states), as well as in 47 countries around the world.^[4]

2015

7,355 U.S. patents

In 2015, IBM received 7,355 U.S. patents. This achievement allowed IBM to lead the annual global ranking of the largest patent recipients for the 23rd consecutive year. Patents obtained by IBM in 2015 include various inventions reflecting the company's growing focus on cognitive solutions and cloud platforms.

The list of the top ten U.S. patent recipients * in 2015 is as follows:

1. IBM 7355

# Samsung 5072 # Canon 4134 # Qualcomm 2900 # Google 2835 # Toshiba 2627 # Sony 2455 # LG Electronics 2242 # Intel 2048 # Microsoft 1956

Data provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services

In cognitive computing and artificial intelligence, IBM inventors have developed new technologies that can help computers learn, infer and efficiently manage different types of data, and interact with people in a natural and understandable way. For example:

• Technologies that help computers recognize emotions. For most of the history of the development of information technology, humanity had to play by the rules of machines - to be understood, you need to type or press buttons. In the age of cognitive computing, computers are starting to listen and talk to us more and more. A team of scientists from IBM's research lab in China has patented a system that helps computers correctly interpret words with intense emotional exertion and communicate with us in a more natural way. (Patent US9117446)
• Technology that helps computers learn from us. Unlike conventional computers, cognitive systems can learn from their experiences. Researchers have come up with technology that helps computers understand language when communicating with people. The goal of the development is to help computers calculate whether they communicate with a person or a machine. The invention in this case could be used, for example, by a website that sells tickets to events to calculate speculator-driven bots. (Patent US9146917)

IBM inventors are also engaged in innovative developments that can improve the company's cloud platform. For example:

• Technologies that help the cloud platform function faster and more efficiently. One of the advantages of cloud computing is that network resources can be allocated anywhere on the planet. But even though you can use any resources, the cloud platform works more efficiently if network latency between resources as well as between end users and resources is minimized. IBM programmers have developed and patented a way to compile the topology of available network resources, capable of identifying the shortest network route between them and end users. The best and most efficient resource configuration can be used during resource allocation. (Patent US8972986)
• Technologies that allow you to use any network resources to perform work. IBM inventors have developed a function for cloud platforms to request additional computing resources from other cloud platforms. This allows you to control intensive loads that have an additional ability to distribute. At the same time, cloud systems that have sufficient resources available can also alert other cloud systems to important developments that are coming. This allows you to solve computational problems quickly, efficiently and present them in a beautiful laconic form that will be clear to end consumers. (Patent US9009722)

1200 "cloud" patents

From the end of 2014 until mid-215, IBM received about 1,200 cloud patents, which significantly improves and expands its ability to deliver new innovative cloud services, solutions and capabilities to customers in all sectors of the economy.

IBM's cloud patents cover a wide range of innovations, including accelerating the deployment and security of cloud data centers, and simplifying the management and maintenance of cloud applications and storage environments. Here are just a few examples of these patents:

• US Patent No. 9015164: High Availability of a Cloud Server - The most important characteristic of the cloud computing environment is high availability. The capabilities of this invention allow the cloud environment to take snapshots of the virtual machine, which can then be used for recovery.
• US Patent No. 8949415: Functional-Oriented Availability of a Virtual Machine in a Network Computing Environment - The capabilities of this invention allow reserving the network bandwidth used by a cloud resource, such as a virtual machine, when the volume of high-priority network traffic specifically designed for a virtual machine falls below a threshold. Network bandwidth reservation can be achieved by suspending incoming and outgoing network traffic of the virtual machine without deactivating the virtual machine itself. This can help reduce the cost of paying the cloud service provider for the amount of data transferred over the network to and from the virtual machine.
• US Patent No. 8984132: A system and methodology for the secure deployment of applications in a cloud environment - When a software application is installed for execution in a cloud computing environment, one of the most important requirements is to ensure the security of processing confidential data. The capabilities of this invention allow defining components and areas of a software application that use protected data and placing that protected data on one or more secure servers. Unsecured data can reside on one or more public cloud servers. Communication between secure and public servers can be achieved using secure network connections.
• US Patent No. 8984134: Unified Cloud Computing Infrastructure for Managing and Deploying Physical and Virtual Environments - In cloud solutions, physical and virtual environments must be managed and deployed on multiple heterogeneous hardware platforms, which can be challenging. The capabilities of this invention make it possible to use a single complex that contains the necessary hardware and software components for creating a cloud computing environment.
• US Patent No. 8990950: Implementation of selective control over access to data stored in a cloud computing environment - Using cloud storage services, organizations can significantly increase the availability of their data between geographically distributed workgroups, but this can lead to the risk of data compromise. The capabilities of this invention allow information owners to increase control over their data by delimiting access control.

2014: 7,534 U.S. patents

In 2014, she received a record number of patents - 7534. This is the 22nd year in a row that IBM has topped the list of leading patent holders in the United States. IBM inventors received an average of more than 20 patents a day in 2014, making IBM the first company to register more than 7,000 patents in a year.

IBM's record number of patents received in 2014 includes 3,000 advanced patents (40% of the total) in cloud, analytics, mobile, social business and security. Over the past five years, IBM has more than doubled the number of patents in these key areas of the company's development and over this period has become the leading recipient of patents in the fields of cloud technology, big data, analytics, mobile technology, social business and security.

IBM inventors have also received more than 500 patents for inventions that will usher in a new era of cognitive systems using cutting-edge Watson-based technology.

In the 22 years of IBM's leadership (1993-2014), the company's inventors received more than 81,500 patents.

