Compaq to Set Server Strategy With Eight-Way Boxes Today

Computergram International, August 17, 1999

While the Santa Cruz Operation continues to talk up its future 64-bit Monterey operating system, still at least a year away from market, today's introduction of eight-way IA-32 servers from Compaq Computer Corp could be just as significant, or even more so in the shorter term for the company. Using eight Pentium III Xeon chips along with clustering and other high-availability technologies, server makers believe they will be able to address something like 95% of all scalabilty requirements without making the awkward shift to 64-bit systems.

Enrico Pesatori, senior vice president of Compaq's Enterprise Solutions and Services Group, formed back in June, is expected to outline the company's server roadmap today, including systems Compaq acquired from Digital Equipment Corp and Tandem Computers Inc as well as its own.

Compaq, still the biggest seller of SCO OpenServer and UnixWare, with over $1bn of annual business, has talked a little about its so-called Thunder and Lightning boxes over the past few months as it waited for Intel's Profusion chipset to become available. The boxes will be sold under the ProLiant 8000 and ProLiant 8500 names.

Bill Heil, vice president of Compaq's Tandem division, is expected to head up a new business-critical server group using the Tandem NonStop clustering technology and SCO Unix to tie the eight-way ProLiant servers together as high-availability Integrity XC systems. The division is expected to broaden out the focus of the Tandem technology beyond its traditional telecommunications markets to internet service providers, applications hosting and e-commerce. Resources for the services component will come from DEC.

Dell Computer Corp and IBM Corp also have eight-way Profusion servers ready to launch once Intel officially releases the chipset. Meanwhile SCO, Compaq and Siemens AG are expected to make further clustering announcements at SCO Forum this week, based around SCO's UnixWare 7 Reliant HA1.1 clustering add-on.