The new operating system, i5/OS Version 5, Release 4, is the first for the iSeries since June 2004. The new System i5 servers will use IBM's Power5+ dual-core processor, which the company said delivers up to a 33 percent increase in performance over current iSeries models.
The updates are the latest in a series of IBM moves to burnish the luster of the former AS/400 line.
"From my perspective, I see they are doing work" to expand the user base, said Trevor McCullough, an information systems project leader at Lachine, Quebec-based footwear maker Genfoot Inc., which uses two iSeries systems. McCullough said IBM has been continually adding applications for the system.
Last February, IBM initiated a program to provide its partners with tools to update iSeries applications via Web-based front ends rather than green-screen interfaces. Since then, nearly 600 applications have been updated and 500 new iSeries applications have been written, according to IBM. More than 6,400 applications can now run on the systems, the company said.
Adding customers
IBM said that it added 2,500 iSeries customers last year, increasing the total base to 245,000 users. Most of the new customers were small to midsize companies.
The new operating system version improves iSeries integration with IBM's xSeries line, which runs Windows and Linux by replacing proprietary IBM interfaces with Internet SCSI technology.
The i5/OS upgrade also offers improved security and auditing capabilities, including automatic detection of denial-of-service attacks, said IBM.
Beverly Russell, IT director at E.D. Smith & Sons Ltd., a food products manufacturer in Winona, Ontario, and a beta tester of the new operating system, said she is pleased with the new storage capabilities and its ability to write to disk instead of tape. The new features can speed backup operations and open the door to the possibility of electronically sending backups to the company's disaster recovery site, she said.
Russell, who is also president of the Chicago-based iSeries user group Common, said that IBM has "definitely done a lot to energize the i5 and attract new [independent software vendors] and customers."
The four new servers range from a single-processor system to one that can support up to 64 processors. The systems are priced from US$11,995 for the low-end Model 520 to the million-dollar range for the high-end Model 595, said Jim Herring, director of product management and business operations for the iSeries.
Jean Bozman, an analyst at Framingham, Mass.-based market research company IDC, said users are increasingly using the iSeries to manage networks of iSeries and Windows- and Linux-based xSeries machines.
"What they are doing is leveraging the system management capabilities of this thing and using it to manage multiple Windows workloads," said Bozman.