Unisys
is rolling out new systems in its stalwart ClearPath line of mainframes to help
businesses handle the growing processing demands brought on by the rise in
mobile devices such as smartphones as well as the adoption of such technologies
as cloud computing.
Unisys on May 10 unveiled the new ClearPath Dorado and Libra
800 Series that feature more powerful Unisys-designed chips and interconnect
capabilities. They also come with enhanced operating systems that extend
support to such mobile devices as smartphones powered by Google’s Android OS,
Research In Motion’s BlackBerry smartphones and Apple’s iPad tablet.
Such mobile device support will enable mobile users to gain
greater access to data center resources, a capability first introduced last
year when Unisys added iPhone and iPod
support in its Release 13.0 of the ClearPath MCP operating system.
The new mainframes and enhanced operating systems are needed
to handle the rising transaction, networking and storage demands brought on by
mobile devices and cloud computing, according to Bill Maclean, vice president
of Unisys’ ClearPath portfolio management.
"Right now, disruptive trends such as growing numbers
of smart devices and increased use of software-as-a-service and other
cloud-based solutions are multiplying transaction loads and driving
information-processing levels even higher," Maclean said in a statement.
"As a result, enterprises urgently require more powerful servers. These
latest ClearPath enhancements demonstrate Unisys' commitment to give clients
additional computing flexibility to deal with constantly emerging requirements
while building on their long-term investments in strategic applications."
Unisys is in the process of migrating its mainframes to
Intel’s Xeon processor platform—it has a number of systems that have moved from
Unisys’ own CMOS chips. However, in the meantime, the company continues to
enhance its systems that are powered by CMOS processors.
With the latest rollouts, Unisys is offering six new models
in the Dorado 800 Series and two in the Libra 800 Series. According to the
company, the new Dorado system offers 70 better processor performance and 740
percent better I/O performance over the Dorado 280 and 380 systems.
In addition, the latest generation of Unisys’ XPC-L (Extended
Processing Complex Locking) clustering technology can be used with the new
Dorado models as well as previous versions. With the upgraded XPC-L,
enterprises can essentially tie together four systems by enabling them to
simultaneously access a shared database, offering high availability for
mission-critical applications and disaster recovery capabilities.
The Libra 800 Series systems come with hard partitioning,
enabling enterprises to configure a mainframe as a single system or one with
multiple independent environments. The new Libras offer 50 percent processor
performance improvement and 59 percent better I/O performance than in earlier
models.
Businesses can pay for the new ClearPath mainframes either
through purchasing the performance upfront or through a metering pricing model
that lets customers pay for only the power they use.
The operating systems for the mainframes—OS 2200 for the
Dorados, MCP Release 13.1 for the Libra systems—offer highly integrated
software stacks that Unisys officials said bring greater performance,
availability and reliability to the ClearPaths. In addition, the integrated
software also can run on previous or future versions of the mainframes, which
helps businesses leverage investments they’ve already made.
In addition, Unisys has added new capabilities to the
specialty engines within the ClearPath systems to address such demands as
application modernization, enhanced security and SOAs (service-oriented
architectures). It’s through these enhancements, for example, that the ClearPath
ePortal for MPC and the one for OS 2200 now offer support for the latest mobile
devices, according to Unisys.
The Dorado 800 Series and the software enhancements are
available immediately. The new Libra mainframes will be available in June, and
the XPC-L3 in August, the company said.
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