Intel To Target Midtier Partners With Itanium 2 Release

VARs now targeting customers that work with 64-bit servers have the expertise to start moving Intel-based systems into those accounts, said Phil Brace, director of marketing for Intel's services and marketing group, at a technical presentation on Friday. The group, which provides motherboards and barebones systems to the channel, plans to provide a four-way, Itanium 2-based server barebones system by the second half, he said. The server will be the first Itanium-based barebone released to system builders.

"We've seen some resellers who have tremendous experience selling Sun [servers today and have experience with the 64-bit or technical computing arena who know how to get into those accounts," Brace said. Some second-tier OEMs also plan to build Itanium 2 systems, he said.

Intel reportedly is just weeks away from releasing Itanium 2, which the Santa Clara-based chip maker said will be up to twice as powerful as the first-generation processors.

John Davies, vice president and general manager of Intel's Solutions Market Development Group, said Intel is working on Itanium-based solutions with top systems integrators and will begin targeting midsize integrators and VARs for the first time when it releases Itanium 2. The group will seek out key midlevel partners and provide training, special discounts and integration support to help speed deployment of Itanium 2-based solutions, he said.

Intel also is extending its Blueprints program to the Itanium line, Davies added. Under the program, the Solutions Market Development Group works with integrators to craft specific customer solutions and then publishes a step-by-step rollout tutorial that other partners can use to implement similar solutions. Among the available Blueprints--originally established to focus on Xeon-based products--are a back-office banking solution and a cross-company integration application.

Despite a relatively slow start in the 64-bit arena, Intel clearly has its sights set on Sun Microsystems' high-end server space. Intel-based servers account for as much as 89 percent of server shipments but just 40 percent of the server market's revenue, whereas high-end RISC servers represent about 11 percent of the market's shipments and 60 percent of its revenue, company executives said.

Economies of scale will allow Intel to produce processors at a much lower cost than competitors, according to company executives. Vaughn Mackie, enterprise platform marketing manager at Intel, said the company expects OEMs to provide Itanium 2 servers at up to 40 percent below comparable Sun processor prices. For example, an eight-way Itanium 2-based server with four CPUs would be priced at approximately $41,000, Mackie said.

Intel officials also said the company has lined up solid Itanium 2 support from OEMs and ISVs. Intel expects OEM partners to release 10 Itanium 2-based servers supporting eight to 32 processors, Mackie said.

On the software side, Microsoft plans to release the Itanium-optimized Advanced Server 1.2 product and two .Net server products this year, according to Mackie. Hewlett-Packard also is slated to release version 1.6 of its Unix operating system, and Red Hat, Caldera, TurboLinux and SuSE have updates planned, he said.

Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, RSA Security and BEA Systems are among 100 software developers that have pledged support for the Itanium platform, and Intel has at least two more Itanium-family processors in development that are slated to be released after 2004, Mackie added. Those processors likely will include multiple threading and multiple cores, he said.