By William Fellows
Compaq Computer Corp’s Tandem unit will step out of the shadows in October when it sets out a plan to deliver versions of its high-end NonStop Himalaya and Integrity servers designed specifically for e-business.
Having been charged by new CEO Michael Capellas with some measure of responsibility for their own destinies, each of Compaq’s three new divisions will over the coming weeks and months present their own product and marketing strategies and roadmaps.
The Tandem group’s e-business initiative is part of a company- wide NonStop eBusiness campaign that will be supported with consulting, outsourcing, systems integration and infrastructure services and customer support. The company will offer more that 20 pre-configured hardware and software packages, including Tandem servers souped up for integrating application and data at the high-end plus point solutions for ISPs and ASPs.
The Tandem group admits that it hasn’t had a great deal of exposure in the 27 months since it was acquired by Compaq and its well-regarded fault-tolerant technology has yet to be fully leveraged, but says that’s changing. For example it’s had little to contribute to the battle between Unix vendors over competing uptime claims, and yet that is precisely Tandem’s expertise. Being part of the recent implosion at Compaq means it has had to make some hard decisions it admits.
The Tandem servers are going over to Alpha from the current MIPS CPU which will be supported through 2002. The Unix-based Integrity line is being given a new lease of life and Tandem’s ServerNet interconnect is being integrated with DEC’s Encore- derived MemoryChannel clustering architecture. It’s also adding deterministic and lock-stepping functions to Alpha.
Moreover, far from losing price control due to the general turbulence at Compaq (CI No 3,710), the Tandem group says it is the economies it is achieving by picking up pieces of DEC technology that has enabled it to cut its prices.
Meantime Tandem’s set to bask in some glory. Standish Group is soon to release a total cost of ownership study of high- availability systems in which Tandem says it comes out on top.
