Computing giant IBM plans to steal Hewlett-Packard's customers in
the "big-iron" application server market through the introduction
of the new IBM eServer i890.
The company has also released the latest version of its iSeries
operating system, IBM OS/400 Version 5 Release 2, which ships with
the i890, according to Ian Jarmon, a product marketing manager for
iSeries servers at IBM.
Designed as a mainframe-style alternative to multiple racks of
separately-managed application servers, the i890 can be partitioned
to isolate each of its 32 processors into an individual application
server running either OS/400 or Linux, Jarmon said. IBM will add
Windows and its own AIX operating system to the list of OSes that
can be partitioned within the 32-way server by 2004.
The ability to partition multiple server processor nodes into
virtual stand-alone servers inside the i890 makes "this system an
alternative to server farm solutions," said Jarmon.
Packing IBM's 64-bit Power4 processors running at clock speeds of
1.3GHz, the i890 delivers twice the performance of its predecessor
the i840, according to IBM.
Enhancement to OS/400 cover features such as Web caching
technologies and secure socket accelerators that Big Blue
representatives said "double the capacity for securely serving Web
pages."
Similar to all IBM servers, the i890 ships with IBM's Project eLiza
technology which assists administrators in detecting and often
resolving computing hardware and software malfunctions before they
occur.
Making its debut on the i890 is IBM's Enterprise Identity Mapping
(EIM) technology. EIM maps the individual security IDs of a user
across a network, stores them, and eliminates the need for the user
to have to repeatedly log on to password-protected systems.
The i890 and its related software upgrades are targeted directly at
Unix server competitor Hewlett-Packard (HP), Jarmon said.
"Typically you would see this mainframe class of server competing
with high-end Unix servers but the iSeries market is more focused
on segments like manufacturing, distribution, and banking. We see
HP as being the competitor in this market segment for iSeries," he
added.
Of the major Unix server players only IBM and HP maintained
positive share gain in the Unix server market over the last year,
according to research by IDC.
IBM has a 20.9% share of the Unix server market with HP just ahead
with a 28.5% share, according to IDC figures for the third quarter
of 2001. Sun, with its 28.8% share of the Unix server market also
offers mainframe-style servers with its Starcat line but IBM
generally competes with its Regatta mainframe server line.
The IBM i890 will be available on 14 June this year, according to
IBM.