EAGLE Computer Associates announces VideOn, a High Bandwidth Digital Video/Multimedia Server delivering video over local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs) and over the Internet to any terminal. In order to strengthen this deal, EAGLE has aligned with Alex Temex Multimedia, a streaming media software manfacturer.

Under this arrangment, EAGLE supplies custom software linking the server nodes, storage nodes and user software, allowing simultaneous users to access full-motion video files at any time. Alex Temex Multimedia’s role will be to aid in EAGLE’s foray into the streaming-media delivery sector.

VideOn severs are available in NT and Linux operating systems and are built on parallel architecture, providing Fault Tolerance N+1. The design incorporates RAID 0 and RAID 5 storage node configurations and requires no content duplication. VideOn is intended to be a solution for university Digital Libraries, Language/Multimedia Labs, Video Capture and Playback to any TV or PC. In addition, EAGLE is focusing VideOn’s distribution to corporations for communications, video mail, video conferencing capture and playback on demand.

Museums, airports and cultural centers may also use VideOn to stream current events video to TVs, PCs, projectors and kiosks located within their facilities. The broadcast industry has also expressed some interest in EAGLE’s project due to VideOn’s high-bandwith compatability with editing suites, such as Avid, and others. This capability allows service and cable operators to offer video-on-demand services, creating an enhanced concept of a "virtual video store."

Unisys and HP have announced the signing of an OEM agreement that will extend the relationship of the two companies.

Under terms of the agreement, HP will market an HP NetServer 32-way system based on the Unisys Cellular MultiProcessing (CMP) server architecture. Unisys sells CMP based servers under the Unisys e-@ction Enterprise Server ES7000 brand and takes advantage of Microsoft’s Windows 2000 Datacenter Server operating system’s support for 32 processors. Unisys has sold HP PCs and entry-level PC servers under the "HP for Unisys" label since mid-1998.

The HP NetServer 32-way system is expected to be available in early 2001.

The Progeni Corporation, a supplier of programming productivity solutions and services for the IT professional, has been awarded a FSC Group 70 – General Purpose Commercial Technology Equipment and Software GSA schedule by the United States General Services Administration.

This GSA schedule contract allows Progeni to sell its application development, testing and maintenance software tools, 1Spec and ThreeR’s, its project management, consulting and training services, to any government agency under pre-negotiated prices, terms and conditions. Numerous state and local government agencies have implemented Progeni solutions and services in addition to its commercial client base.

"IT professionals will now be able to focus their talents and experience on the development of newer applications to meet today’s emerging new requirements. This is particularly meaningful, especially during this time of a shortage of experienced programming skills in these legacy languages," says Norman M. Praed, President & CEO of Progeni. As a component of winning this contract, Progeni was subjected to an independent evaluation of its past performance. "It is always interesting to be evaluated by independent organizations," notes Praed.

Under the terms of the contract, valid through August 24, 2005, Progeni will sell its products both through its direct sales force and selected, strategic hardware and software business partners.

Unisys announces it has acquired Network Plus Limited (NPL), a London-based desktop and network services consultancy. The move augments the capabilities of Unisys Network and Desktop Consulting Practice to service increasing demand. NPL’s approximately 30 employees bring experience in enterprise networking and program management for customers, such as Energis, Hewlett Packard and Cisco. The NPL organization will be integrated fully with Unisys by the beginning of 2001.

Says Joe Bova, Vice President and General Manager of Europe/Middle East/Africa at Unisys Global Network Services, "NPL has demonstrated expertise in networking technology and in serving telecom and finance customers, all key areas for Unisys. In addition, NPL personnel have a proven track record of managing large, complex infrastructure projects, bringing even greater depth to a traditional Unisys strength."

Key Unisys network and desktop consulting engagements in the UK include development of a voice over IP network for Hampshire County Council and desktop standardization for Nationwide Building Society.

Unisys has made available an array of proof points indicating growing acceptance of the Unisys e-@ction Enterprise Server ES7000 in the market for enterprise-class e-business solutions based on Microsoft Windows technology.

