When the company I worked for got acquired by IBM they kept everyone on for at least a year, by then most people who wanted to leave found another opportunity at another start-up. For me the next career move bumped my salary level 50% just because the name IBM was on the resume. It’s been beneficial to this day and counting. I can only recommend it.

Just my 2 cents.

Cloud providers provide select tools. Those tools are typically open source, however, they could just as well be proprietary.

IBM does not have a cloud, IMHO. Furthermore, there is no reason IBM/Tivoli could not provide their software (monitoring, configuration, and provisioning) for the management of someone else’s cloud. They have been in Google and Ebay for years (not exactly clouds but close). I am surprised they haven’t made any partnerships with the likes of Rackspace, Gogrid, …

However, their ROI is a tough sell against open source solutions.

Second, cloud providers must provide those monitoring and management tools.

Third, HP and IBM are already offering their own version of “cloud” or “on demand.” So, other cloud providers cannot use their software.

Fourth, that doesn’t leave much room for CA, BMC, Microsoft and others. Those firms must ally themselves with cloud providers and play nice – or, eventually, just die off. Those companies that don’t get on the boat soon will simply fade away.

The problem with the cloud is that the scale and economics of it invites big players only – entrepreneuralism in computing is dead – big players only.