IBM has arrested years of slow decline from its peak in the 1980s by recasting itself as a leader in open source-based cloud services and systems integration in the 5G era. It was this carefully assimilated standing that enabled IBM to win the recent £1.6 billion ($1.95 billion) contract to modernize the UK’s Emergency Services Network (ESN) used by police, fire and ambulance services, as well as the country’s local authorities and utilities. This network had been plagued with escalating costs and delivery failures ever since 2015, when former UK incumbent carrier BT started working with the country’s Home Office to build the ESN as part of a wider replacement program to replace an ageing emergency services mobile communications system…