newsalert.com
June 26, 2001 10:20
IBM Powers Small Businesses With Self Management Features in New eServer Systems
ARMONK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 26, 2001--IBM today announced two new eServer* systems that offer small and medium size businesses access to mainframe and self-healing technologies at entry-level prices. The new IBM eServer xSeries 232 and 342 include intelligent management features that support IBM's Project eLiza initiative, a multi-billion dollar program aimed at creating a world of self-managing servers requiring little or no human interaction with the goal of making computing networks as easy to manage as today's kitchen appliances.
In addition, both systems feature up to two of the latest Intel(R) Tualatin Pentium(R) III processors at 1.13 GHz (1) and will support a wide range of applications running on either Microsoft(R) Windows(R) or Linux(R).
Small and medium size businesses now have access to self-healing and self-protecting management tools such as Software Rejuvenation and Light Path Diagnostics (TM) that help predict, identify and repair problems before performance is ever affected. IBM Software Rejuvenation, a component of IBM Director, identifies and predicts pending software problems due to "aging", a major issue related to Intel-based servers. During the aging process, small programming errors may accumulate and absorb ever-increasing amounts of a computer's resources, eventually leading to server downtime. Software Rejuvenation enables a system to automatically schedule a time to reset -- or rejuvenate -- its software, rather than allow the software to continue aging and potentially crash the server.
IBM's Light Path Diagnostics leads IT personnel quickly to trouble spots so they may be accessed and viewed without removing the system cover. This not only speeds problem diagnosis, but also protects other system components from being compromised by any individual failures. Paths of lights leading to serviceable components help minimize downtime by allowing quick visual diagnosis of system problems.
"As the complexities of running an e-business infrastructure intensify, businesses of all sizes need access to the benefits of self management technologies," said Greg Burke, Director, IBM Project eLiza. "With these new systems, IBM is giving customers the power to manage their business effectively and at a reasonable cost."
Servers for Businesses of Every Size
Powered by Intel's new Tualatin(TM) Pentium III-S processors with 512K Cache and a speed of 1.13GHz, the eServer x232** is a powerful low-cost system that can be easily deployed in minutes. As a general-purpose 2-way server, the x232 is able to perform a wide-variety of business applications, including financial, file-and-print serving, e-mail, messaging and Internet access. Supporting up to nine hot-swap hard disk drives, five PCI adapters and ten overall media bays, it can be expanded easily, giving businesses a true "pay as you grow" capability.
The IBM eServer x342 is a powerful 2-way system designed for medium and larger enterprises that need high availability features in a compact 3U rack design for space constrained environments. The latest Intel Tualatin processors, a large L2 cache and an integrated systems management software solution supported by IBM Director allow the x342 to provide consistent high-performance in the face of heavy fluctuating workloads.
IBM also announced the availability of Tualatin on the award winning eServer x330, the industry's most powerful 1U server.
eLogic, a Web site and e-commerce developer for companies such as Variety and Red Herring, is deploying these new eServer systems to power eLogic Platform(TM), a combination of custom web-based publishing tools. eLogic provides customers with news syndication services, Web personalization, e-commerce tools and newsletter applications that require a high-degree of system availability due to the time sensitive nature of the content.
"When we're providing customers with real-time publishing of over 100 million page-views per day, from over 200,000 daily news feeds, we can't afford to worry about availability," said Dan Kempka, vice president, Marketing at eLogic. "eLogic Platforms require a powerful e-business infrastructure that offers unsurpassed quality, reliability and scalability for our customers. IBM eServer systems are the answer."
New Server Appliance Technology
IBM has also enhanced the eServer x130 and x135 server appliances with new system management and Web site development features. Both appliances provide a streamlined web-hosting platform for either Microsoft Windows or Linux and will now incorporate industry-leading re-provisioning technology to enable customers to quickly change content.
Re-provisioning, a feature of the IBM Advanced Appliance Configuration tool, offers businesses the ability to quickly duplicate the image of a server and copy that image to another server - providing ease in new server setup or replication. ISPs and ASPs who support numerous clients from a single network will be able to easily re-deploy their network to meet sudden changes in client usage, ensuring maximum availability.
IBM customers, such as Turning Stone Casino Resort, which operates an automated casino, convenience stores, a hotel and RV park, are choosing the enhanced technology eServer appliances running Linux to replace their existing Compaq servers.
"We evaluated both the x135 and the Sun Netra," said Jason Tedford, Senior System Engineer for Turning Stone Casino Resort. "The x135 simply offered much more in the way of superior technology. Our servers have to run 24/7, and we bought them for their availability. The x135 is so dependable that if we ever did have a server go down, we can rebuild it in 20 minutes with the new IBM re-provisioning tool. That's key when a down server means lost profits."
New eServer Options
Expanding upon its industry leading options, IBM unveiled new memory, rack and tape drive options for Intel-based systems including:
-- The IBM 40/80GB Half-High DLTVS Tape Drive, a space-saving,
cost-effective entry point into the DLT tape drive family,
featuring 40GB native or 80GB compressed capacity(2)
-- Two new IBM 73.4GB hard disk drives with speeds of 10,000RPM
featuring the highest capacity of any IBM hard disk drive on
the market today.
-- The IBM NetBAY42 Standard Rack, a 42U rack capable of holding
more than 14TB of storage systems, and the NetBAY25 Standard
Rack, a 25U rack storage system. Both offer space savings
combined with improved cable management and a fan-free design
to increase airflow.
For additional information, please visit www.ibm.com/eserver *The IBM eServer brand consists of the established IBM e-business logo with the following descriptive term "server" following it.
**IBM, the e-business logo, xSeries, Light Path Diagnostics and IBM Director are trademarks of IBM Corporation.
Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Intel, Tualatin, Pentium and Pentium III are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation.
All other trademarks are property of their respective owners
(1) MHz/GHz only measures microprocessor internal clock speed; many factors affect application performance
(2) When referring to storage capacity, GB equals one billion bytes and TB equals one trillion bytes; accessible capacity may be less.
CONTACT: IBM
Jeanne Orfinik, 914/766-4777
Orfinik@us.ibm.com |
