IBM Announces New Netfinity Options and Availability of Netfinity Mid-range Servers
Netfinity e-business Tools Deliver Performance and High Availability for Business-Critical Applications
SOMERS, NY (May 26, 1998) – IBM(a) today announced the new IBM 10/100 Netfinity Fault Tolerant Adapter, and the immediate availability of the Netfinity 5500 server — a high-availability, mid-range server, and 18 GB(2) and 9GB 10,000 RPM hard disk drives. These ”e-business tools” offer scalability, manageability and power, enabling customers to expand their reach by harnessing the power of the Internet.
IBM Ships Netfinity Server and Options for e-business
The Netfinity 5500 comes standard with a 350 or 400 MHz(1) Pentium (R) II processor, up to 2-way SMP capable, 128MB memory SDRAM, and a dual-channel Wide Ultra SCSI RAID controller, hot-swap redundant components, and upgradeability to future Intel(R) Pentium II Xeon microprocessors. The server is bundled with either Lotus Domino Intranet Starter Pack or Lotus Domino server (single processor edition), at no additional cost.
The Netfinity 5500 includes many high availability features such as hot-plug and hot-add PCI technologies which help customers reduce the costs of deploying, managing and supporting applications by removing, replacing or adding a PCI adapter without powering down the server. Additionally, the new IBM 10/100 Netfinity Fault Tolerant Adapter is hot-swappable and allows fail-over to the integrated Ethernet controller, enabling Netfinity customers to virtually eliminate down-time during server maintenance, while helping to boost network performance.
Customers can reduce service time with IBM’s exclusive light-path diagnostics capability. Equivalent to the light path inside a copier that locates a paper jam, this technology allows the integrated Advanced Remote Management processor to quickly and correctly identify a failed component. Advanced Remote Management provides PFA alerting, error logging, event posting, environmental monitoring, and integration with other components, enabling customers to remotely manage the Netfinity 5500.
The Netfinity 5500 can be rack mounted in the IBM Netfinity Rack tower system or as a tower model integrated with the NetBAY3 which provides a secure expansion capability for hard disk drives, communication and power devices. NetBAY3 enables the Netfinity 5500 and existing Netfinity 7000 tower systems to increase internal disk storage up to 600GB and 655GB respectively.
IBM today also announced plans to ship its 18GB and 9GB 10,000 RPM hard disk drives early in the third quarter of 1998 for the Netfinity 7000 and 5500 servers, and the EXP10 Storage Expansion Enclosure. The new drives enhance the performance and storage capabilities of the Netfinity servers to meet the needs of expanding businesses.
The new IBM 10/100 Netfinity Fault Tolerant Adapter delivers strong performance and high availability for customers running business-critical applications on their IBM Netfinity server. The adapter supports both 10Mbps and 100Mbps connectivity for high-speed connection to the user’s network enterprise, and incorporates an auto-negotiating feature that enables easy connection to shared or switched Ethernet operating in either half-duplex or full-duplex mode at 10Mbps or 100Mbps. The new adapter also enables fast and easy migration from 10Mbps to Fast Ethernet to provide a scalable path for users to increase networking capabilities as their networks expand.
The Netfinity 5500 is available today with an estimated reseller price starting at $6,269(3) (US). The estimated reseller price for IBM’s new 10/100 Netfinity Fault Tolerant Adapter is $149(3) (US). The estimated reseller price of the 18GB 10,000 RPM hard disk drive is $2,735(3) and the 9GB 10,000 RPM hard disk drive is $1,595(3). All products are available through IBM Business Partners as a stand-alone solution, or as part of the SystemXtra integrated offering. SystemXtra combines technologies, network and support services, software, training and financing into a comprehensive, cost-effective solution for customers.
About IBM Netfinity Products
IBM Netfinity products provides customers using industry-standard technologies with the industry’s most reliable foundation for their networked businesses by delivering outstanding power, scalability, control and service. The IBM Netfinity family of products enable small, medium and large companies to manage their networked business systems — from file and print capabilities to the most advanced applications — virtually anytime, anywhere. Software from industry-leading vendors such as Lotus, Novell, Microsoft, SCO, SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards and Baan are tested on IBM Netfinity systems so that customers are empowered to achieve their highest degree of productivity. In addition, through the worldwide IBM TechConnect program, customers can train and certify their specialists in various facets of IBM Netfinity technology.
Source: IBM