Compaq says "Fibre Channel storage will revolutionize clustering.."
To: Herb Herman (76 )
From: Neil S
Monday, Nov 10 1997 10:29AM EST
Reply #79 of 79
NEWS- Compaq/Tandem
Business/Technology Editors
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 10, 1997--
Tandem Technologies and Services Strengthen ProLiant Clusters
The world's leading provider of clustered standards-based
servers, Compaq Computer Corporation (NYSE:CPQ) today revealed new
ProLiant Clusters it plans to offer worldwide to meet customers' data,
application and server availability, performance, flexibility,
scalability and price requirements.
The ProLiant Cluster Series F will use Fibre Channel storage to
give customers an unprecedented combination of scalability,
flexibility and throughput (see today's related Compaq news release).
Fibre Channel is a scalable, high- capacity storage technology
designed to keep pace with and simplify customers' increasing storage
management needs.
"Fibre Channel storage will revolutionize clustering by providing
a storage system that can help simplify customers' configurations and
provide the scalability and capacity necessary to make clustered
servers the foundation of their information system for years to come,"
said James Gruener, Senior Analyst, The Aberdeen Group Inc. "The
forthcoming ProLiant Clusters will further establish Compaq as an
enterprise provider for the Windows NT clustered server and storage
markets."
The new ProLiant Cluster Series F will be the first in the
industry to offer the reliability, scalability and performance of
Tandem's ServerNet interconnect in a clustered environment. ServerNet
is the optimal interconnect for customers who require the highest
performance, most resilient interconnect and who plan to expand their
clusters beyond two nodes. Compaq will also release the ProLiant
Cluster Series S, which will feature SCSI storage offerings from
Compaq - protecting customers' technology investments.
Integrated, Best-of-Breed Hardware/Software Solutions
Compaq and Tandem realize the importance that customers place on
integrated, tested and proven solutions. Through contributing key
technology components, definition of testing processes and early
partnerships with Beta accounts, Compaq and Tandem have been helping
to bring Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) to market and will continue
to work closely with Microsoft in product delivery, support and next
generation product development. The ProLiant Clusters, which are
undergoing Beta testing at selected customer sites, have been designed
to support MSCS, formerly known as "Wolfpack", and to provide the
uncompromisingly high level of data, application and server
availability needed to run business-critical software applications.
Compaq and Tandem have also partnered with industry-leading
application developers BAAN, Cheyenne, Edify, Ericsson, Genesys, IBM,
Informix, Lotus, Microsoft, Oracle, ProLogic, Raptor, SAP and Sybase
to deliver integrated solutions featuring ease of implementation and
use and maximum reliability.
"ProLiant Clusters give customers enterprise-class availability
and performance at a cost and ease of ownership that RISC-based
clusters simply cannot compete with," said Mike Perez, Vice President
and General Manager, Server Products Division, Compaq Computer
Corporation. "Compaq has worked closely with our industry partners to
ensure that ProLiant Clusters offer the integration and flexibility
customers need to keep a step ahead of their competition and maximize
their data, application and server availability."
ProLiant Cluster Series F Provides Breakthrough Performance
The ProLiant Cluster Series F will give customers maximum
availability and breakthrough performance by using Fibre Channel
technology as the storage connection and either Ethernet or Tandem's
ServerNet technology as the server interconnect. Fibre Channel
technology provides much higher performance and much greater
configuration flexibility than other storage technologies, making the
ProLiant Cluster Series F the optimal solution for customer
environments in which high performance, high throughput and online
capacity expansion are vital.
In addition to enhanced performance, Fibre Channel will provide
customers with greater data availability. The Fibre Channel in the
Compaq cluster solutions can be used to store data at a remote site,
which in the near future could be up to 10,000 meters from their
server. The ability to store business-critical data remotely provides
customers increased data availability in the event of a fire or
natural disaster. The Cluster Series F is scheduled to be available in
the first quarter of 1998.
ProLiant Cluster Series S Protects Customers' Technology
Investments
The ProLiant Cluster Series S solutions are SCSI-based cluster
configurations utilizing existing storage offerings from Compaq, so
customers will be able to use their current storage systems. The
ProLiant Cluster Series S, which utilizes Compaq's SMART-2 Array
Controller family, will be available in the first quarter of 1998.
Multi-Node Clustering Gives Customers Expanded Scalability
In addition to Microsoft Windows NT Server clusters based on
MSCS, Compaq will deliver Windows NT clusters that offer database
performance scaling across multiple nodes to provide scalable
transaction processing and data warehousing using industry-standard
technology. Initially, these clusters will support Oracle Parallel
Server (OPS), with future support planned for additional databases.
These database solutions will address customers' needs for high
availability in the event of a node failure and give them greater
scalability than a single server can provide. These solutions are
scheduled to be available in the first quarter of 1998.
ProLiant Servers: Designed for Maximum Availability
Compaq will qualify a variety of its award-winning ProLiant
Servers - ranging from the ProLiant 850R to the ProLiant 7000 - for
use within ProLiant Clusters to satisfy a broad range of customer
requirements. Compaq ProLiant Servers offer many high-availability
features such as Compaq- pioneered PCI Hot Plug, ECC memory and
redundant network interface controllers, power supplies and fans. This
combination of high availability technology provides unparalleled
uptime for clustered servers. |
