New Servers: Bull Redefines Value in Enterprise Windows NT Server Market - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, May 3, 1999

Bull, a world leader in the enterprise server market, introduced Monday in North America its Express5800 series of powerful Intel-based Windows NT servers together with four packaged solutions for popular business applications. The six-model Express5800 range, developed and jointly marketed in cooperation with longtime partner NEC Computer Systems Division (NECCSD), integrates software products from Bull and other leading vendors to deliver the industry's only one-stop shopping resource for Windows NT-based solutions.

The Express5800 servers address requirements from entry-level local and workgroup servers to powerful 8-way systems targeted at database and transaction processing environments at the enterprise level. The packaged solutions include the K-12World Internet Access Server, a Remote Access Server, the Cyberprise Web Application Server and a Storage Resource Manager (SRM) Windows NT server customized to meet special user requirements.

"With this announcement, Bull becomes an active player in the rapidly growing Windows NT server market," said Ellen Park, vice president of Bull's Server division in North America. "Bull and NEC will succeed in the Windows NT server market in the U.S. by providing a highly competitive platform offering, backed by a rich application catalog and excellence in services and support.

"The Express5800 strategy complements Bull's AIX business in that the major growth in the Win2000 server market is at the lower end, under $50,000; while UNIX remains strong above this figure," Park said. "Giving customers a choice of operating systems is a key component of Bull's strategy for the year 2000 and beyond."

The new models and packaged solutions, available immediately from Bull, are targeted at specific markets and applications -- such as education, Web server, storage and remote access -- as well as the high-volume and infrastructure segments, which today account for roughly 95 percent of all Windows NT shipments.

Express5800 Family Spans Wide Application, Performance Range The six models of the Express5800 family of servers combine superior scalability and outstanding price/performance to deliver solutions from the workgroup to the enterprise level. Designed and built for the demanding environments of Windows NT and Novell NetWare, the Express5800 range features Pentium II, Pentium III and Pentium II and III Xeon processors, plus advanced I/O capabilities and highly expandable system memory.

At the high end, the Express5800 Model HV8600, suitable for business-critical enterprise applications, offers up to eight Pentium III Xeon 500MHz processors and up to 2 MB of Level 2 integrated cache. The mid-range Express5800 Model MC2400, intended for departmental applications such as application server and network server, is available with up to two Pentium II/III 400/500 MHz processors with 512 KB of Level 2 ECC cache. The entry-level Express5800 Model ES1400, designed for small workgroup applications such as file/print, includes one Pentium II 350 MHz processor with 512 KB of cache.

The Express5800 server family offers tremendous processing power for the most challenging enterprise OLTP and database applications. For example, a Pentium III Xeon, 500 MHz 8-way Express5800 HV8600 server, running SAP R/3 V4.0 along with a Microsoft SQL Server 7 database, recently achieved a world leading figure of 87,000 dialog steps per hour in centralize mode.

The ESMPRO Management Suite is included with every Express5800 server, enabling system administrators to continuously monitor, analyze and manage critical server information and operation throughout the network. ESMPRO provides plug-ins for other system/network management software, including Bull's OpenMaster secure enterprise management software.

A selection of external cabinets provides a choice of storage solutions based upon the criteria of capacity, data security, performance and price:

* 8 bay disk/media cabinet offering capacities of up to 72.8 GB

* 6 bay low-cost RAID cabinet for entry level RAID solutions of up to 25.8 GB capacity

* DAS150: combines price, capacity, performance and security - up to 61.6 GB of storage

* DAS1300: high capacity (88 GB), high performance, high availability; recommended for maximum data security applications

* DAS2900: maximum capacity, security and performance offering up to 176 GB of data storage.

Packaged Solutions Meet Needs of Popular Business Applications Four packaged Express5800 configurations offer customers convenient one-stop shopping that deliver competitive solutions backed by Bull's acknowledged excellence in administration and security, interoperability and integration services.

* Express5800 K-12World Internet Access Server is a unique turnkey solution that has been designed to make delivering the Internet into classrooms safe, easy and fun for teachers and students alike. Customized for K-12, the Express5800 K-12World Internet Access Server delivers fast and affordable Web resources, helps ensure appropriate content and enables the Internet to be used as a safe and powerful educational tool.