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DAILY NEWS AND INFORMATION
FOR THE GLOBAL GRID COMMUNITY / AUGUST 4, 2003; VOL. 2 NO. 31
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Breaking News -
Platforms:
New Hi-End Unisys Mainframe:
Built For Business Blueprinting
Unisys Corporation has announced the ClearPath Plus Libra 185, the
company's
most powerful mainframe yet. ClearPath Plus Libra 185 features new integration
software, unprecedented performance boosts and resource provisioning
innovations for fast adaptation of business processes as called for by the
Unisys Business Blueprinting initiative.
Four capabilities introduced with the ClearPath Plus Libra 185 provide the
infrastructure for speeding the implementation of the Business Blueprinting
vision: built-in support for .NET and J2EE application development; expanded
support for Web services standards; unprecedented expansion of performance;
and utility computing features to manage highly variable computing
demands.
.NET and J2EE Support -- Unisys is adding .NET and J2EE support to its
Enterprise Application Environment (EAE), a software development toolset
broadly used by ClearPath server customers. With this capability, planned for
a future release, customers will be able to create applications combining
ClearPath COBOL, .NET and J2EE modules. Today, EAE can help customers define
business processes, automatically generate complete applications to support
them, and deploy them throughout the infrastructure. These same processes can
be generated today as Web services, and EAE applications can easily call Web
services that reside on other platforms.
Expanded Web Services Support -- With support for XML, SOAP, UDDI and
numerous
other Web services standards, the ClearPath family is one of the industry's
most open enterprise platforms. Its ability to "wrap" legacy applications with
Web services enables enterprises to integrate existing systems with .NET- and
J2EE-based application components and pre-packaged applications from
independent software vendors. This single enterprise-wide "composite
application" ensures that all software applications are aligned in support of
the organization's business processes as modeled by Business Blueprinting.
Unprecedented Performance -- The ClearPath Libra 185 features a new
Unisys-designed CMOS processor with 25 percent more scalability than its
predecessor, capable of delivering more than 10,500 MIPS; a more than 400
percent increase in overall system capacity; and an increase in the number of
processor partitions from two to eight.
Other enhancements include a 250 percent increase in maximum memory and a
completely new input/output (I/O) technology that yields substantial
improvements in I/O throughput -- two important features as more enterprises
work to meet demand for greater access to legacy applications and databases.
In fact, performance tests conducted by EMC engineering using a ClearPath Plus
Libra 185 with EMC Symmetrix DMX1000 storage showed a three-fold increase in
I/Os per second and a five-fold increase in data throughput, compared to the
mainframe's predecessor.
Metered Performance Provisioning -- The ClearPath Plus Libra 185 includes
the
infrastructure needed for metered, utility-style provisioning of computing
requirements. Slated for future availability, metered performance gives
organizations the flexibility to quickly and easily increase or decrease
performance as business needs change -- as defined by Business Blueprinting --
and pay only for the performance they use. Unisys is currently beta testing
the service with select customers. This technology adds resource management
flexibility in addition to the Capacity On Demand capability, enabling
organizations to temporarily increase capacity, that has been available on
ClearPath mainframes for two years.
"The new ClearPath Plus Libra 185 is the most powerful and versatile
mainframe
we've ever built," said Kevin McHugh, vice president of Unisys Platform
Marketing. "More importantly, it brings together the technologies and services
created to fulfill the promise of Business Blueprinting -- to create an IT
infrastructure that quickly adapts to changing business needs."
Business Blueprinting Basics
A comprehensive consulting, development and delivery strategy, Unisys
Business
Blueprinting builds digital models that link business processes to the
software and systems that support them. Unisys Business Blueprinting allows
clients to visualize how strategic changes would affect not only the IT
infrastructure but also the business itself. This enables them to rapidly
assemble new business structures -- new in terms of people, processes and
technology -- to prepare for shifts in the market, shifts in the organization
or shifts in the technology. Unisys is applying this approach to the arena of
high-volume, business-critical systems in the industries the company
serves.
To support these newly defined business processes, the Unisys EAE
automatically generates complete .NET and J2EE applications, including
application logic and database, network and user interfaces, allowing
customers to rapidly implement the new or re-engineered business processes
throughout their IT infrastructure.
"The features and performance of the ClearPath Plus Libra 185 makes it the
ideal hardware platform for the Business Blueprinting strategy that Unisys
unveiled last month," said Fred Dillman, vice president of technology and
architecture for Enterprise Transformation Services at Unisys. "All of the
critical components to support the roll-out of reengineered business processes
created by Business Blueprinting are in place, including the flexibility,
power and security of the hardware, the deep integration capabilities of its
extensive middleware portfolio and the sophisticated EAE software development
environment."
United Fire and Casualty Group recently upgraded to the new ClearPath Plus
Libra 185. In addition to achieving significantly improved flexibility in its
development and business continuance environment, the company continues to
take advantage of the ClearPath's advanced application development
capabilities.
"The new ClearPath Plus Libra 185 performance and integration enhancements
will provide greater flexibility to design processes based on what makes
strategic sense, and shape our technology infrastructure to conform to those
processes," said Scott Minkel, director of Information Services at United Fire
and Casualty. "The EAE toolset's ability to integrate our existing legacy
applications with Web services technology and pre-packaged third-party
applications allows us to quickly deploy software in support of mission
critical business processes. In addition to being a phenomenal development
platform, the Libra 185 also affords us the power and scalability to support
such mission-critical functions as disaster recovery and business
continuance."
Specifications
- Up to 32 CMOS processors
- Up to 24 Intel Xeon processors MP
- Up to 64 GB of memory
- Unisys Cellular MultiProcessing (CMP) server architecture: four-way,
non-blocking crossbar interconnect
- Operating environments supported: Unisys ClearPath MCP; Virtual Machine
for ClearPath MCP (MCPvm); Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server and
Advanced Server; Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition and
Datacenter Edition; SCO UnixWare
Pricing and availability
ClearPath Plus Libra 185 is available immediate. U.S. prices range from
$1,113,218 to $22,399,000.
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