Once the ubiquitous marketing phrase was in a box. Today it seems, it’s for ISPs. On Wednesday Sun Microsystems Inc announced Solaris for ISPs, as though ISPs had really been using something other than Solaris all this time. Now IBM has announced its RS/6000 Powersolution for ISPs, a content management bundle to join the company’s existing e-commerce and groupware bundles and forthcoming web development bundle in one big happy bundle family. Unlike Sun’s software-only package, however, the RS/6000 Powersolution for ISPs combines hardware, software and consulting into a weapon squarely aimed at the Sun-dominated hardware market. The system is based on the 43P-140 333MHz processor with 256 megabytes of RAM and three 4.5 gigabyte hard disk drives. A pair of 10/100 Ethernet adapters are also thrown in. The box comes pre-installed with AIX 4.3 and IBM’s own inhouse AIX hardening software; 128-bit encryption; Charles River Media Group’s Watchdog software; the Lotus Go Web Server and Netscape Enterprise Server. IBM Global Services will provide one year of support and financing is available from 6.5%. That’s lucky, because although IBM promises change from $10,000, it’s about enough for a cup of coffee and a donut. Or should we say a Donut for ISPs?
