IBM announces new leading performance results and partnership with VMware
IBM grew high-end Intel server revenue 170 percent year-to-year (4-way and
greater systems) in the second quarter, on the strength of its breakthrough
"building block" technology. IBM will turn up the heat on competitors today
with new leading performance results and an industry-leading partnership
with VMware -- arguably the new "killer app" that will drive demand in the
high-end of the Intel space.
Despite desperate claims from HPQ that the Intel Xeon Processor MP doesn't
scale (and therefore doesn't threaten the jewel of their Compaq
acquisition), IBM has just published industry-leading eight-way performance
and price/performance results on the Transaction Processing Performance
Council's TPC-C benchmark. An eight-processor eServer x440 system delivered
32 percent more performance than Dell's and Hewlett-Packard's
highest eight-way TPC-C results on an Intel-based server. The x440 also
delivered price/performance that is 18 percent better than the HP system
and 9 percent better than the Dell machine.
Built with IBM Enterprise X-Architecture technology, the x440 delivers a
modular, "building block" approach designed to support from four to 16
processor. It can be used as a single big server to run a large database
for business intelligence, or to consolidate many small "virtual servers"
-- such as multiple e-mail servers -- under one roof to reduce costs.
A significant factor driving IBM's explosive high-end growth is the fact
that customers are turning to IBM to help them reign in cost and complexity
by consolidating workloads onto fewer, more powerful systems like the x440.
Building on this momentum, IBM and software provider VMware will announce on
Monday a significant expansion of their relationship to address growing
customer demand for cost-effective, quick-to-deploy server consolidation
solutions.
Bernadette Rose
Account Executive
Text 100 Public Relations
Global High Technology Public Relations
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IBM and VMware Simplify Consolidation of Intel Servers
Firms expand relationship; IBM to resell and support VMware ESX Server
worldwide on eServer systems
ARMONK, N.Y., July 29, 2002 ... IBM and VMware today announced an expansion
of their relationship designed to make it easier for customers to reduce
cost and complexity by consolidating workloads onto powerful IBM eServer
Intel processor-based systems.
Building on a joint development agreement announced earlier this year, the
two companies today announced a global distribution and support agreement to
address customer demand for cost-effective, quick-to-deploy server
consolidation solutions.
Under the agreement, IBM will resell VMware ESX Server virtual machine
software with dynamic logical partitioning on select eServer systems. IBM
will offer worldwide support for VMware ESX Server software and Microsoft
Windows and Linux operating systems running within ESX Server virtual
machines. This support will be available as a special bid under IBM Global
Services' SupportLine for Microsoft Windows and SupportLine for Linux,
providing customers with single, integrated support services for eServer
systems, ESX Server software and operating systems.
"IBM eServer systems and VMware ESX Server are proving to be an ideal
combination for server consolidation," said Clint Parrish, systems architect
and lead system administrator at Saks Inc., one of the premier retail
enterprises in the U.S. "We plan to run as many as 32 virtual machines on a
single eServer x440 and expect significantly lower total cost of ownership
as a result."
As Intel processor-based servers take on more demanding business-critical
workloads, customers are looking to increase capacity, consolidate workloads
and improve server management, while reducing costs. Together, IBM and
VMware offer virtualization and partitioning capabilities that can help
customers improve return on investment and lower total cost of ownership by
increasing resource utilization, expanding computing capacity and
simplifying software lifecycle management.
"Customers are looking for complete solutions to consolidate workloads and
reduce IT costs," said Deepak Advani, vice president, IBM eServer xSeries.
"This expansion of the IBM and VMware relationship makes it even easier for
customers worldwide to benefit from server consolidation on eServer systems,
backed by comprehensive, end-to-end support from IBM."
Today's move follows the announcement in February of an IBM and VMware joint
development agreement in which VMware integrated its ESX Server
software with IBM eServer Intel-based servers. VMware ESX Server achieved
IBM ServerProven validation in December 2001.
"The timing couldn't be better for extending our relationship with IBM to
include sales and support of VMware ESX Server," said Diane Greene,
president and chief executive officer of VMware. "Our efforts are coming
just as enterprise server customers are demanding more powerful and
cost-effective ways to do more with less. Virtualized computing with
logical partitioning is proving to be the right solution at the right time."
