Midrange Servers

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IBM appears to have doubled down on its midrange

server

business, according to the 2006

CRN

Channel Champions survey.

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The Armonk, N.Y.-based

computer

giant outpaced rivals in the midrange server category by differentiating itself in areas of vendor support and ability to upgrade.

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Key products in IBM's midrange lineup, defined as servers priced at $25,000 or more, include its iSeries and pSeries servers, formerly known as its AS 400 and RS 6000 lines.

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"They have strength in a number of areas," said Mitch Kleinman, executive vice president and general manager of Computer Configuration Services, Irvine, Calif., citing

ISV

support, system functionality,

ROI

capability and ability to run multiple operating systems.

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Kleinman said IBM has benefited from recent advances in its Power5

processing

technology, which has helped to keep system costs down.

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The ratings were tight overall, though. IBM's solution provider satisfaction rating of 79.8 was six-tenths of a point ahead of runner-up Hewlett-Packard and 1.8 points ahead of Sun Microsystems. A 2.8-point lead over HP on the criterion of ability to upgrade helped push IBM over the top.

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Kleinman said he was particularly impressed by the upgradability of IBM's iSeries systems. "If I was running code on a System 38 [produced by IBM more than a decade ago], that code can still run on today's iSeries with no recompilation," he said. "That's investment protection."

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In many respects, IBM's midrange server business continues to draw on capabilities developed from its longstanding

mainframe

technology—particularly the ability to

partition

systems. An iSeries server, for example, can run AIX,

OS

400,

Linux

or even

Windows

at the same time.

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IBM's lead in channel program satisfaction was headed up by a 2.8-point lead on the criterion of vendor support.

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"I think IBM has got the best product out there," said Dan Love, business development executive for Siwell Consulting, a New York-based solution provider and IBM partner since 1992. "Somehow, over time, they've tuned themselves into the channel to make it a better partnership.

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