Not every ISV shopping for a cloud data platform or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) needs that scale, though.

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But what about the risk that SAP could end up building its own app that competes with an ISV?

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Because of its size, SAP is more likely to build horizontal apps, and build them more slowly than a focused ISV.

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The success of IBM's ISV program has been contingent, in part, on its software partners meeting quotas that call for a certain percentage of applications to be deployed on IBM hardware and software.

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For devices that also include optical disc playback functionality, which will be enabled by independent software vendor (ISV) applications installed on devices running Windows 8, OEMs will be required to pay a higher per-unit rate.

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It will be part of a number of high profile sporting facilities being set up in the ISV including a 50m international pool along with a 25m warm up pool which is underway at the site.

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The idea, says Buell Duncan III , IBM's general manager for ISV and developer relations, is to create a network of companies large and small, which are conversant in both nonproprietary, or open, computing standards, like the Linux operating system or the Java programming language, and IBM's suite of hardware, middleware and services.

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