Sun Announces Best Overall Performance for Lotus Domino 4.5 on Solaris for Intel

Business Wire, Jan 27, 1997

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 1997--Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced record-setting performance results for the Lotus Domino 4.5 server on the Solaris for Intel Edition platform.

These results were measured using Lotus NotesBench, a benchmarking tool which provides a methodology for measuring Domino server performance, and audited by KMDS Technical Associates, Inc.

The Solaris operating environment, running on the Compaq Proliant 5000, produced the best overall performance compared with other previously published results, including the highest Mail and MailDB capacity, response time, and throughput, as well as the best Idle User result for the maximum number of users connected to a Domino server.

Companies deploying Domino in departments with heavy workloads or a large number of users should see significant increases in productivity with the Solaris and Compaq solution versus a Microsoft Windows NT and OS/2 solution.

"We at Lotus are very excited to see these record-setting Intel numbers from Sun Microsystems for Lotus Domino 4.5," said Eileen Rudden, senior vice president, Communications Product Development, Lotus Development Corp. "These NotesBench results continue to show strong performance and capacity capabilities with a Lotus and Sun solution, which will prove beneficial to customers evaluating multiple platforms."

The two-way Compaq Proliant 5000 running the Solaris operating environment achieved the best overall NotesBench performance compared with other previously published results including the suite of test results for Mail (Users, Response Time and Throughput), MailDB (Users, Response Time and Throughput) and Idle Usage. Compared to an IBM PC 704 running Microsoft Windows NT, given the same load of 2050 users in the Mail test, the Compaq Proliant 5000 with the Solaris server achieved a response time of 0.214 seconds compared to the IBM PC 704/Microsoft Windows NT time of 0.546 seconds. For the MailDB test, the Compaq Proliant 5000 with Solaris server delivered a response time (.437 sec.) more than twice as fast as the IBM PC 704/Microsoft Windows NT system (1.094 sec.) at the same user load (See attached chart.) Additionally, the Compaq Proliant 5000 with the Solaris server generated the highest number compared with other previously published results of idle users connected to a Domino server at 4500 users. The Compaq with Solaris NotesBench performance not only exceeded that of the IBM/NT server but did so at a lower system price.

"The combination of Domino running on Solaris provides our customers with unmatched price/performance, increased productivity, and the ability to grow as business demands require," said Janpieter Scheerder, president of SunSoft. "Higher performance and lower cost make Domino and the Solaris operating environment an extremely strong solution for companies searching for a more robust, but cost-effective alternative to NT."

Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Lotus Development Corp. achieved these results by marrying the power and performance of Domino 4.5 with one of the industry's leading reliable, scalable and secure platforms, the Solaris operating environment. Lotus works directly with Sun engineering to develop the Solaris version of Domino, taking advantage of Sun's key technologies such as symmetric multiprocessing, multithreading and high availability.

The NotesBench tests use a combination of driver systems and destination servers to place simulated work loads onto the "System Under Test". The full report can be retrieved from http://www.sun.com/developers/intelbench.html -0-

Platform       HP/NT             IBM/NT             Compaq/Solaris

Model          NetServer Lx-Pro  IBM PC Server 704  Proliant 5000
OS             NT 3.51           NT 3.51            Solaris 2.5.1
Notes Ver.     R4.1              R 4.11             R 4.5
CPU            2x166 MHz P6      2x200 MHz P6       2x200 MHz P6
Memory         512 MB            512 MB             640 MB
Disks          13 x 2.1G         11x2.1G            10x4.3 G
Striping       2 dual-ch         HW Smart-2P        Solstice(TM)
               PCI Ctlr DPT      16MB RAM           DiskSuite(TM)
               Smart RAID IV                        Striping

Cost           $50,781           $46,756            $46,598

NotesBench Test

Idle           3,097             3,123              4,500

Mail
Users          1,750             2,050              2,050
NotesMark(TPM) 2,327             2,697              2,739
Response Time  0.207             0.546              0.214

MailDB
Users          1,550             1,750              1,750
NotesMark(TPM) 3,603             4,043              4,091
Response Time  0.43              1.094              0.437

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About Sun Microsystems

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer(TM)," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., (NASDAQ: "SUNW"), to its position as a leading provider of hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $7 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com -0-