IBM, the world’s largest computer-services provider, is introducing new server systems today, aimed at combating competition from rival groups such as Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems.
The Power7 systems, made of integrated servers, software and storage, will start selling this month. They will be custom-made for specific uses, such as running electrical grids or financial analytics.
The new up-gradation is expected to bolster IBM’s market share at a time when its rival Oracle is beginning to sell similar servers after the acquisition of Sun Microsystems.
After taking over Sun, Oracle had claimed that it would challenge IBM by selling computers packaged with software customized for industries, such as retailing.
Global sales of high-end servers will be about $14 billion this year, it is said. IBM held 40 percent of that market in the third quarter; HP had 27 percent, and Sun 26 percent.
IBM said the new Power7 system would include new microprocessors, storage and middleware. It could process more data than its predecessor Power6, making them useful for utilities with electrical grids or banks conducting electronic trading.
IBM’s business has increasingly shifted to software and services from hardware over the past decade, though advanced servers are still a crucial part of its sales strategy.
The unveiling of the power-efficient Power7 systems comes at a time when HP and Intel prepare to release the next-generation Itanium processor and Oracle looks to bring Sun into the fold.
The move is likely to intensify competition in the rapidly changing high-end server space.
Almost coinciding with the IBM launch, Intel and HP are expected to officially release “Tukwila,” the much-delayed next-generation version of the Itanium processor.
According to IBM, the Power7 servers deliver twice the performance and four times the virtualization capabilities for the same price as the Power6 servers, all the while consuming half the energy.
They also offer better price for performance than comparable systems from Sun and HP.
For greater performance, Power7 offers up to eight cores, with each core able to run up to four instruction threads, enabling each chip to run 32 simultaneous tasks. That includes four times the number of cores and eight times the number of threads per chip than in Power6.
Along with the Power 780, IBM also is rolling out the Power 770, a midrange server with up to 64 cores, the Power 755, a high-performance cluster with 32 cores, and the Power 750 Express, a mid-market offering.
IBM offered to buy Sun for about $7 billion last year, but Oracle acquired Sun for $7.4 billion. The deal closed last month.