Big Blue rebrands its server lineup for e-biz

Big Blue rebrands its server lineup for e-biz

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): I still remember my early years in writing IT
articles for The Jakarta Post. I had no clear idea what a server
was, let alone a midrange server, an AS/400, an RS/6000, a
Digital Alpha, a Tandem or a Stratus. All I knew was a PC with a
386, 486 or the Pentium processor. So, when I was first invited
by IBM to the launch of their new AS/400 machines, I thought I
was on a different planet.

Looking back, it might have been because of the fact that
servers did not play such a crucial role as they do now. And that
was also because the amount of data was not as staggering it is
today.

The Internet was just beginning to become available to the
public then. Another reason must have been that, at that time, an
Intel processor did not really have the power to run a server and
PC technology was still too wobbly to provide the functionalities
of a server. Some Intel-based PCs were beginning to be used as
file servers, others as print servers, but Intel-based
application servers were not widely known then.

Over the years, we saw more and more dedicated uses of
servers. As e-commerce and e-business began to pick up momentum
in 1997, demands for machines that could run nonstop suddenly
exploded.

Since then, data that applications such as Customer
Relationship Management, Web hosting as well as
audio and video streaming are creating has also grown
exponentially. Server machines are needed, because they can
continue to run even when one of their components -- such as the
hard disk, the power supply and the network interface card (NIC)
-- breaks down and has to be replaced. They are required because
they can continue to work when new hard disks are being added.

Today, people talk about scalability, reliability, and, most
importantly, 99.99 percent availability when they talk about
servers.

According to IDC's IT Forecaster, Oct. 24, 2000, four vendors
have been dominating the server market. These are IBM, Compaq,
Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystem. IBM has been losing a chunk
of its market share, however.

While in 1997 its share was 26 percent of the worldwide server
market, in 1999 it declined slightly to 23 percent. On the other
hand, during the same period Compaq's share grew from 7 percent
to 15 percent, HP's from 11 percent to 14 percent and Sun's from
8 percent to 13 percent.

The market share of all the smaller server vendors dropped
from 48 percent in 1997 to 35 percent in 1999. I guess one has to
look more closely at Compaq's share, however, because both Tandem
and Digital brought in their own shares of the server market when
they were acquired by this company.

Servers on the range

Not all servers are the same, of course. Basically, the
industry tends to place machines with Intel processors at the
lowest level. When they mention an entry-level server, it would
in most likelihood mean an Intel-based server.

However, this can be very misleading. As Intel processors have
become very powerful and a number of them can be used in a 4-way,
8-way or even 64-way configurations, Intel-based servers can be
very powerful. The mainframe technologies that the vendors
implement in these servers have also matched those found in the
high-end servers. So, today, you shouldn't be surprised to learn
that all the servers used by your favorite news portal are Intel-
based.

But there is still markets for more powerful servers, such as
the midrange AS/400 and the Compaq Alpha servers. For even more
demands, IBM, for example, still offers the RS/6000. And there
are still the mainframe computers that not everybody can buy.

Would you know how much these servers cost in general?
According to IDC's classifications, the entry-level servers can
range in price from US$8,000 to $99,000. Actually, you can get an
entry-level, Intel-based Netfinity server for under $1,000. The
mid-range servers, still according to IDC, will carry price tags
between $100,000 and $999,000. The high-end server will cost $1
million and up.

Now that the Y2K festival is over, IDC expects that the sales
of servers, particularly low-end ones, will resume its climb. One
of the reasons is, of course, the explosion of dot-coms all over
the world.

Rebranding at IBM

From October, you will no longer hear names like Netfinity,
AS/400 and RS/6000 spoken at IBM, although they may still be
available in the near future. As a result of a three-year effort
called Project Mach 1, IBM has revamped its server lineups and
rebranded them "eServers". The objective of the project was to
come up with optimal server solutions for electronic business.
That was the reason for the addition of the "e" in new
trademarks, which is the logo of the company's e-business
initiative.

However, it also turned out that this choice of name might be
more than just a little problematic. Another company, Technauts,
had already been using eServer for the name of its software and
hardware products.

Technauts has reportedly informed Big Blue that it intends to
protect its right to the name eServer. Now, whether IBM and
Technauts will settle out of court or whether IBM can convince
the court that the use of the e-business logo distinguishes its
eServer from Technaut's eServer, remains to be seen.

Nevertheless, there are several interesting and important
things about the new server lineups.

First, They do not actually replace the existing server
offerings, they just update what has been available. Second, the
eServers come in several different series. All the Intel-based
servers, including the low-end Netfinity servers and the NUMA-Q
come under the name xSeries.

The mid-range servers, which comprises the AS/400 models,
which are very popular in the banking and financial industry, are
now called the iSeries. The more powerful RS/6000 is now called
the pSeries, while the high-end server from IBM, the S/390, is
now called the zSeries. Clearly, with this rebranding IBM wants
to reestablish its position in the server market by making
its product lines easier for its customers to understand.

Third, all the new servers now support Linux. While the
xSeries may run Linux in its native mode, the other server lines
may be able to host Linux through its operating systems. In this
regard, the zSeries runs zOS while the pSeries still runs AIX and
the iSeries still uses OS/400.

Fourth, following the latest trend in software pricing in
which users will have to pay based on usage, IBM is no longer
requiring its high-end server customers to pay for all the
software based on the machine's capacity. Instead, these server
customers will have to pay what they use, and this helps a lot in
e-business where traffic may not be constant.

In the weeks leading to Christmas, for example, traffic to B2C
sites such as eToys.com may be extremely busy as people try to
find the right gifts for their loved ones. Similarly, during
riots and natural disasters, traffic to breaking news portals
will usually jump. A charging plan based on the average workload
will work well in these situations.

At any rate, from now on, when you call Big Blue to inquire
about a Netfinity that you want to add to your network, ask for
the eServer xSeries instead. As long as nothing serious comes out
of the dispute between IBM and Technauts, that is.
(zatni@cbn.net.id)