IBM today rolled out its eServer OpenPower family of entry-level Linux servers, positioning the systems as cost-effective alternatives to Solaris boxes offered by archrival Sun Microsystems.
"Where we haven't answered them [Sun] yet is on the entry level," says Brian Connors, the IBM vice president in charge of the new OpenPower servers. "They're sitting on a $1.6 billion market for under-$10,000 servers."
The first system in the new line, dubbed the OpenPower 720, is priced starting at $5,000. It will be available in either a four-way rack or a tower configuration with a 1.5-GHz or 1.6-GHz version of IBM's recently released dual-core Power 5 microprocessor. Customers have a choice of Linux distribution from either Red Hat or Novell.
More models will follow in the first half of next year, led by a two-way OpenPower system. All will be available through IBM's resellers and business partners.
In marketing the new servers, IBM thinks it will be able to capitalize on a growing industry tilt toward Unix. "We believe the Linux market is going to grow," Connors says. "What we can do is embrace it and pull it up to the enterprise."
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