“We and I have complete conviction in the double-digit long-term software growth, let me be clear about that.”

In context

“Arvind Krishna : Yes. Ben, thanks for the question. Let me actually address your question first. We and I have complete conviction in the double-digit long-term software growth, let me be clear about that. As you heard Jim describe, 80% of our business is already -- I'll use the word annuity or, in some sense, subscription-based. That piece, we have grown from extremely low numbers. I would say it was low single digit 7 years ago to 8% and approaching 10%. We already got that there. We have a few different paths on how to get to 10%, not just one. We can keep growing that part faster, and that kind can approach not just 10%, but above 10%. That means that the other 20% has to grow smaller. By the way, every single year, that mix of 80-20 used to be 60-40. So as we go over time, that mix is going to climb up and more and more is annuity as opposed to transactional. And both organically and inorganically, we are investing in capabilities that are much higher growth than this mix. We are investing in capabilities that grow more at 15% to 20%. So that helps that overall growth rate. As an example, we brought Harshi in, and we accelerated it. We brought Confluent in, and we accelerated it. Our organic watsonx portfolio is also growing at much higher rates than the aggregate. So that is the point that we are going to, and we are not going to back off from our commitment of long-term double digit for software despite the 2Q hiccup. And I'll let Jim comment on the TP and mainframe growth rates, including the cycles that we see there.”