Hardware Today: IBM Server Snapshot

To sum up IBM's eServer offerings is a daunting task. Big Blue's four server lines span more than 10 processor types and a dozen operating systems, with some systems more easily categorized than others. To get a sense of its size, consider that IBM's xSeries line is one of four; yet, in and of itself, it is nearly three times the size of Dell's entire server stable.

IBM's market share reflects the breadth of its offerings. According to IDC's sales numbers for the fourth quarter of 2003, Big Blue owned 37.9 percent of the market based on whopping 17.7 percent year-to-year worldwide revenue growth.

IBM's divides its offerings into four distinct server lines, which makes navigating its myriad of offerings easier. As our initial IBM server snapshot (published in October 2003) detailed the basics of each line, this Server Snapshot focuses on what has changed in the past seven months and where each line is going.

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In a nutshell: The iSeries are POWER-run, OS/400-based servers; the pSeries is fueled by AIX and Linux on POWER; the xSeries covers Intel; and zSeries system are mainframes that thrive in scale-up environments.

In recent months, the lines in the portfolio have begun to blur, bringing strategies pioneered by Louis Gerstner in 1993 to bear. "His vision," iSeries Product Marketing Manager Ian Jarman told ServerWatch, "was to exploit our technology portfolio more broadly across the company." The pending technological convergence of the pSeries and iSeries server lines is but one example. This open technology focus means some new servers will transcend the four current eServer categories, as is the case with the i5 520 and i5 570.

The chart below is an updated version of the chart that appeared in our original IBM Server Snapshot. Offerings added since October 2003 appear in bold; offerings being supported but no longer sold are italicized; and offerings that have been retired are listed in table footnotes.

	iSeries	pSeries	xSeries	zSeries
Description	Midrange servers	Unix servers	Intel processor-based servers	Mainframe-class servers
Target Deployment	SMBs and enterprise departments	Data centers of all sizes	Scale up and scale out x86 users	Large and midsize enterprises running mission-critical apps with no tolerance for downtime
Processor Type	POWER-4, POWER5	POWER4+, RS/6000 SP: POWER3-II JS20: PowerPC 970	P4, Xeon, Itanium-2	16 chip IBM Multichip Module (MCM) Multiple-channel subsystem (MCSS) allows logical partitions (LPARs) which can run different operating systems
Processor Range	Small to Medium: 1- to 2-way; Medium/Large: 6- to 24-way	Entry: 1- to 4-way Midrange: 2- to 16-way; High-End: 8- to 32-way	Rack-Optimized: 1- to 4-way, Tower: 1- to 4-way, High-Performance scalable: 4 to 16-way	2 to 4 logical channel subsystems
Operating Systems	i5 (V5R3), OS/400 V5R2, Windows, Linux, AIX-5L	AIX-5L, Linux	Windows, Linux, AIX, MVS, x86 operating systems	z/OS, z/OS.e, OS/390, Linux on zSeries, z/VM, TPF, VSE/ESA
Servers	Small to Medium: 800, 810 Medium to Large: 825, 870, 890, i5 520, i5 5701	Entry-Level: 615 6C3, 630 6C4, 615 6E3, 630 6E4 Midrange: 650, 655, 670, Cluster 1600, RS/6000 SP High-End: 690	Rack-optimized: 305, 306, 335, 343, 345, 360, 365, 382 Tower: 205, 206, 225, 235, 2552 High-Performance Scalable: 4453, 450, 4554	890 990, 900, 800 5
Price Range6	Small to Medium: $24,281 to 349,515 Medium to Large: $574,224 to $2 million	Entry:: $5,095 to $15,820 Midrange: $26,895 and up High-End: Contact IBM	Rack-optimized: $1,129 to $9,999 Tower: $499 to $4599 High-Performance scalable: Contact IBM	z890: Starts at less than $200,000 Others: Contact IBM

¹The i5 520 and the i5 570 are part of the iSeries line despite the slightly different nomenclature.
²Five pSeries models have been retired from market since October 2003: the 610 6C1 and 6E1, the 640 B80, and the RS/6000 43P and 44P. ³The xSeries line also includes the BladeCenter product family: HS20, a 2-way Intel blade, HS40, a 4-way Intel blade, JS20, a 2-way PowerPC 970 blade, the BladeCenter (Chassis), and the BladeCenter T (Telecom Chassis); a variety of storage products and telecommunications servers, and the IBM Cluster 1350. IBM's Opteron offering, the eServer 325, is also officially sold out of its xSeries line.
⁴ The 445 replaces the 440.
⁵ The zSeries line also includes the S/390 G5/G6 and S/390 Multiprise, which are no longer sold but are still supported.
⁶ Based on IBM's posted prices.

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