New IBM Systems Help Midsize Businesses Create Smarter, More Efficient Infrastructures

ARMONK, N.Y., June 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new Storage and System x offerings designed to help midsize businesses manage information, increase flexibility and reduce the cost and complexity of today's IT environment.

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Highlighting today's announcements are the IBM System Storage DS3500 Express for enabling smart management of information, and the IBM System x3620 M3 Express which provides unmatched performance and scalability at an affordable price.  According to the 2010 IBM Global CEO study, leaders of midsize companies continue to view IT infrastructure as a cornerstone of their business transformation agenda. Results show that 78% expect business complexity to grow significantly over the next five years, but only 54% believe they know how to deal with it successfully.  As a result, 63% say they plan to evolve their operating model by making significant changes to their technology infrastructures as one way to better manage complexity.

"IBM's new server and storage offerings are the powerful, industry-leading solutions our midmarket clients are looking for," said Clay Hales, President of InfoSystems, an IBM Business Partner. "Working with IBM and InfoSystems, midsize companies have easy access to the technology and expertise needed to build smart infrastructure solutions that deliver improved performance and a competitive advantage."

IBM continues to apply its unparalleled combination of research capabilities, technology innovation and global Business Partner ecosystem to deliver powerful, workload-optimized systems that help midsize companies solve problems and succeed in today's environment.  The latest additions to IBM's midmarket offerings portfolio include:

The IBM System Storage DS3500 Express enables smart management of information and capacity growth without added complexity. By providing midrange performance and attributes at entry level prices, the DS3500 storage system helps companies deal with the "information explosion" – one of the top three factors expected to impact organizations over the next five years, according to leaders of midsize companies in the 2010 IBM CEO Study.

The DS3500 provides the broadest set of connectivity options available in a single storage system, allowing clients to intermix the different options to create a tiered network solution that places critical applications and data on the fastest networking technology and secondary data on the slower, less expensive technology. This tiered network solution maximizes resources and provides quick access to data so it can be analyzed for insight that can lead to competitive advantage. The DS3500 also allows users to lower power consumption by up to 10 percent(1). The total cost of acquisition for the DS3500 is up to 26 percent lower than comparable offerings from major competitors.

The IBM System x3620 M3 Express provides a powerful and affordable infrastructure alternative to traditional enterprise server offerings. Built on the latest Intel® Xeon® technology, the x3620 M3 server delivers the improved performance, storage capacity, speed and scale required for today's growing businesses.  The new server is optimized for storage intensive workloads such as social networking, video-serving, online gaming and transaction processing to help midsize businesses better manage the exponential growth of information. The System x3620 M3 Express also helps reduce costs by providing faster processing speeds, outstanding energy efficiency, and integrated RAID adapters for more concentrated memory support and higher availability.

"These new solutions provide growing businesses with a reliable, scalable IT foundation that will help them manage information more effectively and become increasingly agile in the way they work, access resources and support customers," said Ron Kline, IBM Global Director of Midmarket Marketing.

About the 2010 IBM Global CEO Study

The findings in the 2010 IBM Global CEO Study are based upon a series of interviews and analysis conducted by IBM between September 2009 and January 2010. A total of 1,541 CEOs, business and public sector leaders across a variety of industries participated in structured interviews, including 254 respondents who head midsize businesses – defined as companies that employ fewer than 1,000 people – based in 44 countries. The study provides a benchmark and a blueprint for global business trends. For additional information on the study, please click here [www.ibm.com/ceostudy].

About IBM

Learn more about new midsize business solutions from IBM

Join infoBOOM today and learn how to solve the challenging issues confronting your business. Midsize businesses now have access to IBM and third party subject matter experts on infoBOOM, an online IT community that is run jointly by IBM and CIO.com. infoBOOM is a place to discuss industry trends, gain insights that can help companies improve the way they do business, find relevant and timely information to solve business problems, and address the unique challenges facing midsize companies. Join the infoBOOM community on CIO.com at www.theinfoboom.com, through Facebook, or LinkedIn.

(1)When compared with its predecessor the DS3000

SOURCE IBM