Back in September, Santa Clara, California-based Auspex Systems Inc said it was looking for European outlets for its Unix Network File System series of NS servers. The firm last week signed up Memec Plc’s Thame, Oxfordshire-based distributor Thame Microsystems Ltd to market its systems in the UK and Ireland. Auspex claims its NS 5000 file system server can eliminate bottlenecks in large workstation networks by providing up to five times the input-output performance of current high-end Unix file servers on offer from the likes of Sun Microsystems Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, Digital Equipment Corp and IBM Corp. The NS 5000 distributes input-output functions to separate processors for Ethernet, file storage and host operations, currently handling up to eight Ethernet networks on up to 81Gb disk. One of the new partnerships’ arguments is that although servers are the most profitable Unix products for the likes of Sun Microsystems Inc, DEC, Hewlett and IBM, they are little more than jumped-up workstations, and do not have the input-output capability to handle lots of workstations networked together. Indeed, for those already committed to an information technology strategy based on one of these technologies, Auspex advises users not to buy the big iron, but to wait for the next generation of high-performance desktops which will best the performance of most servers already on offer. As an example, Auspex cites Sun’s newest 690MP server, which it claims delivers only 8% more input-output per second NFS performance than the two year-old Sun 490 system it is intended to replace. Unbeknown to Scott McNealy, salespeople at Sun, which Auspex describes as the most proprietary open systems company, have even bid Auspex and Sun workstations together on some contracts, it claims, because the Mountain View company’s server technology could not meet the required price-performance mark in those cases. This comes from a firm that sells three-quarters of its systems into the Sun installed base, whose NS servers are front-ended by Sun’s Sparc RISC or the Motorola Inc technology found in its older workstations – Auspex now manufactures the 68020 board under licence from Sun – and that plans to offer a multi-processing Sparc system in line with Sun’s latest offerings as customers demand it. Auspex says it will offer a database system on its servers next year, which will likely bring it into more direct competition with the mainstream Unix community, while FDDI communications for the Futurebus+ standard are promised for the future. Auspex, currently engaged on its second round of financing following an initial tranche of $20.6m, claims an installed base of some 300 systems, up from 180 in September.
