/ciol/media/agency_attachments/c0E28gS06GM3VmrXNw5G.png)
Follow UsNicole Volpe
NEW YORK: IBM on Tuesday unveiled new computers aimed at making it easier for
small and mid-sized businesses to manage their networks - the first products in
a new multibillion dollar effort at IBM to make computers that are less complex.
The three new computer servers are used to run Web sites and online
transactions, and have some of the first features that International Business
Machines Corp. hopes will win customers who are looking to mitigate the costs of
a large staff of systems administrators.
The servers are aimed at companies ranging in size - from a 500-person
company managing its online operations to a small florist using a network to
handle regional transactions. The computers, which use IBM's Power PC chips and
run its own version of the Unix operating system, have partitioning capabilities
- which allow for multiple systems to be consolidated onto a single server.
One of the new servers could be used to help manage a network of about 20
other industry standard servers - which commonly run on chips from Intel Corp. -
reducing the need for multiple people to actively manage the 20 servers. The new
systems also can be monitored and receive wireless commands from remote gadgets
such as handheld devices or cell phones, IBM said.
The servers, which IBM estimates can reduce the costs of electronic business
operations by 20 per cent to 25 per cent, also can run Linux, the alternative
operating system that IBM has supported as a low-cost way to tie together
disparate systems.
The computers are the first to include features that IBM has developed under
a project it calls "Project eLiza." The name reflects IBM's view that,
like a lizard scurrying from rock to rock in the hot desert sun, computers
chances of surviving on their own is slim at best.
Computer systems are constantly under attack from viruses, electricity
blackouts and bursts of demand as users log onto Web sites. "There's no
rock to run under on the Web," said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, president of
IBM's technology and strategy server group, in a telephone interview.
"While computers do very well at solving problems like playing chess and
analyzing genomics, we also need to focus on solving that class of problems that
evolution has advanced for us - which is how do you keep this complex organism
alive in a totally uncontrollable and sometimes hostile world?" said
Wladawsky-Berger.
"And that, computers don't do so well at," he said. The Armonk, New
York-based computer maker has said the project to construct self-correcting and
self-managing servers will develop over years of solving complex research
problems. IBM also hopes it gains an advantage over its rivals, such as computer
makers Sun Microsystems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co..
"This is reaffirming some of IBM's roots," Sanford C. Bernstein
analyst Toni Sacconaghi said about Project eLiza. "The idea of a computer
that can be managed with very little intervention is pretty consistent with what
the mainframe's been all about." He added that the eLiza Project continues
earlier efforts to make computers more manageable.
"I view it as more of a continuum than a game changer," he said.
Analyst Frank Dzubeck, president of market research firm Communications Network
Architects, said he sees IBM putting a substantial investment into Project eLiza.
"They're going to sink a lot of money into this as a differentiation
issue," he said. "This is really rocket science stuff."
The three new computers will be generally available by May 25, with pricing
staring at $11,200.
(C) Reuters Limited 2001.