“International Business Machines Corp. is set to unveil Monday a
new line-up of powerful computers designed to manage Internet sites
large and small, taking aim at current market leader Sun
Microsystems Inc. .
“Attacking Sun’s dominance of the ISP market from below, IBM
is… introducing… a new product code-named Pizzazz for
ISPs, and so-called Application Service Providers (ASP)…
Pizzazz, or the B50, will be sold with related new data storage
systems.
“The RS/6000 B50 and a companion Intel chip-based Netfinity
server are compact and designed for managing tasks like Web
hosting, messaging, Internet security, directory services and
electronic commerce. It runs on IBM’s UNIX system, called AIX, or a
low-cost, open source alternative that is popular with Web site
managers, the Linux operating system.
“We expect these to be a favorite among those who demand
Linux as their server operating system,” said Kai Staats,
chief executive of Terra Soft Solutions, an IBM partner.”