A list of the top ten U.S. patent recipients in 2014 is as follows:

1. IBM 7 534

# Samsung 4 952

1. Canon 4 055

# Sony 3 224 # Microsoft 2 829 # Toshiba 2 608

1. Qualcomm 2 590
2. Google 2 566

# LG Electronics 2 122 # Panasonic 2 095

The number of IBM patents received in 2014 exceeded the total number of patents received, Accenture,, Amazon, and Google. More HP Intel Oracle than 8,500 IBM inventors living in 46 US states and 43 other countries contributed to the creation of the record patent portfolio in 2014. In 2014, IBM inventors living outside the United States contributed to more than 34% of the company's total patents.

2013: 6,809 U.S. patents

IBM announced that in 2013 it received a record number of patents - 6809. This is the 21st year in a row that IBM has topped the list of leading patent holders in the United States.

IBM's 2013 patent portfolio includes a variety of inventions that will help the company hold a leading position in areas such as cognitive technology, cloud computing, and big data analytics. These inventions will also allow us to move to a new stage in the development of cognitive systems, during which computers will be able to learn, draw conclusions and interact with us in a more natural, personalized manner.

The number of IBM patents received in 2013 exceeded the total number of patents received by Amazon, Google, EMC, HP, Intel, Oracle/SUN and Symantec. More than 8,000 IBM inventors living in 47 US states and 41 other countries contributed to the creation of the record patent portfolio in 2013.

The list of the top ten patent recipients * in the United States in 2013 is as follows:

1. IBM 6 809

# Samsung 4 676

1. Canon 3 825

# Sony 3 098 # Microsoft 2 660 # Panasonic 2 601 # Toshiba 2 416

1. Hon Hai 2 279

# Qualcomm 2 103 # LG Electronics 1 947

According to IFI CLAIMS Patent Services

2010: 5,896 U.S. patents

IBM announced that its inventors received 5,896 U.S. patents in 2010, allowing the corporation to top the global list of companies with the most active inventive activities for the 18th consecutive year.

Moreover, IBM became the first company in history to receive more than 5 thousand US patents within one year. The scale of this achievement helps to assess the fact that it took IBM scientists 50 years from the day the company was founded in 1911 to obtain the first 5 thousand patents.

The total number of patents received by IBM in 2010 is almost 4 times that of Hewlett-Packard, and more than Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, EMC and Google combined. IBM spends about $6 billion annually on research and development.

Among the inventions that IBM highlights specifically is the technique of collecting, analyzing and processing patient information from several sources of medical data for more effective diagnosis of diseases.

Another patent describes a system for predicting traffic conditions based on the analysis of information exchanged through short-range wireless communication channels. It is assumed that this invention will help notify drivers of emergency road conditions.

Also in 2010, the company patented a technique for collecting and analyzing data from sensors in computer hard drives for high-precision analysis of seismic phenomena, in particular earthquakes, which increases the efficiency and efficiency of emergency services in cases of natural disasters.

One of the patents, which IBM notes among the most interesting, was obtained by Yuri Vlasov, a native of Russia, who worked at the A.F. Off Institute of Physics and Technology in St. Petersburg in the 1990s, and since 2001, who has been an employee of the IBM TJ Watson Research Center, located in New York, USA.

The patent, obtained by Vlasov together with Solomon Assefa, Walter Bedell and Fengnian Xia, describes a technology that allows computer chips to exchange data using light pulses instead of electrical signals, which makes it possible to increase the performance of computing systems.

In total, more than 7 thousand IBM inventors from 46 different states of the USA and 29 countries of the world contributed to obtaining patents. IBM inventors living outside the United States contributed to more than 22% of the company's total patent package for 2010, providing a 27% increase over the past 3 years.

"The patents, like the inventions they represent, reflect the continued adherence to innovation commitments that distinguish IBM and its employees," said Kevin Reardon, IBM's general manager of intellectual property and the company's vice president of research development. "Patent leadership is an important element of our strategy, which is focused on the formation of a technically equipped, interconnected and intelligent infrastructure that can change how diverse systems work to support a reasonable planet."

IBM's Impact on Computing and Software Development

Development of quantum computing

Main article: IBM Quantum Computers

Significant developments in the information technology industry

• Mark I (1943 ) - the first American computer
• first commercial hard drive (1956)
• IBM/360 (1964 ) - is considered the founder of a whole class of computers - "mainframe"
• SQL
• IBM PC is a personal computer whose architecture became the de facto standard for the industry in the 80s and 90s of the XX century and the first decade of the XXI century. The open architecture of the IBM PC contributed greatly to the huge success of the IBM PC, the massive release of PC-compatible clones by many companies, and the eventual onset of the personal computer era and the computer revolution.

In addition, competition with IBM and the desire to surpass it served as a powerful impetus for many start-up companies for their own development. At different times, just starting companies DEC, Intel, Microsoft, Compaq, HP and some others competed with IBM.

IBM Watson's computer system, based on DeepQA technology, is designed to extract and analyze information from natural language texts, as well as quickly find answers to questions. DeepQA is based on a statistical approach in computational linguistics, that is, computing power is used to build cognitive systems.

IBM previously produced:

• ThinkPad laptops - in December 2004, the division was sold to the Chinese company Lenovo;
• Hard drives (Ultrastar, Deskstar, Travelstar and Microdrives series ) - later the business became owned by Hitachi (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies).

IBM's influence on the development of Soviet IT

• Soviet EU computers are directly and creatively copied from IBM/360 computers;
• EU PC analogues of IBM personal computers;
• The operating systems of the EU computers were at least compatible with the corresponding IBM operating systems.

Notes