weather.com Turns the Tide With Linux and IBM; World's Leading Weather Web Site Braces for Hurricane Season and Gale Force Web Traffic with Linux Web Servers from IBM.Business/Technology Editors SOMERS, N.Y. and ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 21, 2000 weather.com, one of the top 25 Web sites, today announced that it will use IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) (R) technology and services to serve its massive volume of maps and images on the popular Linux(R) operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. . IBM solutions will become part of the Internet infrastructure for weather.com, The Weather Channel(R) Web site and the world's leading source of weather on the Web, in an effort to meet the site's extreme traffic demands. "Our page views can soar from five million to 25 million in a matter of days," said Mark Ryan For the Irish author and nationalist see Dr. Mark F. Ryan. Mark Ryan (born 7 June 1956) is a British actor. Mark Ryan is a multi-talented performer, combining his acting, singing, writing, and action direction talents and has enjoyed a successful , Chief Technology Officer, weather.com. "The IBM solution is cost-effective and takes advantage of an emerging industry trend -- Linux. By moving to IBM's Netfinity(R) servers running Linux to serve images and maps, we are confident that we will be able to scale quickly to meet future peak site demand during the busy hurricane season Hurricane season refers to a period in a year when hurricanes usually form. For more information see: Tropical cyclone#Times of formation. For a lists of past seasons, see:
"Linux is changing the way people run their businesses," said Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Vice President of Technology and Strategy at IBM. "Because of its low cost of entry and its easy portability across many types of system platforms, Linux is the ideal solution for many of our Internet customers like weather.com. We are committed to providing our customers Linux-enabled solutions that can help them meet their changing business needs." weather.com will implement IBM's Netfinity 4000R servers running Linux to deliver the high availability Also called "RAS" (reliability, availability, serviceability) or "fault resilient," it refers to a multiprocessing system that can quickly recover from a failure. There may be a minute or two of downtime while one system switches over to another, but processing will continue. , scalability and performance needed to support its growing Web site, which can see large traffic spikes during the heat of the hurricane season. The design approach, which was recommended by IBM Global Services IBM Global Services is the world's largest business and technology services provider. It is the fastest growing part of IBM, with over 190,000 professionals serving customers in more than 160 countries. , will include IBM's WebSphere(TM) Application Server software that will allow weather.com to create dynamic content tailored to people's lifestyles and habits. The WebSphere Application Server, which runs on a non-IBM platform, will allow weather.com to offer its weather-related information to more than 77,000 worldwide locations in a personalized per·son·al·ize tr.v. per·son·al·ized, per·son·al·iz·ing, per·son·al·iz·es 1. To take (a general remark or characterization) in a personal manner. 2. To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify. fashion. For example, site visitors interested in golf can access current weather conditions, dew points, heat indexes, winds and gusts, and lightning strikes -- which help predict the best conditions for a golf outing. Additionally, visitors can view the weather conditions and schedules for all PGA TOUR The PGA Tour is an organization that operates the USA's main professional golf tours. It is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, USA. Its name is officially rendered in all caps as “PGA TOUR". events. weather.com's decision to partner with IBM was driven in part by IBM's ability to offer combined Linux-enabled solutions and an e-business framework. IBM has made the commitment to Linux-enable all of its solutions -- from ThinkPads(R) to mainframes -- to help customers take advantage of emerging opportunities. weather.com also recognized the growing population of Linux programmers emerging from schools and start-up e-businesses and the importance of embracing open source technology. Industry analysts such as IDC estimate that Linux has jumped to the second most popular server operating systems See network operating system. in sales in less than one year. Later this year, IBM and weather.com will be exploring other opportunities as weather.com expands its wireless applications. A technology leader, weather.com plans to increase its stronghold in the wireless arena by offering new wireless weather products accessible through phones, personal digital assistants and pagers with software from the WebSphere software platform. About weather.com weather.com, The Weather Channel(R) Web site, is the world's leading source of weather on the Web. weather.com is consistently ranked the top single-content site on the Web by Media Metrix and the number one news and information site by Nielsen Net Ratings. Averaging 300 million page views and 14 million unique users per month, the weather.com network offers comprehensive forecasts for more than 77,000 locations worldwide and provides relevant content to help users plan for everyday life. Additionally, weather.com is the leading provider of broadband and wireless weather products accessible through high-speed Internet See broadband. services, phones, pagers, Palm Pilots, and other personal digital assistants. Partnerships include America Online See AOL. , ESPN.com, ABCNews.com, Sprint PCS (1) (Personal Communications Services) Refers to wireless services that emerged after the U.S. government auctioned commercial licenses in 1994 and 1995. This radio spectrum in the 1. , Nokia, AT&T Wireless and Palm Computing. About IBM IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM creates, develops and manufactures the industry's most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics. The fastest way to get more information about IBM is through the IBM home page at http://www.ibm.com. IBM, Netfinity, ThinkPad and WebSphere are trademarks or registered trademarks of IBM Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds Linus Benedict Torvalds (born December 28 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer best known for initiating the development of the Linux kernel. . All other product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion