In-Depth

November Inside IBM

• 11/01/1999

The S/390 Multiprise 3000 offers S/390 customers three desk-side models – the H30, H50 and H70. The new hardware and software pricing means that a customer with older hardware and older versions of the operating system and maintenance agreement would receive up-to-date hardware, the current level operating system and new maintenance terms for about the same monthly fee, with twice the system capacity.

Through the Growth Opportunity License Charge, a Multiprise 3000 customer can make use of the larger available system capacity without incurring a large increase in the cost of their IBM software. IBM hopes the new license charge may encourage software vendors to follow this lead.

The servers, sold primarily though IBM Business Partners, can occupy about half a square meter of floor space at desk-side. They will be sold configured and loaded with the latest OS/390 Version 2 Release 8 operating system, as well as VM and VSE operating systems and optional applications, including new e-business and BI offerings.

Other highlights include:

* Microprocessors, also used in the S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server – G5, that operate at 2.4 nanoseconds cycle time.

*An optional S/390 Cryptographic Coprocessor for industry-leading security.

* One-to-4 gigabytes (GB) main memory, depending on model.

* Internal disk storage of up to 792 GB.

* The Multiprise 3000 Model H70 offers three times the capacity of the entry H30 model. The H30 can be upgraded to an H50 server, for about twice the performance. The H50 is upgradable to the model H70.

* Up to two expansion frames that can be added to the base server frame for direct access storage devices (DASD) and channels.

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IBM will open competency centers that help global systems integrators (GSIs) develop and test business integration solutions for their customers. Business integration, also known as Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), has become increasingly important due to the rise of e-business, corporate mergers and acquisitions, and electronic commerce.

Competency centers have already opened in Chicago, as well as in San Mateo, Calif.; and Hursley, England. By early next year, others will have opened in Washington, D.C.; Stuttgart, Germany; Paris; Tokyo; and Singapore. Each will be staffed with qualified IBM technicians with expertise in various areas of EAI implementation.

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In a related story, the Multiprise 3000 IBM e-business Start Now series provides a package of configured OS/390 software and a set of solution tapes based on IBM’s e-business integration test for simplified and rapid deployment of e-business projects. Start Now options include Net.Commerce 3.1.2 for OS/390 and IBM Websphere for OS/390. Start Now also provides collaborative computing and messaging with Lotus Domino R5 for OS/390.

The e-commerce for OS/390 solution is a package of integrated Net.Commerce 3.1.2 software components designed to enable customers to develop flexible solutions for establishing effective electronic sales.

Net.Commerce Server manages the interface to customers, enabling them to browse, save their selections, query the product and order items in an interactive online catalogue.

Net.Commerce Administrator is an administrative environment for creating online product templates and an interactive product catalogue – consisting of a single store or an "e-mall" of related stores – that guides users through the buying process.

The Lotus Domino R5 supports a range of messaging clients and provides security features, such as user authentication, digital signatures and encryption, that enable businesses to extend their intranet applications to customers and partners.

The WebSphere for OS/390 Web helps turn an existing Web server into a Java-enabled Web application server, simplifying development of new e-business workloads. Start Now for WebSphere for OS/390 includes a Web server with high-speed network connections, enhanced application interfaces and gateways to connect to existing applications, data and other platforms. It is also enabled for IBM Net.Commerce, for processing transactions over theWeb, and for Lotus Domino. The Web Self Serving offering consist of the Web Application Server 1.1 and HTTP Server.

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Dell and IBM aligned to make IBM Global Services a strategic provider of computer-related services to Dell customers. The agreement could be worth $6 billion over seven years. This agreement builds on the $16-billion strategic technology agreement announced by IBM and Dell last March.

Early next year, Dell will start offering its U.S. corporate, government and education customers a range of installation and onsite warranty services from IBM Global Services for Dell’s desktops, notebooks, workstations, network servers and data-storage products.

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Sequent (Beaverton, Ore.) is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of IBM. As a result of the merger: IBM will market and sell Sequent’s NUMA-Q 1000 and 2000 servers as the NUMA-Q brand under the IBM logo.

Sequent systems based on NUMA (non-uniform memory access) architecture consist of advanced hardware and software that allows large numbers of processors to operate as a single system, while maintaining the ease of programming and manageability of a small system. Sequent’s systems use up to 64 Intel microprocessors (with plans to use 256). IBM will enable its business partner network to market and sell Sequent’s current products. IBM and Sequent development teams will accelerate their work on Project Monterey. Future servers will include NUMA technology.