Fujitsu Positions Itself as a Solutions Provider

At a media event on April 18, Fujitsu Computer Systems officials stated their belief that the company is ready to become a solutions vendor on par with IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

The event, at which Fujitsu also showcased new products and technology, was held at the companys TRIOLE Integration Center, in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Fujitsu has ambitious plans to grow its IT business to $10 billion a year by 2010, leveraging its current strengths and augmenting them with partnerships and R&D.

Indeed, Fujitsu already has enterprise-class software and hardware products in its substantial arsenal to build around, making it difficult for potential competitors to write off the companys aspirations.

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Fujitsu is taking the challenge of becoming a solutions vendor seriously; evidence of this can be seen in the recent merger of its U.S. software and hardware divisions, and its partnership announcement with reseller ACS.

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On the hardware front, Fujitsu has a wide range of products—from its Lifebook Series tablets and laptops to its 125-processor SPARC servers.

Fujitsu has made significant strides in the laptop arena, and it announced three new laptops at the April 18 event, including the ultraportable 2.2-pound Lifebook Q series laptop, featuring Intels Ultra Low Voltage Core Solo processor. And with its forthcoming eight-socket Primergy blade server, Fujitsu is trying to fill the gaps in its server lineup.

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In the storage area, Fujitsus ETERNUS line of arrays competes against midrange to high-end solutions, and the company is trying to fill in gaps with partnerships. For example, Fujitsu is currently partnering with Network Appliance to add NAS (network-attached storage) products to its lineup.

Moving on to the software side, Fujitsu is going to leverage its expertise in SOA (service-oriented architecture) middleware, using its Interstage Suite to help IT managers implement scalable business applications.

Fujitsu also has tools for converting COBOL applications to the .Net platform, which should allow the company to help IT managers move legacy applications off of mainframes and onto commodity hardware.

Regardless of whether Fujitsu makes its $10 billion dollar goal, its presence as a solutions provider should give IT managers more options.

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