IBM To Ship Low-Cost Web Server

IBM next month will make available Web servers that it sayswill offer more power than systems selling for about the same price.

The RS/6000 270 uses the AIX operating system and includes up to four 375-MHz PowerR3-II processors. It comes with up to 8 Gbytes of memory and storage capacity of more than 54 Gbytes of data. Pricing for the 270 ranges from $16,995 for a single-processor system to $35,995 for a four-way system.

IBM's RS/6000 170 comes with only one processor and can support application hosting, firewalls, and Web caching. Pricing for the 170 starts at $10,495 for a 333-MHz system and $15,495 for a 400-MHz system.

A server industry consultant says the new servers are a good value compared with other Unix systems, but adds that such systems don't have the same demand as Windows Web servers. "It's very inexpensive and delivers a lot of performance," says consultant Andrew Allison. "IBM should do well against Sun's E450 and HP's L Class, but Wintel servers will continue to dominate the space."