IBM Servers Place First in New Performance Study
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Somers, N.Y (December 22, 1998) – .. IBM has received the highest overall ranking for its UNIX servers in an innovative benchmark-testing study of server performance.
The independent study, conducted by D.H. Brown Associates, ranked IBM’s two high-end UNIX servers — the RS/6000 S70 and the RS/6000 SP — number one (63) with a 14-point lead over its closest competitor Sun Microsystems (49).
This first-of-its-kind study compares server performance using a weighted average of several industry-standard benchmark results that measure general commercial applicability, online transaction processing decision support, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and scientific applications(1). The result is an overall numerical ranking, or a “Composite Performance Metric” (CPM), that is designed to help IT managers gauge all-around server performance.
Following IBM and Sun were the high-end servers from Hewlett Packard (44), Compaq (41), Silicon Graphics Inc. (40) and NCR (21) respectively.
“The IBM RS/6000 achieved the number one position in our initial rankings by maintaining balance with solid scores in all areas important to IT managers,” said Richard Partridge, senior research analyst for D.H. Brown. “IBM’s lead shows the versatility of the RS/6000 family, and for users who wish to deploy a variety of applications on one platform, versatility is an important attribute.”
“We know that our customers turn to RS/6000 systems for many types of applications including both commercial and technical computing,” said Rodney Adkins, general manager for IBM RS/6000. “The D.H. Brown study offers IT managers a fresh and valuable new perspective on server performance characteristics.”
According to D.H. Brown, the composite was developed to help IT managers focus benchmark data into an overall ranking that gives them better information to formulate their purchasing strategies and in turn deliver benefits to their businesses.
As a follow up to the study, D.H. Brown plans to continue refining the CPM with an update scheduled for early 1999.
Source: IBM