On September 5, IBM took the unusual step of making several important iSeries announcements at the end of a business week. The announcements included the unveiling of two new server offerings, important changes to the iSeries Enterprise Editions, and some faster hardware features.
The new server offerings--the iSeries for Capacity BackUp and the iSeries for High Availability--provide customers with options for ensuring the continuity of their IT operations. The iSeries for Capacity BackUp is a Model 825, 870, or 890 that acts as an off-site "hot spare" server to which customers can relocate IT systems in case of a disaster. The iSeries for Capacity BackUp offerings come configured with a smaller number of active CPUs and a larger number of standby processors than their standard counterparts. During normal operations, customers are free to run any software they want (provided they pay for it) on the active processors. If a disaster strikes, customers can transfer their IT systems to the server and temporarily activate as many of the standby CPUs as they need to support workloads.
The Capacity BackUp servers cost significantly less than Enterprise Editions of the same iSeries models but more than the corresponding Standard Edition models. So why would you purchase a Capacity BackUp offering for a hot spare system instead of a Standard Edition? There are three reasons why you would do so.
1. In the event of a disaster (defined by IBM as an unforeseen event beyond your control that requires an off-site system to resume operations), you can temporarily activate standby processors on the iSeries for Capacity BackUp servers at no additional charge. On a Standard Edition, you pay for every processor day beyond the initial 14 no-charge days that come with the server.
2. While the iSeries Standard Edition does not support 5250 workloads, the Capacity BackUp offerings support the same unlimited 5250 capacity as the Enterprise Editions. If your IT operations will require 5250 capacity during a disaster, a Standard Edition won't help you.
3. Finally, the iSeries for Capacity BackUp offerings include a voucher for one free IBM high availability or disaster recovery service. The Standard Editions include no services.
While the iSeries for Capacity BackUp offerings are for off-site disaster recovery, the iSeries for High Availability offerings provide failover protection for on-site outages. The offering comes in Model 825, 870, and 890 versions that are physically identical to the Enterprise Edition versions of these models. The only differences are that they come with less software and they carry list prices that are anywhere from 20% to 38% lower than those for similarly configured Enterprise Editions. Customers who purchase the Model 890 offerings will get the smaller list price discounts, though many of them will probably be able to negotiate discounts of 35% to 40%. Customers who purchase the Model 825 and 870 offerings will get list price discounts of 30% to 38% but will probably be less successful than 890 owners in negotiating discounts.
Of course, customers will have to meet some conditions to receive these discounts. While a company can run any workload it wants on an iSeries for High Availability server, it must connect the server to a primary server that is also a Model 825, 870, or 890. The High Availability server must be smaller than or equal to the size of the primary server. In addition, both the primary and High Availability server must be running a qualifying high availability software product from DataMirror, Lakeview Technology, or Vision Solutions. As you might remember from my article last month, I speculated that IBM might include software from iTera or Maximum Availability on the eligibility list for this offering. That has not turned out to be the case, though IBM now lists the two vendors as "Data Recovery/Replication Partners" on its Web site.
In Other News
While it was rolling out new server offerings, IBM took the opportunity to fine-tune the product mix within its existing Enterprise Edition offerings. Effective September 12, the Enterprise Editions of the Models 825, 870, and 890 now include three new products:
• The XML Toolkit for iSeries provides an interface to an XML parser that allows RPG, C, C++, and COBOL programmers to write applications that work with XML documents.
• DB2 UDB Workgroup Server Edition for Linux provides a database for use in Linux partitions. It comes with the Enterprise Edition of the Model 810 as well as the 825, 870, and 890.
• In addition, IBM announced that it will include a 20-user version of WebSphere Portal Express Plus for iSeries, which will include Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing (formerly Sametime) and QuickPlace, in the Enterprise Editions of the Models 825, 870, and 890 once IBM starts shipping this product. IBM intends to ship the product--along with the standard version of WebSphere Portal Express for iSeries--sometime during the fourth quarter. Until these products ship, customers who purchase the Enterprise Edition will receive vouchers.
By the way, IBM has decided to drop WebSphere Application Server 4.0 and 5.0 from all Enterprise Editions as of October 12, 2003. From that point onward, all Enterprise Edition orders will include WebSphere Application Server Express.
Finally, IBM juiced up several hardware components to improve iSeries performance. These include an Integrated xSeries Server (IXS) that runs at 2.0 GHz, yet costs the same as previous models running at 1.6 GHz. IBM also unveiled faster PCI-X tape and disk controllers that utilize Fibre Channel interfaces. In the process, Big Blue announced that customers can achieve save/restore rates of up to 5.2 TB per hour by using PCI-X disk controllers, the new Fibre Channel tape controller, and the company's latest Ultrium LTO-2 tape drives.
IBM's announcement fulfilled many of the promises it has made to iSeries customers over the last several months with one notable exception: There was no formal announcement of WebSphere Commerce Express for the iSeries. However, I anticipate that this product will ship next month. In the meantime, IBM's latest offerings will give customers plenty of new options to consider.
Lee Kroon is a Senior Industry Analyst for Andrews Consulting Group, a firm that helps mid-sized companies manage business transformation through technology. You can reach him at
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