IBM unveils its x86 system

IBM (NYSE:IBM) today introduced the first systems that shatter technical barriers to offer dramatically more scalable, workload-tuned computing on the x86 platform. The company’s new eX5 servers are the result of a three-year engineering effort to improve the economics of operating enterprise-sized, x86-based systems.

The eX5 portfolio marks IBM’s second family of 2010 systems designed for a new generation of demanding workloads and to significantly reduce costs of existing IT infrastructure. They are being previewed today at the CeBIT trade show in Germany and will be officially available later this month and throughout the year.

The new systems ride a wave of market share growth for IBM. IBM gained more revenue share than any of the major x86 server vendors in each quarter of 2009 and now holds nearly 20 percent share -- a 3.5 point year-over-year gain, according to IDC. IBM also significantly outperformed the blade market in 4Q09, recording 64 percent revenue growth in blades and gaining 5.7 points, according to IDC.(1)

An Engineering First Alters Economics of x86; Offers Dramatic New Memory Scale

Drawing on decades of experience in enterprise systems design and silicon packaging, IBM engineers have radically expanded the capabilities of the x86 platform by achieving an engineering first -- decoupling memory from its traditional, tightly bound place alongside the server’s processor, thereby eliminating the need to buy another server to support growing memory-intensive workloads.  This all-new class of x86-based systems offers six times the memory scalability available today (2), helping to flatten the ever-rising cost of operating industry-standard data centers.

For example, the amount of data ingested by today’s average web-based workload doubles every year, increasing costs and straining resources. Users have traditionally dealt with the deluge by using the only method available with industry-standard platforms -- throwing more servers at the problem, which furthers sprawl and increases power and management costs. Today, typical x86 servers are only being utilized at 10% of capacity due to a 30-year-old architecture that locks processor and memory capacity together.

Acxiom Corp. is a leader in interactive marketing services and early user of eX5 systems. The company counts among its clients seven of the top ten retail banks and nine of the top ten auto makers. Acxiom analyzes massive amounts of rapidly ballooning consumer data on behalf of its clients – four petabytes one year ago; seven petabytes just six months ago; and more than ten petabytes of data today. Acxiom now has 22,500 servers.

“The IBM eX5 systems are game changers,” says Acxiom CIO David Guzman.  “We’ve been able to double our virtualization capacity, dropping our software licensing costs. The price/performance equation is extraordinarily compelling, with five times the performance at a fraction of the cost. Moreover, there is a positive impact on all of the other key components of IT cost -- space, power, labor, maintenance. The concrete results of this next generation machine are exciting, and the roadmap has 'knock-your-socks-off' vision.”

The eX5 systems take advantage of integration with IBM middleware to create a highly virtualized environment that can give users a flexible, highly scalable system that