IBM has pepped up the low-end server in its Unix line with the addition of one of the latest Power4 processors. IBM will start shipping the p630 server with a 1.45-GHz Power4+ immediately.
The new chip is more powerful than the older, standard Power4 chip, which still sits in the high-end pSeries systems. IBM has decided to give the one- to four-processor p630 a boost with the chip, as it tries to apply more pressure to rival Sun, the leader in the low-end Unix market.
The p630 is one of the pSeries systems that IBM offers with both of its own AIX version of Unix and the Linux operating system. Users can run Linux as the main operating system or in a partition on AIX. IBM says that it hopes the p630 will be one of the key systems in its battle to unseat Sun.
HP also competes in this market. The p630 with the new chip will be sold with one, two or four processors. The system starts at $19,025.
Veritas Software has enhanced its back-up software for large businesses with a variety of new features that increase the software’s recovery capability.
The company last week added a feature pack that contains an instant-recovery option to NetBackup. The option lets users retrieve data directly from disk rather than tape. Veritas also has added the ability to archive and migrate Microsoft Exchange messages and attachments, and retrieve them in an orderly fashion.
Additionally, the company has introduced new tape-management and reporting capabilities for tapes that have been transported off-site for disaster-recovery purposes. NetBackup works on Windows, NetWare, Linux and Unix servers. The feature pack is available now, and is priced starting at $5,000 for Windows and Linux. A version for Unix is priced at $10,000.
