ARC Midrange Servers: IBM's AS/400 Dominates Midrange

"We have dominance in the midrange market with our solution-oriented integrated offerings," says Mike Kerr, IBM's vice president of Web server products.

In this year's Annual Report Card, IBM's AS/400 earned an overall weighted score of 79, three points ahead of Compaq and HP, which tied for second place. SGI was five points behind in fourth place; the AS/400's RISC-based brother, RS/6000, was eight points behind in fifth place with a 71; and Sun brought up the rear with a score of 70.

"AS/400 has always been focused on delivering integrated business solutions," says Patrice Mitchell, vice president of AS/400 marketing. "In the first half of 2000, more than 75 percent of AS/400 business was delivered through the Business Partner channel."

The AS/400 platform's longevity and stability are also key reasons for its popularity with integrators. "With more than 700,000 systems shipped worldwide, AS/400 has a strong reputation in the marketplace, a loyal customer base and industry-leading customer satisfaction," Mitchell says. "Business Partners know they can make investments in the platform, and AS/400 allows partners to add solution value without having to test and integrate the hardware."

IBM also promises continued improvements to the AS/400 and the RS/6000. "New Unix technologies are coming from IBM, including copper SOI and POWER4 processors, a new version of AIX with Linux compatibility, sophisticated partitioning, enhanced switch technology and more," Kerr says.