Virtualization can cut hardware maintenance, capital, capital, installation, and utility costs, company says.
IBM has announced it is offering special finance packages through the remainder of 2009 for its System x family of servers that bundle the newly released VMware vSphere 4 virtualization platform. Qualified customers are eligible for financing on purchases as small as $5,000.
IBM's System x lineup includes BladeCenter servers, System x rack and tower models, and the System x3950 M2 enterprise server, the single-system "reference platform" for the development of VMware vSphere 4 scalability.
For example, an IBM solution configuration on VMware, that would allow customers to virtualize 70 active workloads1 (onto a single System x3850), would retail for approximately $59,000. With financing, qualified customers could see zero upfront costs and monthly payments of approximately $1,675 per month.* Because virtualization reduces the number of systems needed, consolidating 70 active workloads onto a single System x3850 would cut hardware maintenance, capital, installation and utility costs.
"Customers should realize immediate savings from their complete virtualization solutions that combine IBM hardware and VMware software," said Alex Yost, vice president, IBM Systems & Technology Group. "Our new financing options offer access to capital at competitive rates and monthly payment structures based on fair market value leases instead of up-front cost to help clients improve the cash flow and financial metrics from their IT upgrades. Today, IT projects need to preserve cash and provide a healthy return on investment."
VMware vSphere 4 brings to market features, including scalability of up to 512 CPU's on up to 320 virtual machines, the ability to address 1TB of server memory, and support for 64 cores.
"We used the IBM x3950 M2 as the current reference platform for developing and testing single-system scale-up of VMware vSphere 4 due to its tremendous scalability and reliability," said Bogomil Balkansky, vice president of product marketing, Server Business Unit, VMware. "Working together, VMware and IBM are addressing our customers' needs for a virtualization platform that can support large memory and mission-critical applications."
Recently, IBM independently published a new VMware "VMmark" benchmark, achieved using the IBM System x3950 M2 and VMware vSphere 4. The result was delivery of 33.85 @ 24 Tiles - the leading 8-socket and 48-core VMmark score achieved to-date for systems configured with the Intel Xeon X7460 processor.2
This new financing plan is offered by IBM Global Financing, and is in direct response to customer demands for the packaging and financing of total solutions-hardware, software and service.
All of IBM's System x and BladeCenter servers are currently eligible for the special finance plan, with financing for IBM's iDataPlex servers planned to be available later this year.
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