Sharing Unisys Corp as an OEM was what brought Tandem Computer Corp’s ServerNet division and network backup company Vinca Corp together in a relationship which has produced its first fruits, the Co-StandbyServer with ServerNet interconnnect. The Co- StandbyServer is the next generation of Vinca’s StandbyServer clustering software (CI No 3,241), for Windows NT. It enables high availability server clusters to be configured for automatic failover, without using external disk or mass-storage devices. It uses online disk mirroring, where each server can be fully utilized on the network, but also hold a mirror image of another’s data, so that applications can be automatically switched to another server in the event of one failing. Vinca says Tandem’s ServerNet is not the only interconnect which can be used with the Co-StandbyServer – the current NT version ships with a PCI card and Intel Corp’s EtherExpress Pro/100 Ethernet adapter – but it believes it is one of the best products available for high throughput, low latency and fault tolerance, and says it is becoming a de facto industry standard. All of which pleases Tandem’s ServerNet unit, whose goal is to promote ServerNet as an industry standard, and to forge relationships with all the major industry vendors. The company is currently talking not only to server manufacturers, but to key software, storage and networking companies as well, and it says Vinca is a strong niche market player with a good complementary product. The two companies did some joint development to ensure the products worked seamlessly together, and expect to announce other systems in the future. The Co-StandbyServer with ServerNet bundle for NT will be available this month from Unisys, and through other OEMs later next year. Vinca’s StandbyServer is also available for Novell Inc’s Netware and Intranetware.
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