Server consolidation Two major items on every CTO's mind: server consolidation and reducing cost. The former is anaethema to Microsoft, who can't shake its NT (aka server .NET) habit which is hoping shrinkwrapped high-volume code running on cheap x86s will handle the latter. IBM is moving downstream with its baby mainframe running everything from GNU/Linux to zOS/e. Easy to administer, cheap apps running on x86s (or comparably cheap hardware) will win in the low-medium size corporate space.