IBM Introduces Enterprise Server Solutions for High Availability

Business Wire, Nov 3, 1998

SOMERS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 3, 1998--IBM today introduced a new packaged enterprise server solution that delivers unprecedented levels of availability and performance.

The RS/6000 enterprise server solution running IBM's AIX operating system is designed for customers seeking to deploy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and e-business applications. It ensures uninterrupted access to applications and speeds implementation time with a packaged "cluster" of servers.

ERP is a class of software applications that enables companies to improve their productivity by linking nearly every aspect of their business operations.

Specifically, IBM is announcing:

-- RS/6000 HA-S70 Advanced Cluster Server - a packaged solution that

includes two pre-configured S70 Advanced servers coupled with

IBM's High Availability Cluster Multi-Processor (HACMP) software;

-- RS/6000 S70 Advanced - increases reliability of I/O system;

doubles maximum memory capacity to 32 GB;

-- RS/6000 SP System Attachment Adapter - a hardware switch

attachment that connects the S70 and S70 Advanced servers to the

SP delivering four times the database processing capabilities of

existing SP nodes.

"As customer demand for ERP and e-business applications continues to expand, availability and scalability become critical attributes for enterprise servers," said Michael Maas, manager, Enterprise Server Marketing, IBM RS/6000. "The RS/6000 HA-S70 and S70 Advanced Enterprise servers deliver superior performance through higher availability and scalability -- meeting the changing needs of businesses and helping them grow -- without outgrowing their IT infrastructure."

Clustering, or linking two S70 Advanced servers with IBM's industry-leading HACMP software(1), addresses the growing demand for reliability.

"We chose the RS/6000 S70 for our ERP system for its scalability, reliability and IBM's commitment to a seamless upgrade path," said Paul Maier, Technology Manager, AGA Gas. "HACMP ensures that our mission critical systems are available to both our internal and external customers all the time."

IBM is also offering customers the ability to seamlessly attach the S70 or S70 Advanced to the SP with the SP System Attachment Adapter. This switch adapter enables customers to manage the S70 as a node within the SP from a single point of control. This unique feature delivers a fourfold database performance boost and brings 64-bit computing to the SP.

IBM has also added new functions to Parallel System Support Programs for AIX (PSSP) 3.1 allowing the S70 or S70 Advanced to be attached to the SP. PSSP 3.1 also includes enhancements for higher availability, system management for operational control and security.

Industry-leading Performance

The RS/6000 S70 server posted record-breaking scalability for the PeopleSoft enterprise application. The S70 with IBM DB2 Universal Database running PeopleSoft Human Resource Management System 7 Online achieved the industry's highest performance results with 17,000 concurrent users, all experiencing response times of less than 2.0 seconds. The S70 outperformed the industry's best prior result by 30 percent.

Separately, PeopleSoft certified the first Time and Labor benchmark for PeopleSoft Release 7.5 on the RS/6000 S70 Enterprise server using the Oracle8 Server database. IBM established a leadership position with this benchmark by processing data for 54,000 employees in 52.4 minutes.

In addition, IBM has published a new TPC-D benchmark, a commonly used result for database performance in business intelligence applications. The RS/6000 S70 Advanced server and DB2 Universal Database set a new record in the power category (4226.5, QppD) for 100 GB, surpassing the last record by 38 percent.(2)

About IBM RS/6000

More than 650,000 IBM RS/6000 systems are in use by over 100,000 commercial and technical customers around the world. The RS/6000 is IBM's family of computers that feature RISC-based microprocessors and AIX, IBM's UNIX operating system. RS/6000 products range in size and capacity from workstations, workgroup and enterprise servers, to the RS/6000 SP supercomputer. From businesses working to become more efficient and profitable, to governments and universities seeking to solve the greatest challenges of our time, the RS/6000 supports a wide range of applications and provides the reliability, availability and price/performance that today's information technology managers demand.

(1) IBM was ranked the number one vendor by D.H. Brown and Associates

in their "Competitive Analysis of Reliability, Availability,

Serviceability and Cluster Features and Functions" report,

September 1998.

(2) The S70 Advanced posted results of 4226.5 Power (QppD), 1092.6

Throughput (QthD) and $589 Price/Performance ($/QphD) at the 100

GB scale factor. These results will be available on December 31,

1998. TPC Benchmark, TPC-D, QppD, QthD and QphD are trademarks of

the Transaction Processing Performance Council. For more

information, see http://www.tpc.org

For more information, visit the IBM RS/6000 web site at http://www.rs6000.ibm.com.