Bull's second generation of NovaScale servers increases IT infrastructure flexibility and simplifies overall deployment
Flexible infrastructures, reduced operational costs through the deployment of these compact and modular servers - User investment protection through servers designed to support several generations of Intel® Itanium® 2 processors - Mission critical applications hosted in an enhanced Linux environment - Competence centres to speed up deployment of Microsoft® Windows® 2003 and Linux® based applications
Paris,
March
20, 2006 -
Bull today announces the NovaScale® 5005 series, representing the second generation of large NovaScale servers. Compact and modular, they provide a high level of flexibility to ease the deployment of complex IT infrastructures. Their high scalability enables a tight adaptation of server infrastructures, thus bringing important cost reductions.
"The NovaScale® 5005 servers, announced three years after the first generation, are a proof of Bull's innovation capabilities. This announcement is in line with Bull's positioning as an Architect of an Open World. Running present and future generations of Intel® Itanium® 2 processors, they are naturally at the heart of the most complex IT infrastructures, both in the Linux and Windows open environments" stated Michel Lepert, General Manager of the Products and Systems activities of Bull.
The NovaScale servers have been optimised for large business applications. Through their power and very high I/O, they also fulfil the requirements of the most demanding levels of computing: at 50 Teraflops, they are today the largest supercomputer in Europe.
Flexible infrastructures, reduced operational costs through the deployment of these compact and modular servers
The NovaScale® 5005 servers are SMP (Symmetrical Multi-Processing) systems, built using modular blocks that can rapidly be combined within a single cabinet to provide SMP servers from 2 to 32 sockets.
The combination of physical partitioning and virtualisation software makes the NovaScale® servers uniquely flexible to use and enables users to fully optimise the resources installed.
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The very thin partitioning of the NovaScale 5005® servers - a minimum of 4 sockets per partition, compared to 8 with the previous series - makes it possible to partition a large server into two to eight servers within a few minutes. Each server being able to run a different application environment. On the other hand, multiple servers can be united into a single server to face an increased need in power for a given environment.
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Bull also announces the availability of the SWsoft's Virtuozzo® solution for the Linux environments on the new NovaScale servers. The Virtuozzo® virtualisation solution operates at the Linux® operating system level to generate multiple private virtual servers, on a single physical server or on a physical partition.
User investment protection through servers designed to support several generations of Intel® Itanium® 2 processors
The NovaScale® 5005 servers have been designed to host several generations of Intel® Itanium® 2 processors, thus protecting customer investment. They will run the "Montecito" generation processor, for which Bull has gained a unique expertise with the deployment of the largest supercomputer in Europe.
Mission critical applications hosted in an enhanced Linux environment
Through its expertise in both open and large systems, Bull has developed innovative technologies that bring the Linux environment new functionalities, traditionally reserved for legacy systems:
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Reinforce availability of critical applications with ARF (Application Roll Over Facility) software dedicated to high availability
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Improve overall service quality with the DDA (Dynamic Domains for Applications) solution, that defines and allocates resource levels to one or several applications
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Accelerate back-up and restore operations of the servers in the Linux environment with "System Backup & Restore"
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Simplify back-up of heterogeneous environments (Linux®, Microsoft® Windows®, AIX®, mainframes) with StoreWay OpenSave, a back-up solution.
Competence centres to speed up deployment of Microsoft® Windows® 2003 and Linux® based applications
Throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia, Bull's R&D labs are working hard today on the technologies for building the open, flexible and secure IT systems of tomorrow.
Bull's Competence Centres mission is to bring users the benefits of the latest innovations of the NovaScale® 5005 servers. Working closely with the R&D organisations, Bull Competence Centres advise Bull's customers and partners, particularly when implementing applications in Linux® and Open Source environments, optimising Oracle® or Microsoft® databases or designing or implementing ERP or BI solutions. These centres are also working in the high performance computing and storage arenas.
In November 2005, Bull launched a Services Centre dedicated to open source solutions.
Giving customers an access to experts in systems integration as well as to a set of industrial resources, tools and expertise necessary to the development and to the support of projects, this Competence Centre makes Bull one of the leading European actors in the open source arena.
Pricing and availability
NovaScale 5005 servers are available as of March 2006.
An 8 socket NovaScale 5005 configuration, including memory and disks, amounts to € 65 000.
About Bull, Architect of an Open World
As one of the leading European IT companies, Bull delivers open, flexible and secure information systems. The group helps public and private sector customers transform their information systems, applying its know-how and expertise in three main areas:
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Capitalizing on its extensive mainframe experience, Bull designs and produces robust, innovative and open servers, based on industry-standard technologies;
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Building on its alliances with leading ISVs, Bull develops and implements flexible and interoperable application infrastructures which give business processes the freedom to evolve;
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Bringing together recognized expertise in end-to-end IT security, Bull secures data and exchanges that are so critical in preserving customers' business integrity.
Bull has a particularly strong presence in the public, healthcare, finance, telecommunications, manufacturing and defense sectors. Its distribution network and business partners cover more than 60 countries worldwide.
For more information visit: http://www.bull.com
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