ARMONK, N.Y., Sept. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE:
IBM) today introduced its M5 portfolio of x86 servers, delivering
new innovations in security, efficiency and reliability that
clients need for mission-critical applications.
The new M5 servers combine high performance with built-in
security, efficiency, and reliability, supporting a wide range of
enterprise workloads and computing environments, from
infrastructure basics to cloud computing to big data and analytics.
The portfolio includes highly configurable models of rack and tower
servers, dense systems, blades and integrated systems to help
clients address pressing business challenges in the data center and
in the office.
Images to accompany this announcement can be found at this
link.
"Clients need to support more demanding workloads with limited
budgets while dealing with increasingly sophisticated attacks on
their infrastructure," said Adalio
Sanchez, general manager for IBM x86 and PureSystems
Solutions. "Our new M5 servers are designed with the long-standing
heritage of IBM innovation to support these enterprise applications
with the high security, efficiency and reliability they
require."
The new IBM System x M5 servers include:
- System x3650 M5 – a powerful, versatile 2U, two-socket
rack server that can be optimized for big data, analytics and
cloud;
- System x3550 M5 – a flexible 1U, two-socket rack server
designed for a wide range of workloads across diverse
industries;
- System x3500 M5 – a high performing, all-in-one 5U,
two-socket tower or rack server, designed for business-critical
workloads;
- Flex System x240 M5 – optimized for performance,
mainstream virtualization and enterprise applications;
- NeXtScale nx360 M5 – a half-wide, 1U compute server
optimized for density, flexibility, and performance;
- NeXtScale System with Water Cool Technology – a direct
water-cooled server optimized for energy-efficient performance at
low cost.
"In today's environment of ever-growing workloads and fewer IT
resources, customers are demanding the highest levels of
reliability, efficiency, and automation," said Bill Parker, account manager for IBM Business
Partner Logicalis. "We look forward to sharing more with our
customers about the increased levels of security, reliability and
efficiency architected into these new systems."
In addition to System x innovations, the new servers come with
all the latest industry-standard features, including Intel's new
Xeon E5-2600 v3 processors, and up to 1.5 terabytes of faster,
energy-saving TruDDR4 memory. All these servers are scheduled to
begin shipping to customers this year, except the x3500 M5, which
is scheduled to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2015.
To help clients move enterprise applications to the cloud and
improve overall efficiency, reliability and performance, IBM also
announced a series of enterprise solutions, including:
- IBM System x Solution for VMware VSAN, a
software-defined storage solution that enables the new System x M5
servers and VMware® Virtual SAN™ to simplify VM storage management.
It can help lower total cost of ownership, while delivering high
performance and high storage reliability for virtual machines;
- IBM System x Solution for Microsoft Fast Track DW for SQL
Server 2014, a solution that builds on cost-effective M5
technologies for data warehouse workloads using SQL Server 2014,
delivering results quickly, maximizing application uptime, and
enabling seamless scalability as workloads increase;
- IBM SmartCloud Desktop Infrastructure with Atlantis
Computing ILIO, a solution designed to help reduce storage
costs and enhance the user experience for desktop virtualization,
built on Citrix XenDesktop or VMware Horizon View;
- IBM Flex System Solution for Microsoft Hyper-V, a
solution for cloud infrastructure based on IBM Flex System,
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2, Hyper-V virtualization and System
Center 2012 R2, yielding reduced operational costs, high
reliability, and high performance for a wide range of
workloads.
All the new IBM workload-focused solutions are designed to
deliver value to clients by capitalizing on collaboration with
industry-leading software vendors. These solutions deliver
performance, scalability and reliability that can help clients
drive business results.
Security Innovations
All the new M5 servers contain
built-in, industry-leading security with Trusted Platform
Assurance, an exclusive set of System x security features and
practices designed to help safeguard the systems from low-level
malware attacks.1 All the new servers undergo a highly
secure development process and a rigorous validation cycle with
controlled updates. In addition, all firmware is designed to be
securely built, digitally signed, and verified, so that only
authorized firmware can execute.
The M5 servers add hardware support for the latest version of
the Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0) to enable more encryption
algorithms and Windows OS support. The new Secure Firmware Rollback
feature prohibits any unauthorized updates of previous firmware
versions. The new servers also offer enterprise-class data
protection with optional self-encrypting drives and simple,
centralized key management through IBM Security Key Lifecycle
Management.
