IBM's new server targets the 'i' in SMB
IBM has released what it claims is an all-singing, all-dancing box designed for the industry's craze-du-jour, the SMB market. The company's angle is simplicity for the System i Express, the latest addition to the SMB System i server line. With infomercial flair at a press and analyst event in San Francisco today, IBM's System …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Windows Server capable?
"Both boxes are Linux, Windows Server, AIX and i5/OS capable."
Windows Server on a Power 5+ system?
Really?
Windows Clarification
It may be a tad loose, but IBM does claim Windows support via a BladeCenter or System x box and iSCSI.
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/i/bladecenter/windows/
I've edited the story to clarify that. Thanks for the comment.
AV
With added hardware
The main bus from the System i can be extended to a PCI card in an IBM system x. The disk is provided by the system i and there are some hooks from i5/OS into Windows to ease management, power on/off, etc.
Old news
An iSeries Windows capable? What's new about that at all? Come on you could attach an x-Series years ago when the i5 originally came out and use the disk assigned to the i-Series, be it internal or san-attached. What's at all new about that? The only way IBM could really push the i5 line is to drop the ridiculous licensing costs of i5/OS and actively promote the OS more.
God knows why you'd want to also run an x-series off an i5 with only 2-8 drives - due to the nature of i5/OS single level storage I would dread to see the i/o performance on anything bigger than 73Gb drives. Yes it's capable but you'd really have to ask yourself... is it worth it?
Ever heard of LPAR's?
AS/400 or iSeries has had the capability of running almost any OS on a Logical Partition (LPAR) for years! The main controlling LPAR is run under OS/400 - giving all the benefits and security of the true 64-bit and truly wonderful OS.
Our shop has an i520 with OS/400, AiX, Linux and a Windows server running on it. The LPAR's dynamically adjust according to the load on the machine and, if properly managed, hardly require any administration.
Having been involved with the AS/400 for a number of years, I am amazed that it is taking this long for the rest of the world to catch up. I know that the iSeries is IBM's fastest selling machine and that they have been pushing development for it for a while, however, once you have a taste of what a real high performance machine can do, you'll never turn back. The only reason that I can see to non-adoption of the iSeries is the price and the need to have some niche personnel in your IT Dept. However, it is well worth it in the long run...
This topic is closed for new posts.
