UNISYS JUMP STARTS ITANIUM 2-BASED SERVER PERFORMANCE BOOST.

Enterprises can achieve substantial performance improvements offered by the Intel Itanium 2 processor quickly by focusing its power first on the database running on the Unisys Enterprise Server ES7000. Unisys described this 64-bit migration strategy as Intel recently announced its new Itanium 2 processor.

By concentrating migration efforts on the database, users can extend the value of their investments in existing 32-bit applications while gaining immediate price/performance boosts from the new processor. The hosting of such large databases in a single server environment applying the scalability of the Unisys ES7000 provides the added simplicity of centralized, mainframe-style systems administration.

Migrating to a SQL Server 2000 (64-bit) is as simple as detaching and attaching a database. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of SQL Server 2000 use the same code base, and use the same on-disk database format. This reduces the complexity of the database administrator's migration tasks and makes the user databases ready for immediate 64-bit application use. Microsoft Windows Advanced Server, Limited Edition 1.2 provides the necessary operating system support for 64-bit computing.

"The ease of database migration enabled by the Unisys ES7000 will help speed the adoption of the Itanium 2 processor," said Mike Fister, senior vice president and general manager, Intel Enterprise Platform Group. "Customers will benefit from the simplicity, scalability and flexibility traditionally associated with mainframe computing, with the performance and value of Intel Architecture."

As the only server that supports the ability of Microsoft technology to run large databases requiring more than eight processors, the Unisys ES7000 provides the mainframe-class capacity and performance needed to host very large OLTP and business intelligence databases. By avoiding the complexities of splitting the database across multiple, clustered commodity servers, enterprises can maximize database response time while minimizing the costs of administration skills, electricity and floor space.

"As the industry's adoption of Itanium 2-based solutions accelerates, Unisys customers can stay ahead of the adoption curve by applying Itanium 2-based server power where it's needed most, and where the effort is the least - at the database," said Kevin McHugh, vice president of Product Marketing, Unisys Corporation. "Migrating business solutions, the accumulation of years of investment, can then proceed at a pace the customer chooses without waiting to benefit from the new performance levels offered by this promising technology."