Efficiency Innovations
Expertise and experience in
efficiency that IBM has gained in managing data centers for more
than 50 years have been incorporated into the new M5 servers. With
built-in innovations in power and thermal management design such as
extended operating temperature ranges, dual fan zones, and
active/standby mode for power supplies, the M5 systems can deliver
significant energy savings compared with many prior-generation x86
systems. For example, the NeXtScale System with Water Cooling
technology delivers up to 40 percent more energy efficiency in the
data center than a comparable air-cooled solution2.
In addition, the M5 servers have demonstrated improved
performance over the previous generation by up to 131
percent3 for a typical Java-based workload, up to 61
percent4 for a typical virtualization workload, and up
to 59 percent5 for a typical database application, for
faster business outcomes. And the new x3650 M5 just achieved a
two-processor world record on the two-tier SAP® Sales and
Distribution standard application benchmark6, with
66-percent performance improvement over the previous generation
system7.
Reliability Innovations
System x server hardware has
achieved the highest availability of all x86 servers and they
consistently rank number one for customer satisfaction8.
With the M5 portfolio, IBM extends that leadership for its
x86-based systems.
Each of the new servers has IBM-exclusive, built-in proactive
diagnostic tools for easy serviceability and reduced labor costs.
For example, the new Next Generation Light Path Diagnostic panel
delivers extensive status messages and error messages on an
intuitive, menu-driven display for reduced downtime and labor
costs. All the servers are equipped with built-in redundant,
hot-swappable components for no single point of failure, and are
backed with IBM world-class services and support.
IBM Systems and Technology Group offers a full portfolio that
includes IBM System x rack and tower systems, BladeCenter,
NeXtScale, PureFlex, System Networking, Power Systems and System z
servers, and IBM Storage solutions.
Media contacts:
Jay
Cadmus
IBM External Relations
914-766-4966
jcadmus@.ibm.com
IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, PureSystems, PureFlex, Power
Systems, BladeCenter, NeXtscale, System x, System z
PureApplication, PureData, Storwize, Smarter Planet and the planet
icon are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation,
registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and
service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. For a
current list of IBM trademarks, please see
www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.
All other company, product or service names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks of others. Statements concerning IBM's future
development plans and schedules are made for planning purposes
only, and are subject to change or withdrawal without notice.
Reseller prices may vary.
1. Trusted Platform Assurance should be used should be used in
conjunction with industry-standard security practices
2. Based on comparisons between NeXtscale M5 Water Cooled system
vs. NeXtScale M5 (air cooled) system
3. Internal measurements as of June
2014 for representative Java workloads, Intel Xeon E5-2699
v3 (18C, 2.3GHz, 145W) vs. Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 (12C, 2.7GHz,
130W)
4. Internal measurements as of July
2014 for representative virtualization workloads, Intel Xeon
E5-2697 v3 (14C, 2.6GHz, 145W) vs. Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 (12C,
2.7GHz, 130W)
5. Internal measurements as of June
2014 for representative database workloads, Intel Xeon
E5-2699 v3 (18C, 2.3GHz, 145W) vs. Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 (12C,
2.7GHz, 130W)
6. This benchmark fully complies with the SAP Benchmark Council
regulations and has been audited and certified by SAP AG
(certification number 2014---). Details can be obtained from IBM
and SAP. The benchmark was performed at IBM in Research Triangle Park, NC, USA, by IBM
engineers
7. The claim of achieving 66 percent improvement in performance
is based on results on the two-tier SAP SD standard application
benchmark achieved by the IBM System x3650 M5 (2 processors / 24
cores / 48 threads) on the Intel Xeon Processor E5-2699, 2.7 GHz,
64 KB L1 cache and 256 KB L2 cache per core, 30 MB L3 cache per
processor (certification number 2013022). The server achieved 96,15
SAP SD benchmark users; average dialog response time: 0.93 seconds;
1,055,670 fully processed order line items per hour; 3,167,000
dialog steps per hour; 52,780 SAPS; average database request time
(dialog/update): 0.015 sec / 0.009 sec; CPU utilization of central
server: 99 percent. The server was running Windows Server 2012
Standard Edition; DB2 10; and SAP enhancement package 5
for SAP ERP 6.0.
8. Based on the ITIC 2014 Reliability Survey
(http://itic-corp.com/blog/2014/04/itic-2014-reliability-survey-ibm-servers-most-reliable-for-sixth-straight-year-cisco-ucs-comes-on-strong-hp-reliability-rebounds/)
and TBR survey of customer satisfaction
(http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=SA&subtype=WH&htmlfid=XSL03136USEN&attachment=XSL03136USEN.PDF&appname=STGE_XS_XS_USEN_WH#loaded
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140908/143913
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO
SOURCE IBM