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NEC Launches New Midrange Fault Tolerant Server; The Express5800/320Lc Offers Industry's First Server to Combine Speed and Self-Recovery Software in a Single Platform

Posted on: Tuesday, 22 February 2005, 06:00 CST

Today, NEC Solutions (America), Inc., a premier provider of integrated solutions for the Connected Enterprise in North America, announced the Express5800/320Lc, a new midrange server in its Fault Tolerant server line. The server features a significant enhancement in performance to 2.8GHz CPUs and comes with additional protection and availability with self-recovery software, NEC ExpressCluster Self Recovery Edition (SRE). The new software makes the Express5800/320Lc the industry's first product to combine both software monitoring tools and a hardware fault tolerant platform in a single server environment.

Software malfunctions account for almost 20 percent of occurring server failures. Until now, the typical recovery solution for a single platform environment was for an IT technician to assess the failure and determine the cause -- hardware or software -- which meant mission critical applications could be unavailable for significant amounts of time. Now the Express5800/320Lc comes standard with ExpressCluster SRE which offers automated restart capabilities for most applications and portions of the operating system.

The ExpressCluster SRE comes standard with both Microsoft(R) Windows and operating system-free versions of the existing Express5800/320Lb and the new Express5800/320Lc server. The self-recovery software monitors the status of targeted applications and various components of the operating system such as device drivers and operating system resources and restarts them in case of a failure or stall. ExpressCluster SRE can also work with the server's remote monitoring applications to alert designated management stations of any software failures, restarts or other issues.

"Self-recovery software paired with faster processors are significant additions to high availability platforms," said Jeffrey Hewitt, United States Principal Analyst, Gartner, Inc. "Through new management capability features and processor upgrades, customers are able to trim associated IT resources costs without breaking their budget."

Larry Sheffield, senior vice president of the Solutions Platform Group for NEC Solutions America, is excited to offer higher availability and faster processor speed in this new midrange product.

"We now offer customers three choices in fault tolerant computing to ensure our customers -- small, mid-sized and enterprise -- are able to fulfill their high-availability needs. We are meeting our goal to deliver servers that support mission-critical business operations and database services requiring 24-hour uptime. Adding speed and self-recovery features strengthen our existing offerings to meet the requirements of demanding business environments."

The new Express5800/320Lc is supported by NEC's storage solution, the S2800, which has recently been added to the NEC iStorage product line. This storage array features Remote Data Replication for disaster recovery, SnapShot Data Replication to lower backup costs, RAID 6 technology for continuous operation, eight Fibre Channel Host Ports for increased connectivity and bandwidth, and up to 16 GBytes of cache for application dedicated caching. The S2800 supports the entire line of NEC servers including both the Fault Tolerant and Itanium products.

Key Features

The NEC Express5800/320Lc is optimized for the fault-tolerant architecture with redundant virtual I/O drivers for instant failover, and support for dynamic resynchronization of memory and processors. The server features 2 Intel(R) Xeon(TM) MP 2.8 GHz processors each with 512KB secondary cache, up to 6GB memory and up to 311.1GB of hard disk drive space. These components are duplicated in separate CPU and PCI modules for synchronized operation, with a total of two modules each housed in a 4U chassis to enable redundant operation and higher uptime.

Pricing and Availability

The NEC Express5800/320Lc base unit, which will begin shipping February 25, has a starting price of $24,999 and comes standard with a one-year hardware limited warranty, ExpressCluster SRE software and one-year software maintenance warranty. For more information visit www.necsam.com/servers/products.

About NEC Solutions America

NEC Solutions (America), Inc. is a premier provider of integrated solutions for the Connected Enterprise in North America. As an affiliate of NEC Corporation (NASDAQ:NIPNY) (FTSE:6701q.1), NEC Solutions America taps into a global resource network to help clients leverage technology to achieve a competitive edge. From corporate performance management and biometric security solutions to digital cinema and in-theatre advertising systems, visual displays and server solutions, the expertise is delivered with the personal attention needed to address individual situations. With headquarters in Rancho Cordova, California, NEC Solutions America maintains research, marketing, sales, and support facilities throughout the United States. Information regarding NEC Solutions America products and services can be found at www.necsam.com.

NEC and Express Cluster are registered trademarks and Empowered by Innovation is a trademark of NEC Corporation and/or one or more of its subsidiaries. All are used under license. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Xeon is a trademark and Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. (C) 2005 NEC Solutions (America), Inc. All rights reserved.

Source: Business Wire

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