IBM revamps Power line

Company takes aim at HP and Sun

Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com 08 Oct 2008

IBM has released a new line-up under its Power Systems server brand, including a fresh series of servers for medium-sized businesses and larger enterprises.

Among the new offerings is an expanded version of the flagship 570 system, which has been improved to support the company's high-end 5GHz Power6 processors.

The 570 servers will also be one of two new models to sport expanded virtualisation software which can allow individual server nodes to be repaired or replaced without shutting down the entire system.

"Instead of having downtime at 2am on a Sunday, you can have it at 2pm on a Tuesday," explained Scott Handy, IBM's vice president of worldwide marketing and strategy for Power Systems.

The new server line will also include several rack and blade systems for medium-sized businesses. IBM contends that the scalability and ease of deployment for Linux and Unix systems will help lure new industries to the Power Systems line.

IBM is also aiming the new line of Unix servers primarily at rivals Sun Microsystems and HP and their clients, touting the ability of the new servers to lure customers from both companies to IBM.

"With new servers and our systems software offerings moving higher up the customer value chain, we are continuing to demonstrate the added value we provide to customers when compared to HP and Sun," said Handy.

"We are offering customers more attractive total infrastructure solutions whether they are replacing one workload at a time in a department, or consolidating, simplifying and integrating their IT and moving to a shared infrastructure approach that supports tens or hundreds of applications from one or more groups of users or lines of business."

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