Hello Harry,
Pretty good article in this morning's San Jose Mercury News about IBM going after Sun in the
fast-growing and highly lucrative market for the
servers that power the Internet.
We've been kicking around whether Sun is threatened a lot or a little by fast growing (in power) and lower cost Intel based servers. The main engine in this particular IBM threat-to-Sun attack is not Intel but a 24-processor RS/6000 server that will start at
around $300,000, running on their 266 MHz Power processor (must be a typo). The 24 processor machine runs Unix or Linux. Smaller Intel based machines will also be intro'd.
When will the street start to perceive Sun as a lone wolf that is prone to attack from a lot of sides? Remember the tpc/C numbers this week where the Intel based machines were several times better in price/performance. Just a matter of time for Sun (I've flip flopped on that one again, call me Ralph II).
sjmercury.com
Posted at 10:34 p.m. PDT Friday, September 10, 1999
IBM to unveil powerful
new server products
BY TOM QUINLAN
Mercury News Staff Writer
On Monday, IBM will take the wraps off Project
Sunscreen, a $1 billion effort aimed directly at Sun
Microsystems Inc.'s leading position in the
fast-growing and highly lucrative market for the
servers that power the Internet.
Two key components in IBM's attack will be a
24-processor RS/6000 server that will start at
around $300,000 and a two-processor machine that
can be bought preconfigured for Internet tasks for
less than $10,000, according to people familiar with
the IBM project.
While observers said the technology is impressive,
IBM's success could depend more on its ability to
market itself to new and traditional customers as an
Internet company.
``There's a perception that IBM has fallen behind
some its rivals in the price and performance of its
systems,' noted Jean Bozman, head of International
Data Corp.'s hardware research group.
The new machines are faster than IBM's current
server lineup, offering more memory and the ability
to support larger storage devices. The new high-end
machines also boast the 266 MHz Power processor,
far faster than the chips in IBM's current
top-of-the-line system.
As part of its marketing effort, IBM will offer
preloaded versions of its low-end RS/6000 server --
known as Pizzazz -- designed for firewall protection,
storage management, and communications to Internet
service providers, application service providers and
customers who want to develop an Internet presence
such as an e-commerce site, the sources said.
The turnkey solutions will come preloaded with
either IBM's Unix or a version of the Linux operating
system and will be sold through IBM's recently
formed ISP Business Unit.
In addition to the new computers, IBM will roll out a
new version of its Unix operating system that will
provide direct support for the popular Linux
operating system. IBM's plan is to increasingly
integrate Linux with its Unix operations so that users
could use an IBM RS/6000 computer to remotely
manage and service a Linux-based server.
The Armonk, N.Y.-based International Business
Machines Corp. has a long way to go to catch up to
Palo Alto's Sun.
Sun was among the first of the major Unix vendors to
identify the Internet as a significant market and to
start tailoring products and marketing programs for
ISPs. As a result, Sun has captured 32 percent of the
overall market for Unix servers, according to
Dataquest, a market research firm.
Those servers control the flow of data and
communications over the Internet and manage the
massive storage requirements. And according to
some industry leaders, the demand for those products
will increase 25-fold over the next five years.
While IBM has 18 percent of the Unix server market,
rivals like Hewlett-Packard Co. and Silicon
Graphics Inc. are becoming increasingly aggressive
in targeting that market.
IBM wouldn't comment on its announcement plans,
but the company has already publicly disclosed much
of the information that will become offical on
Monday. In ads that ran in such publications as the
Wall Street Journal and USA Today Wednesday,
IBM announced it would unveil the RS/6000 Magic
server on Monday.
And earlier this year, the company released
performance tests for that server -- also known as the
S80 -- that indicated that it was at least 15 percent
faster than its nearest rival in running some business
applications.
While such tests are notoriously suspect when it
comes to overall performance claims, they do
indicate that IBM is once again competitive when it
comes to top-of-the line Unix servers. That's been a
problem for IBM recently.
Although Bozman declined to talk about the specifics
of IBM's announcement, she said, ``It shows they are
taking the gloves off in the Unix market. They have
traditionally been in the top three of that market, and
they are making clear that they intend to be
competitive in that market.'
The announcement will occur simultaneously in San
Francisco, Tokyo, London and New York and will
also feature supporting roles from software
developers and customers such as SAP AG,
Lawrence Livermore Labs, and Linux developer
Terrasoft Solutions Inc.
That's just the start of IBM`s week-long assault on
the Internet, as the company will also announce new
Windows-NT and Linux-based servers in its PC line,
using Intel Corp.'s Pentium III processors, that will
also be targeted directly toward providing
Internet-based solutions. |
