Dear Charles: This PR was posted to my stock service this morning. I wonder if news of it coming out is what stopped the SUNW move back up late in the afternoon. If so, wonder what effect it will have today. Not being technical, have to ask you guys that are, could this be a "disruptive" technology that will hurt us?? JDN
IBM Unveils Way to Make Mainframes Act Like Hundreds of Servers
Armonk, New York, March 30 (Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp. and its customers have found a way to make a mainframe act like hundreds of smaller computer servers, a breakthrough aimed at cutting into Sun Microsystems Inc.'s sales.
IBM has been able to make copies of the Linux computer operating system and run them on one mainframe, in essence creating scores of independent computer systems. IBM is working with Linux, free software that competes with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows, because it's the foundation for many Internet sites.
Companies that use IBM mainframes often turn to Sun for servers that run Web sites, taking business from IBM. The world's biggest computer maker is trying to persuade customers that mainframes, many times viewed as dinosaurs in the Internet world, are better at Web-based transactions.
``It's definitely going to help IBM,' said Bill Claybrook, an analyst at Boston-based Aberdeen Research. ``It will give customers options.'
IBM may target companies that run Web sites for businesses, such as Exodus Communications Inc. Exodus and rival Web-hosting companies stock buildings full of servers to operate sites.
The mainframes ``definitely could have an impact on server consolidation,' said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM's vice president of technology and strategy and head of the Linux effort.
IBM opened a $3 million center in Poughkeepsie, New York, for companies to test computers to run Web sites.
Mainframe Revival?
IBM's mainframe effort is aimed at slowing Sun's momentum. Sun, based in Palo Alto, California, sold 8,053 big servers that run the Unix operating system in the fourth quarter, according to Framingham, Massachusetts-based researcher IDC. In comparison, Armonk, New York-based IBM sold 2,669.
``They see us taking business from them, and they're looking for ways to take it back,' said Chris Kruell, manager of strategy and programs for data-center products at Sun.
IBM's revenue from servers and mainframes fell 18 percent to $8.7 billion last year.
Linux is attracting computer customers. Shipments of Linux- based machines will soar 25 percent from this year through 2003, more than twice the 10 percent to 12 percent pace for other workstation and server systems, according to IDC.
The software that runs the Linux copies is nothing new. IBM invented the Virtual Machine, or VM, program in the 1960s so that mainframe users could test a new release of an operating system while using a current operating system to run the business.
In December, IBM and mainframe customers including Dimension Enterprises Inc. and Princeton University began using VM to run copies of Linux.
Tests Convincing
Dimension, a Herndon, Virginia-based computer consultant that Nortel Networks Corp. agreed to buy last month, tested 41,000 copies of Linux for a large telecommunications customer. The client, which Dimension wouldn't name, provides Internet access.
The test by Dimension convinced the customer to use the mainframe rather than Sun servers.
``It worked beautifully,' said David Boyes, a principal engineer at Dimension, who helped set up the test. ``The system took up no more floor space, no more power than what they already had paid for.'
IBM is touting the speed advantages of the mainframe setup.
In some cases, it takes minutes for data, such as inventory and ordering information, to flow from a mainframe to the Sun servers and back. An IBM mainframe with multiple Linux versions that contain the data and Internet access can speed up the flow, IBM said.
``You could remove 90 percent of the delay time,' said Bill Zeitler, an IBM general manager who heads the company's mainframe business.
The speed difference between the mainframe and Sun server setups isn't ``measurable,' Sun's Kruell said.
IBM shares fell 3 to 119 1/4 in New York Stock Exchange trading yesterday. Sun fell 3 1/2 to 97 1/8 on the Nasdaq Stock
ps: Since posting above, I see that Lynn posted it already and several answered her post. Any other comments anyone wishes to add? JDN |
