Last Tuesday, IBM launched a promotion that makes high-availability solutions more affordable for owners of smaller servers. Under the promotion, customers can receive a substantial rebate on the purchase of an iSeries Model 810 Enterprise Edition that acts as a high-availability server for a qualifying AS/400 or iSeries model.
IBM's rebate promotion helps to fill a gap in the iSeries for High Availability offerings that it unveiled five weeks ago. As I explained in my article on those offerings, the iSeries for High Availability servers come in Model 825, 870, and 890 form factors. For many iSeries owners, these systems offer more performance than they need from a high-availability solution. Moreover, the iSeries for High Availability servers must connect to a Model 825, 870, or 890 server of equal or greater performance. This raises the price and performance floors for these offerings to levels that are far too high for many customers.
For such companies, IBM's new promotion represents a welcome alternative. Under the promotion, customers get a rebate when they purchase the following:
- An iSeries Model 810 Enterprise Edition for use as a high-availability system
-
Two new licenses for qualifying high-availability software--one for the production system and one for the Model 810
The rebate promotion gives customers more options than they have with the larger iSeries for High Availability servers. The production system can be an AS/400 Model 7xx, an iSeries 270, or an iSeries 8xx model. There is no requirement that the production server have greater performance than the backup server.
In addition, customers can select from a wider variety of high-availability software packages than those available for the iSeries for High Availability servers. To qualify for the rebate, customers can purchase software from DataMirror, Lakeview Technology, Vision Solutions, iTera, and Maximum Availability. By contrast, the iSeries for High Availability servers can only run software from the first three vendors. The inclusion of iTera and Maximum Availability in the iSeries 810 promotion represents a breakthrough event for these two vendors.
As for the rebate amounts, IBM has made them fairly attractive. The following table provides the qualifying iSeries 810 Enterprise Edition models and associated rebate amounts in U.S. dollars.
iSeries 810 High Availability Rebate Amounts
|
Model 810 Processor Feature
|
Enterprise Edition Feature
|
Processor CPW
|
Rebate Amount
|
|
2465
|
7406
|
750
|
$15,000
|
|
2466
|
7409
|
1,020
|
$20,000
|
|
2467
|
7412
|
1,470
|
$20,000
|
|
2469
|
7430
|
2,700
|
$40,000
|
On a percentage of list price basis, these rebate amounts represent an approximate 18% discount off list price for the 810-2465 and -2466 and an 11% discount for the 810-2467 and -2469. While those discounts are not as generous as the 20% to 38% reductions that IBM is offering for the iSeries for High Availability offerings, they are still significant. As we have also seen, the terms of the iSeries 810 promotion are more flexible than those for the larger servers.
By the way, if you want to save additional money on an iSeries 810 purchase, IBM has given you a way to do so. On the same day as it unveiled the rebate promotion, the computer giant announced a trade-in promotion for AS/400 4xx, 5xx, 6xx, and Sxx models. Under the promotion, you can get a credit of $6,000 to $10,000 when you trade in one of these older systems for an iSeries 810 or 825 Enterprise Edition.
As is usual in most IBM promotions, these offers have limited shelf lives. For both promotions, you must place your orders by December 31, 2003. This undoubtedly reflects an IBM effort to pump up its fourth quarter iSeries sales results. However, the company may also be using the rebate promotion to determine whether it should create a permanent high-availability offering on a smaller iSeries server. As you may remember, the iSeries for High Availability servers started their lives as rebate promotions before IBM turned them into discounted servers. If the new rebate promotion sells plenty of Model 810s, chances are good that we will see a more permanent offering in 2004.
If IBM's latest high-availability promotion interests you, read the announcement letter. Then, decide for yourself whether you want to participate in what may be a marketing experiment on Big Blue's part.
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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