Forum: Sadness as the sun sets on the EDS name

Whatever the reason, the passing of the EDS name and logo will be felt around the world, not least in New Zealand, where EDS was the biggest employer in the IT sector, employing approximately 2,000 staff when the HP-EDS acquisition was made.

New Zealand was also one of EDS' "Best Shore" sites, country units in which work for clients located outside that country is handled.

One of the criteria for gaining Best Shore status was a strong level of government support, something the government of the day provided in 2003 in the form of a $1.5 million grant, which helped set up EDS' campus at Smales Farm on Auckland's North Shore. EDS says more than 300 jobs were added to its payroll as a result of the Best Shore initiative and more than 20 overseas clients added.

As for how clients and competitors react to the demise of the EDS brand, one comment on LeMay's ZDNet blog noted that the demise of the EDS brand is a good thing for outsourcing competitors of HP, because "HP never did understand services".

For HP New Zealand, there's a bit of irony in that comment, because in 2003 EDS and an HP-Unisys partnership went head-to-head in a highly competitive tender for Fonterra's infrastructure outsourcing business.