The IBM eServer Strategy

Underlying the e-business on demand strategy is a completely revamped line of servers known as the IBM eServer family, comprised of the following product lines:

• pSeries (evolved from RS/6000)

  pSeries is the IBM UNIX server line designed for both traditional business applications and high-performance computing environments. pSeries can be scaled up in processing power both by upgrading to more powerful models and by linking (clustering) multiple pSeries systems together to achieve supercomputer performance.

• iSeries (evolved from AS/400)

  iSeries servers are mid-range servers featuring an integrated architecture that makes them easier to manage than other competing servers. This, along with their ability to simultaneously support several different types of application programs (OS/400, UNIX, Linux, and Windows), has made these systems very popular.

• xSeries (evolved from Netfinity)

  xSeries is the IBM line of Intel processor-based servers. The IBM Enterprise X-Architecture employed by these servers leverages many mainframe-like functions, resulting in improved reliability. This and features such as hot-swappable power supplies and integrated hard-disk-drive mirroring help further improve system reliability and availability. XSeries servers support several different operating systems including Microsoft Windows and Linux.

• zSeries (evolved from S/390)

  zSeries is the IBM line of mainframe servers offering high-end capacity, performance, security, and reliability. They are designed to run mission-critical applications for an enterprise.

• Clusters

  Clusters are not a separate product line but rather configurations of multiple eServer systems connected together through high-speed links. With clusters, you can combine the performance and capacity of multiple eServer systems while retaining the simplicity of managing them as if they were a single system.

• Blades

  The IBM eServer BladeCenter is a highly dense server architecture that delivers high-performance computing in a modular, rack-mounted package. The first blade to be introduced is the HS20, a 2-way Intel processor-based server. Additional blade servers, such as a UNIX blade and a storage networking blade, are expected to be introduced in 2003.

The IBM eServer product lines are designed to reduce the total cost of owning and operating a business-critical e-business computing infrastructure (including the hardware purchase price, software licensing, installation, user training, upgrade requirements, maintenance, power consumption, facilities, systems management resources, etc.). According to a study of the operating e-business infrastructures of 24 organizations (Value Proposition for E-Infrastructures, ITG, December 2002), using eServer systems in an e-business infrastructure can help to significantly reduce total cost of ownership over a five-year period. Lower total cost of ownership translates into greater return on e-business infrastructure investments.

At the same time, IBM eServer systems also have proven their worth in the highly competitive world of price versus performance. IBM invests more each year in benchmark testing (performance test) than its rivals. Along the way IBM eServer systems have consistently demonstrated performance leadership and received numerous # 1 performance ratings. This may be one reason IBM recently gained market share to pass the combined HP/Compaq company and reclaim its position as the number one server company in the world according to IDC.

MORE ON THE WEB

• Study: Value Proposition for E-Infrastructures

• Perform your own TCO self assessment

• TCO Study of IBM eServer done by ITG

• Nintendo's server consolidation project

Here is a quick iSeries example to illustrate how a business can improve performance and reduce costs at the same time. Nintendo of America, a well-known video game company, replaced three AS/400 servers running WebSphere and Lotus Domino with a single iSeries server. The result was a significantly lower total cost of ownership and an increase in both system performance and availability.

IBM has achieved this low total cost of ownership and leading price/performance through a four-part strategy that underlies all eServer products. Let's take a quick look at each part.

Application Flexibility

Freedom of choice results in lower costs. Application program flexibility offers users a wider choice of pre-packaged application programs from which to choose when they begin looking for business solutions—often resulting in a more appropriate and lower-cost solution. Leveraging open standards and offering more than one operating system choice (including Linux on all eServer lines) also reduces the cost of integrating separate application programs. IBM eServer lines are currently in the lead when it comes to supporting both de facto and open standards. As we will see, iSeries systems can run application programs under two different operating systems at the same time (AIX and Linux). This makes for more options when choosing pre-packaged application programs.

Technology Leverage

IBM has always been and continues to be a technology innovator and leader by hiring good people, making strategic acquisitions and investments, and spending heavily on research and development. IBM has eight global research labs with over 3,000 researchers. Every year for nearly a decade now, IBM has set a new record for the most patents awarded to a single company—more than the 12 largest technology vendors combined. Recent innovations at the chip level include silicon-on-insulator (SOI) chips, which can boost performance by up to 30%, copper wiring, which reduces power consumption and improves reliability through lower operating temperatures, and the first dual processor on a single microprocessor chip (the POWER4). By using these POWER4 chips in an IBM multi-chip module (MCM), you have four chips (eight processors) in a softball-size package. These and other innovations in the IBM technology portfolio are used in the eServer lines to deliver improved price/performance, capacity, and function. At the system level, the eServer system's ability to grow or "scale up" in performance and capacity is an innovation. That is, you can get more performance and capacity in several different ways. For example, you can simply upgrade to larger models with more processors (vertical growth). Alternately, you can grow horizontally by exploiting virtualization or by linking (clustering) multiple eServer systems together using high-speed links. Doing so allows you to combine the strengths of many systems yet manage them as one.

Cryptographic co-processors, available on most IBM eServer systems, help speed the encryption and decryption of information, thus enabling secure communications over networks.

Risk Mitigation

The farther you are down the e-business adoption path, the more disruptive it is when a computer system fails or goes down unexpectedly. To minimize the impact to business continuity resulting from downtime, IBM is taking the best ideas and technology from each eServer line and implementing them across all eServer lines. It's an approach that seems to be working, as demonstrated by the ITG study (referenced above) that followed the actual experiences of 24 enterprises and found that "For combined IT and business costs, IBM eServer scenarios averaged 54.5% less" over a five-year period than those associated with Sun and HP servers. The report goes on to indicate that there are a number of reasons why IBM eServer systems have a lower five-year cost. Among the reasons listed is better system availability, which means the risk associated with computers going down is reduced.

Infrastructure Efficiency

Many of the computing infrastructure resources deployed today are underutilized. Businesses are paying for wasted performance, capacity, and human resources, thus increasing total cost of ownership. IBM is focused on enabling eServer systems to more efficiently utilize their performance and capacity with functions such as "capacity on demand," which allows you to switch reserve computing power on and off but pay only for what you use. Another strategic technology built into many eServer systems is Dynamic Logical Partitioning (LPAR), which allows you to partition a single eServer system such that it acts as a group of "virtual" eServer systems—each with its own users, unique characteristics, and even unique operating systems. And "dynamic" means you can reallocate the computing resources across the partitions on the fly as needed without disrupting operations. Perhaps the ultimate infrastructure will come over time through a model IBM is fostering called grid computing, in which computer power is delivered to users just like electricity or water—as a utility.