HP, Oracle and IBM not agile enough in cloud, says bank IT chief

Large vendors, such as IBM, Oracle and HP, are not innovative or agile enough to provide their customers with adequate cloud services, according to a senior IT executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who was speaking at the 451 Group's Hosting and Cloud Transformation event today.

Rupert Brown, principal architect for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told delegates about his disappointment with the likes of IBM and HP.

"We have found that if you go to HP, IBM or Oracle for cloud solutions, they will send you several consultants but they don't actually have the tool sets themselves. IBM, for example, is in-sourcing the same small supplier that is building our private cloud," said Brown.

"If IBM wants to resell that small supplier's services, then it should acquire the company, but it doesn't have the agility to provide the services via in-sourcing," he added.

Brown made his remarks in response to a question from a fellow panellist who had asked whether there were adequate cloud services in the market to cater for a financial institution.

Brown went on to say that he thought that lack of agility was a big problem, and that this was the result of the companies not creating innovative solutions.

"We have found the same problem with all of the big vendors to be honest. IBM, HP and Oracle are all paralysed when it comes to innovation. They buy things to sell, they don't innovate internally," he said.