According to Unisys, it experienced 120 percent order growth for the ES7000 in the third quarter – 45 percent of which represent new business and new clients for Unisys and 40 percent marketed through non-direct channels.

As an example of the ES7000’s accelerated order activity, Unisys announced a sale to WorldTravel Partners in the United States. WorldTravel Partners is using its ES7000 to develop, test and deploy a new data warehousing solution that will enable it to capture and analyze travel activity. The data warehouse will enable WorldTravel Partners to create "snapshots" of customers’ activity to improve its understanding of vendor performance and client behavior.

realTech AG in Germany and Abbey National also highligted their experiences resulting from their participation in the Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server Joint Development Program (JDP) testing and evaluating the new operating system. The company uses the Job Object Manager capability of Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, in conjunction with ES7000 software features for partitioning and resource allocation, allowing them to re-assign processors and memory to address shifting day-to-day workloads.

Bull Ports AIX5L to a 16-Way Intel Itanium Processor-Based Server

Bull has successfully port and run AIX5L on a 16-way Intel Itanium processor-based server. This achievement follows Bull’s June announcement of its successful porting of AIX to an 8-way IA-64 server by its R&D teams in Echirolles near Grenoble and Les Clayes-sous-Bois near Paris. This highlights Bull’s focus on the AIX operating system as a UNIX operating system for enterprise users on both Power PC and IA-64 platforms.

Meanwhile, the company is also working with ISV partners to assist them in porting their applications to the new IA-64 platform.

The AIX5L is derived from the Project Monterey UNIX operating system initiative led by IBM, Intel and SCO and supported by key OEMs, such as Bull, in order to extend the enterprise strengths of AIX to the Intel IA-64 architecture.

Bull’s main contribution to the AIX5L operating system is in the development of its scalability and workload management capabilities. Bull has been a contributor to prior versions of AIX in partnership with IBM.

Onstage at the Microsoft Enterprise 2000 event, Unisys demonstrated the ES7000, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server and SQL Server 2000 platform delivering realtime customer benefits, reallocating processor resources to adjust to unforeseen surges in demand for a company’s products.

The demo – largely based on the experiences of realTech AG as a Windows 2000 Datacenter Server JDP participant – simulates a Web-based bookstore serving worldwide customers around the clock, using mySAP.com solutions to fill orders, manage inventory and handle other operational aspects of the business. With the announcement that a popular new book is available, online sales skyrocket, causing the response time of the SAP R/3-based order processing system to slow down. The reduced response time automatically triggers the reassignment of resources to the SAP application processing orders from other, less critical, tasks.

Unisys announces a set of high-availability services for its Windows2000 Datacenter Server, enabling customers to attain levels of application availability previously achievable only in a glass-house mainframe or large-scale UNIX environment. The services provide a disciplined process to build and manage the entire infrastructure – hardware, operating system, network, application solutions, databases, operations and security – required for 24x7x365 e-business computing.

The Datacenter Server Services program comprises some 20 optional Unisys services that allow customers to tailor availability requirements to mission-critical business needs using Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. These services include: environmental readiness analysis, requirements definition, architecture assessment, and server partitioning and configuration.

Fiserv, a provider of integrated data processing and information management systems to the financial industry, is upgrading to the Unisys NX6820. "Fiserv has been a Unisys and NX user for many years," says Larry Green, Senior Vice President Information Systems at Fiserv. "The Unisys NX6820 offers the expansion capabilities and continued software compatibility at a competitive cost."

"We continue to see new growth for Unisys e-@ction ClearPath Enterprise Servers, especially in banking and financial services and other markets demanding mission-critical, high-transaction computing environments," says Kevin McHugh, Vice President, ClearPath Business Initiative, Unisys Systems and Technology.

The Unisys ClearPath NX6820 supports Unisys’ MCP/AS operating environment, as well as the open Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000 environments, and consolidates the previous NX5600 and 5800 families. Each processor configuration can be scaled independently according to a customer’s needs. Eight different processor configurations are available, each with multiple performance options and performance upgrade options. Existing applications can be brought over to the NX6820 without conversion.