TechWatch: Linux Servers; Drive Swapper; Identity Servers

Whether you need a server, a notebook or something in between, this month's selections have got you covered. Got any hot products of your own? Send them to [email protected].

LINUX SERVER GETS THRIFTY

Serving notice against arch-competitors Hewlett-Packard and Sun that it intends to stay at the forefront of the server market, IBM has taken its increasingly popular 64-bit Power 5 architecture and spun a nifty, rack-mounted Linux server that sells for only $3,500. The eServer OpenPower 710, which runs versions of the Linux operating system from either Red Hat or Novell SuSE, is available in one- or two-way versions with up to 32 GB of memory. Powering the server is IBM's home-grown 1.65-GHz Power 5. That CPU, which was unveiled last March, is a 64-bit device that beat Intel to the punch as the industry's first dual-core processor. In announcing the new server, IBM is also touting the availability of more than 900 applications from a variety of ISVs, including SAP and Sybase.
ESERVER OPENPOWER 710, www.ibm.com Price: $3,499 (single CPU)

Security Lockdown

Identity management has become all the rage, with software packages proliferating like, well, spam. Now, Infoblox, which is beginning to build a channel program, is one of the few vendors that has folded identity management into hardware in the form of a standalone, network-edge appliance. (Start-up Imprivata is another.) The Radius One Version 1.2 appliance takes the installation and set-up headaches out of authenticating, authorizing and tracking users on IP-based networks. It also integrates easily with Microsoft and Novell directory services. VARs may want to consider supporting such a solution in the wake of new federal regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA. These provisions force companies to keep detailed records on when, where and by whom corporate and medical records are accessed.
RADIUS ONE V1.2, www.infoblox.com Price: $12,000

Do-It-Yourself Drive Swapper

Want to build a dirt-cheap hot-swappable hard drive for test or even production use? Now there's a way to do it without much more than a screwdriver. Addonics' Drive Cartridge Series pulls together a drive case, cradle, tray and all the connectors needed to turn a garden-variety 3.5-inch IDE or Serial ATA hard drive into a high-performance swappable. Just pop the drive into the case, install the cradle in the computer, insert and away you go. We found the idea brilliant and the unit easy to use, though the ABS plastic test model we tried wasn't as rugged as it could have been (available aluminum versions should be sturdier). But for less than $60, you can't really go wrong.
DRIVE CARTRIDGE SERIES, www.addonics.com Price: Starts at $59 (USB version), $23 (SATA)