Scannell and Dan Neel

In his first public appearance since being named IBM Corp.'s chief executive officer, Sam Palmisano this week at the PartnerWorld conference is expected to underscore the company's commitment to Web services, roll out new servers, and kick off a major campaign to go after the small and medium businesses (SMB) market.

In his first public appearance since being named IBM Corp.'s chief executive officer, Sam Palmisano this week at the PartnerWorld conference is expected to underscore the company's commitment to Web services, roll out new servers, and kick off a major campaign to go after the small and medium businesses market.