IBM announced today that it has been awarded a contract by Mobil
Travel Guide to provide the company with large-scale computing
infrastructure on-demand over the Internet. The contract for
on-demand mainframe and storage computing services is the first of
its kind in the travel and transportation industry.
Under terms of the 5-year agreement, IBM will provide the
Illinois-based travel guide service with on-demand access to
Linux-based server processing, storage and networking capacity from
IBM e-business hosting centers in the United States. Instead of the
physical Web, database and application servers they currently rely
on, Mobil Travel Guide will tap into “virtual servers” on IBM
zSeries mainframes and Enterprise Storage Servers running Linux,
paying only for the computing power and capacity they require.
Mobil Travel Guide will utilize the IBM computing resources to
support the expansion of a new web-based service — Mobil Companion
— which offers customized service for auto travelers. The Mobil
Companion travel program targets upscale leisure auto travelers
with benefits that include state of the art web-based travel
planning, 24 hour enroute travel support services, upgraded
services and preferred rates from hotels, restaurants and other
travel service providers.
The Mobil Travel Companion Service will launch later this year
in the United States.
“Linux Virtual Services from IBM provides us true on-demand
computing power that is flexible and cost efficient,” said Ralph
Giannola, senior vice-president, Mobil Travel Guide. “For Mobil
Travel Guide, gaining utility-like access to IBM’s worldwide
computing infrastructure is akin to accelerating from a one lane
country road onto the Autobahn.”