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February 14, 2000

E-Business Gives New Life To Old HP 3000 Server
Vendor refocuses decades-old line as backbone for online commerce

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ewlett-Packard wants to bring its decades-old, proprietary HP 3000 server into the Internet Age. In an effort to position the system as a backbone server for E-business operations, the company has updated the line, now dubbed the HP e3000, with a new version of its MPE/ix operating system, and added a host of software-development partners that focus on Internet applications for vertical markets.

Last year, HP was focused on only four vertical markets for its MPE/ix systems. Now, HP is actively pursuing relationships with independent software vendors that write MPE/ix Internet apps for 12 vertical markets, including health care, manufacturing and travel. Eight-month-old eCandy.com Inc. expects to go live this month with the Mail Order And Cataloging System (MACS), order-processing and inventory-control software for online retailers, from HP software partner Smith-Gardner & Associates Inc.

By replacing its manual process with the MACS app on the 3000 for the back end, "Smith-Gardner promises us that we'll be able to handle 300,000 orders a day," says eCandy co-founder David Kim. "Microsoft is getting into back-end computing, but it doesn't have a proven model. Smith-Gardner with HP and the 3000 have a history with moving order catalog businesses to the Internet."

HP is also shipping MPE/ix release 6.5 on the e3000. It adds 12-way support and 20,000 concurrent IP connections. It also bundles the Apache Web server and an LDAP server. "Existing customers don't have to move to something else for Internet capabilities," says Christine Martino, HP 3000 worldwide marketing manager. "Bundling Apache means Web serving can take place on the 3000, with encryption that makes it secure."

HP will ship its e3000 systems with HP's latest PA RISC chip, the 8600, this year. MPE/ix will also support the 8600.

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