A year after the Integrated xSeries Adaptor (IXA) first allowed a full-sized xSeries to attach directly to an iSeries, the percentage of iSeries shops investing in the dual solution is less than staggering. Big Blue has a few joint marketing initiatives slotted for 2002, but they won’t help the low-end shops that aren’t buying xSeries servers because of i270 limitations.

IBM recognizes that many of its iSeries customers also run Intel servers dishing out Windows apps. The ability to integrate xSeries with iSeries means those customers can consolidate server, storage, and user management. “That helps customers manage their [IT environments] and reduce costs,” says Craig Johnson, iSeries server consolidation segment manager. Administrators can create users only once and synchronize user profiles and passwords. They can enhance recovery protection because OS/400 Save operations back up both iSeries and Windows storage spaces. And they can increase availability because Windows applications can be brought back online easily in the case of an Intel server failure.

But at last count only about 20 percent of iSeries shops had integrated xSeries servers with their iSeries environments — a figure that includes Integrated xSeries Server (IXS) cards as well as xSeries boxes directly attached with IXAs, says Ian Jarmin, iSeries product marketing manager. Though the IXS and IXA are by no means an all-out marketing failure, Big Blue sees plenty of room to boost the number of dual installations beyond one in five. “IBM would like to see all iSeries shops incorporating xSeries,” Johnson says. “[But] a lot of iSeries accounts don’t have xSeries servers. They have Compaq or Dell instead.”

In part, that’s because IXS cards provide limited processing capabilities and therefore may be passed over by businesses requiring more oomph from their Windows-based applications, says Al Barsa, president of Barsa Consulting [2]. Plus, IXS cards require companies to bring down the machine to upgrade the hardware.

But the IXA alternative doesn’t require iSeries downtime during hardware upgrades and provides full xSeries and iSeries capabilities. Companies can incorporate any Windows-based applications into their solutions, while relying on the iSeries to manage storage and users across the entire environment. “The [IXA] is much better than the internal card,” Barsa says. “It’s an outstanding piece of technology that IBM in its own inimitable way has not done enough to market.”

However, Big Blue is taking some baby steps to spread the word about the IXA to its iSeries install base. Until next month, IBM is offering a $3,000 rebate to customers who purchase an xSeries and an IXA and who either purchase or upgrade to an iSeries 8xx box. This promotion “is a means of increasing xSeries sales,” Johnson says. A separate offer gives a rebate of 8 percent of the purchase price to customers who trade in their competing Intel hardware for xSeries hardware, plus an extra $1,000 if they also buy an IXA.

Telling an iSeries shop that it can buy eight xSeries servers tied to an iSeries rather than 25 Dell or Compaq servers functioning independently is a much easier sell, Johnson says, than telling an Intel shop to chuck its servers out the window and invest in a completely new eServer solution. “There will be some push for iSeries in the xSeries shops,” most notably through promotions and demonstrations at the Raleigh xSeries hub, “but the larger push is into [iSeries] accounts that don’t have xSeries,” Johnson says.

IBM tried to spark the interest of its install base last month when it demonstrated the IXA to the COMMON crowd in Nashville. Corresponding sessions outlined the advantages associated with incorporating both platforms into a corporate infrastructure. And this month Big Blue kicked off a series of executive briefings in which iSeries and xSeries gurus and business partners expound the virtues of an integrated environment to CIOs. The first lesson in xSeries interoperability took place in Las Vegas. The next — slotted for later this month — will bring executives to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Big Blue will rely on business partners to pound home the benefits of the xSeries/iSeries strategy. “Some solution providers are delivering applications on iSeries that also require Windows server,” Johnson says. “Those providers are promoting the ability and benefits of running their packages on this one, integrated solution.” J.D. Edwards’ OneWorld solution, for example, runs completely on the iSeries, but its supply chain component is a Windows application. Similarly, Siebel’s eBusiness applications run on Windows but rely on the iSeries’ DB2 database.

And from the partner’s perspective, the solution shouldn’t be terribly difficult to sell, says Mitchell Kleinman, executive vice president at reseller CCS [3]. “Any company with five servers or more would benefit,” Kleinman says. Ten percent of CCS customers have already brought their Intel architecture into the iSeries — either internally or externally — and about 15 percent more have inquired about doing so.

But no amount of marketing and partner support will change the relatively small number of xSeries servers able to attach externally into a low-end iSeries server. At the high end, eight xSeries servers can attach to the i830 models, 16 to the i840, and up to 32 to the new i890. The i270 and i820 lines, on the other hand, can attach just two and four xSeries, respectively. “An i890 shop is all the more tempted to attach its xSeries [servers] because of the ability to access that added processing power,” Barsa says. “[But] small and medium companies considering the solution say they need a number much greater.”

Kleinman agrees. “The low end has a high propensity for taking advantage of [external attachment], but a company with six or seven Intel servers can’t attach to a 270,” he says. “My guess is that there will be an increase in the number [of xSeries servers a low-end iSeries can support] with the next release.”

But simply upping the number of xSeries processors that can attach to a low-end iSeries would hurt performance, Barsa says, at least with the current hardware. “For the 270, it becomes a question of the power of CPU and the speed of the bus,” he says.

If Rochester makes the tweaks needed to support more externally attached xSeries servers at the iSeries’ low end, it could see a big improvement in the number of shops using both eServer brands.