Just as the advent of Fujitsu’s GP7000 Sparc-based servers represents a potential conflict of interest for Amdahl Corp in its systems integration business with Sun boxes (CI No 3,802), so too in Europe there is the question of ICL Plc.

As part of the Fujitsu group, the UK-based IT services company clearly puts its Japanese parent at the top of the list among its hardware partners, said business strategy manager Peter Slavid. That said, however, ICL is also, through its Multivendor Computing division, Sun Microsystems’ largest reseller in the UK.

In ICL’s main business, namely the provision of solutions and services, some of the software it implements, such as its mediation system for telecoms operators, runs on Sparc, so when it is supplied, a Sun box is currently the default hardware. Such situations are, however, a miniscule part of the overall business, the number of Sun servers shipped in this context running into tens, not hundreds each year, said Slavid. The Multivendor Computing operation, however, is clearly another story.

For the time being, at least, any competition between the Sun and Fujitsu boxes is a non-issue as far as ICL is concerned. The only GP7000 machine available is an 8-way version, at the bottom end of the range and therefore not really aimed at the UK company’s core market.

With 32-, 64- and ultimately, 128-way models promised for next year, however, Fujitsu will want to maximize the channel opportunities to take market share away from Sun. And with Fujitsu Siemens’ new president for the UK and Ireland, David Teague, having decided to commit the company to indirect sales for everything except the DS2000 mainframe, ICL in general, and Multivendor Computing in particular, would seem a natural channel, just like Siemens Business Services from the other side of the house. Teague said he will be working with ICL to encourage them to sell our kit.

Slavid said his company is sitting back and saying ‘we’ll see what happens’ with regard to the GP7000 line. Fujitsu is foremost among ICL’s strategic partners, all things being equal, but things aren’t equal today, he went on, adding that, when the new Unix line is extended into larger systems then we’ll talk to them.

As for the newly merged entity for Europe, Fujitsu Siemens Computers BV, he expects them to be one of the platforms our customers will want in PCs and Intel servers. In the Sparc space, it seems, the jury is still out. You just can’t say what will happen in Sparc, he concluded.