Introduced earlier this year, the eServer x440 is the result of a three-year
development effort to build an exceptionally powerful Intel processor-based
server that meets the performance, reliability and scalability requirements
of corporate data center customers. Powered by ground-breaking IBM
Enterprise X-Architecture technology, the x440 offers a highly reliable,
"building block" approach that allows customers to pay for computing power
incrementally as they need it, and is designed to support from four to 16
processors.
About IBM
IBM offers a full line of servers that embrace industry standards. Powered
by breakthroughs such as microprocessors with copper wiring and
Silicon-on-Insulator technology, IBM servers have captured industry-leading
benchmarks that measure transactions, Web serving capabilities and
performance in software applications. The IBM eServer line is an integral
part of customized, flexible and scalable Internet solutions for companies
of all sizes. Linux is capable of running on IBM's entire eServer line. For
more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/eserver.
# # #
The IBM eServer brand consists of the established IBM e-business logo with
the descriptive term "server" following it.
IBM, X-Architecture, xSeries and x440 are trademarks or registered
trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.
VMware and the VMware boxes logo are trademarks of VMware, Inc.
Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
All other trademarks, registered trademarks and service marks are the
property of their respective owners.
IBM Shatters Performance Record for Eight-Way Intel-Based Servers
IBM eServer x440 delivers 32 percent better performance than Dell and HP on
TPC-C benchmark
ARMONK, N.Y., July 29, 2002 ... IBM today demonstrated the extraordinary
scalability of its eServer x440 Intel processor-based system, offering a
building-block approach designed to support from four to 16 processors, by
achieving industry-leading performance and price/performance on the
Transaction Processing Performance Council's TPC-C benchmark. The IBM
eServer x440 achieved a record 92,398.49 transactions per minute (tpmC),
making it the world's most powerful eight-processor Intel-architecture
system.
Built with ground-breaking IBM Enterprise X-Architecture technology, the
x440 delivered 32 percent more performance than Dell's and Hewlett-Packard's
highest eight-way TPC-C results on an Intel-processor-based server. The
system also delivered price/performance that is 18 percent better that the
HP system and 9 percent better than the Dell machine (1).
The x440's eight-way performance result demonstrates scalability of more
than 1.6 times when compared to the 4-way x440 TPC-C result published in
March 2002 (2).
Introduced earlier this year, the x440 is the result of a three-year
development effort to build an exceptionally powerful Intel processor-based
server using industry-standard technologies that meets the performance,
reliability and scalability requirements of corporate data center customers.
The server offers a modular, highly reliable architecture that allows
customers to pay for computing power incrementally as they need it, and is
designed to support up to 16 processors and 64 GB of memory.
The x440 tested used eight Intel Xeon Processor MP operating at 1.6GHz and
ran Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition and Microsoft .NET
Datacenter Server.
A complete list of all TPC results is available at the Transaction
Processing Performance Council Web site at www.tpc.org.
About IBM
IBM offers a full line of servers that embrace industry standards. Powered
by breakthroughs such as microprocessors with copper wiring and
Silicon-on-Insulator technology, IBM servers have captured industry-leading
benchmarks that measure transactions, Web serving capabilities and
performance in software applications. The IBM eServer product line is an
integral part of customized, flexible and scalable Internet solutions for
companies of all sizes. Linux is capable of running on the entire IBM
eServer line. For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/eserver.
# # #
Results referenced are current as of July 24, 2002.
(1) IBM eServer x440, 92,398.49 tpmC, $7.70/tpmC, available January 21,
2003. Dell PowerEdge 8450, 69,901.74 tpmC, $8.46/tpmC, available November
15, 2001. HP ProLiant DL760, 69,169.61 tpmC, $9.43/tpmC, available March
30, 2002.
(2) IBM eServer x440, 55,138.60 tpmC, $6.98/tpmC, available September 10,
2002.
The IBM eServer brand consists of the established IBM e-business logo with
the descriptive term "server" following it.
IBM, the e-business logo, X-Architecture, xSeries and x440 are trademarks or
registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.
Intel and Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation.
Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in
the United States and/or other countries.
TPC-C, tpmC and $/tpmC are trademarks of the Transaction Processing
Performance Council.
All other company/product names and service marks may be trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective companies.
