Customers Scale Up and Scale Out With IBM eServer Solutions Running Linux

ARMONK, NY - 22 Jan 2003: IBM today announced new customers are moving to eServer systems running Linux® for enterprise applications that help them dynamically adapt to changing business needs. IBM's broad portfolio of Intel processor-based eServer products, from super-dense blade servers to highly scalable multi-processor systems, are being used by customers worldwide, including Compagnie Generale de Geophysique (CGG), Mindshare GmbH & Co KG, Mercury Insurance and Washington University.

"It is significant that customers of every size and from multiple industries are turning to IBM eServer products running Linux for a variety of mission critical applications," said Rich Michos, Vice President, Linux Servers, IBM. "IBM has been seeing strong Intel-based server sales and increased adoption of Linux across the line. Super-dense server blades will transform the low end, and highly scalable 'building block' servers are evolving into the high end to help customers grow their businesses with high availability and reliability."

IBM's blade strategy leverages IBM storage, software and server solutions to provide customers a system that can be easily managed and help reduce total cost of ownership. The blade architecture, which is ideal for customers to scale out infrastructures, is designed to reduce cost and complexity as well as increase reliability.

The IBM eServer x440 enables customers to adapt rapidly to unpredictable business growth through a flexible, "expand-on-demand" approach that allows them to add computing power incrementally as they need it, up to 16 processors. This scale-up system also brings workload consolidation, inspired by the IBM mainframe, to Intel processor-based servers.

Some of the customers using IBM eServer systems running Linux include:

• Compagnie Generale de Geophysique (CGG), an oil and gas exploration company headquartered in France, has deployed 256 IBM eServer BladeCenters running Linux in order to increase computing power and surpass its competitors.

"IBM's BladeCenter servers running Linux offer a highly attractive price/performance ratio for geophysics applications optimized for this type of architecture," said Christophe Barnini, Marketing Manager at CGG. "These highly scalable servers can easily run extremely specialized petroleum applications to help us with our search for oil and gas."

• Mercury Insurance Group, one of the leading independent agency writers of automobile insurance and one of the fastest-growing auto insurers in the U.S., is deploying IBM eServer x440 servers running Linux to power its new Java-based Web portal applications serving employees and independent agents. The solution includes IBM FAStT700 storage servers attached to Linux servers, as well as IBM DB2 database, Tivoli management software and WebSphere software platform for e-business.

"We selected the IBM eServer x440 because at the time it was the only Intel IA-32-based server that offered the price/performance we need today and the ability to grow to 16 processors in the future," said Greg Schueman, Chief Technology Officer, Mercury Insurance Group, Brea, Calif. "IBM was able to provide a complete Linux solution, including software, servers and storage, that will make it significantly easier for us to do business with our independent agency force and drive additional business."

• Mindshare GmbH & Co KG, a subsidiary of the WPP Group, which is one of the world's largest media companies, has chosen IBM eServer x440 servers in combination with IBM FAStT700 storage running Linux to integrate its media workload processes.

"This week we will install IBM's eServer x440 systems running Linux to help consolidate our workloads from our accounting, finance, media planning and media buying departments," said Torsten Eckart, IT Project Manager, Mindshare GmbH & Co KG. "We've based our back-office systems on IBM platforms running Linux for years because of its unparalleled performance, scalability and reliability. Now we are implementing the x440 to give us headroom to grow and the reliability we require."

• The Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University in St. Louis also has purchased IBM blade servers to help with research and analysis of large-scale genomic data.

"IBM's BladeCenter running Linux will help us accelerate genomic data acquisition and analysis. We were needing a system which gives us more power, greater compute density and higher availability than anyone else today. We need all of the help we can get to cope with the ever-increasing and intense workloads that we put computers through every day doing research and analysis of GENOMES worth of data," said Kelly Carpenter, IT Manager for the GSC at Washington University.

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