A day after Dell came out with its 13G PowerEdge server portfolio, IBM followed up with its own x86 M5 servers. IBM’s new server range has features in the security, efficiency and reliability space to support mission-critical applications.
It combines high performance with built-in security, efficiency and reliability, supporting a wide range of enterprise workloads and computing environments from infrastructure basics to cloud computing to big data and analytics. The portfolio includes highly configurable models of rack and tower servers, dense systems, blades and integrated systems to help clients address pressing business challenges in the data centre and in the office.
“Clients need to support more demanding workloads with limited budgets while dealing with increasingly sophisticated attacks on their infrastructure. Our new M5 servers are designed with the long standing heritage of IBM innovation to support these enterprise applications with the high security, efficiency and reliability they require,” said Siddhesh Naik, Country Manager – System x, IBM India and South Asia.
The new IBM System x M5 servers include System x3650 M5, System x3550 M5, System x3500 M5, Flex System x240 M5, NeXtScale nx360 M5 and NeXtScale System with water cool technology – a direct water -cooled server optimised for energy-efficient performance at low cost.
In addition to System x innovations, the new servers come with all the latest industry-standard features, including Intel’s new Xeon E5-2600 v3 processors, and up to 1.5 terabytes of faster, energy-saving TruDDR4 memory. All these servers are scheduled to begin shipping to customers this year, except the x3500 M5, which is scheduled to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2015.
These servers comes with a built-in security of Trusted Platform Assurance, an exclusive set of System x security features and practices designed to help safeguard the systems from low-level malware attacks. The M5 servers add hardware support for the latest version of the Trusted Platform Module (TPM 2.0) to enable more encryption algorithms and Windows OS support.
The new Secure Firmware Rollback feature prohibits any unauthorized updates of previous firmware versions. The new servers also offer enterprise-class data protection with optional self-encrypting drives and simple, centralized key management through IBM Security Key Lifecycle Management.
With features in power and thermal management design such as extended operating temperature ranges, dual fan zones, and active/standby mode for power supplies, the M5 systems can deliver energy savings compared with many prior-generation x86 systems.
System x server hardware has achieved the highest availability of all x86 servers and they consistently rank number one for customer satisfaction. With the M5 portfolio, IBM extends that leadership for its x86-based systems. Each of the new servers has IBM-exclusive, built-in proactive diagnostic tools for easy serviceability and reduced labour costs.
