IBM to Release High-End DB2 and Websphere Mainframe Apps for Linux

By Michael Hall, LinuxToday

IBM today announced the release of several new pieces of Linux software aimed at clustered high-end Linux machines. The announcment follows on the heels of IBM's $3m deal with Scandinavian telco and ISP Telia, where the company will replace 70 Sun servers with a single IBM S/390 running over 1500 virtual Linux servers. The company hopes to provide a smooth upgrade path to customers interested in moving to mainframe computing.

Today's announced software includes:

• DB2 Enterprise-Extended Edition (EEE), which the company says is the industry's first offering for Intel-based clusters on Linux. EEE offers a multi-terabyte databases supporting multiple processors through server clustering.
• DB2 Enterprise Edition (EE), unique in offering a Linux database on the IBM zSeries(2) and S/390 platforms.
• DB2 Connect, which allows access to DB2 data on the mainframe directly from Web connected applications using DB2 on Linux on the same server.
• WebSphere Application Server, Advanced Edition, Version 3.5, which supports high-performance, scalable Web sites. This software is also being delivered for Linux running on Intel-based servers.
• WebSphere Application Server, Standard Edition, Version 3.5 for Linux running on Intel servers, which aids in transitioning static Web sites to dynamic Web content.

According to the company, the thrust of the releases is to provide a smooth upgrade from their lower-end, Intel-based eServer X series machines to the high end zSeries and S/390 systems without requiring rewrites of existing code for a new platform.

IBM announced that the software will be supported by Red Hat, SuSE, and TurboLinux.

The new product offerings for DB2 Universal Database for Linux will be generally available on December 15, 2000. The new product offerings for WebSphere for Linux on Intel will be generally available December 22, 2000 and WebSphere for the zSeries servers will be generally available on January 26, 2001.

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