Small though it is, the South African market for high-end storage servers has contributed to IBM`s remarkable achievement of 10 000 IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server (code-named `Shark`) sales in less than three years.
Says IBM SA storage solutions manager, Ben Gosling: "We`ve had a number of Shark placements in 2001 and 2002, because South African business is technology savvy.
"Our customers are quick to adopt technology that will cut costs and improve efficiencies.
"And, more and more, South African executives are looking beyond purchase price to total cost of ownership (TCO).
"Shark meets them on both points. It`s competitively priced and its TCO benefits - including superior performance, scalability and advanced functionality - are unmatched in the industry."
Shark is a high-performance disk storage solution designed to work with a variety of hardware and software technologies, such as Windows NT, Unix, Novell NetWare, the entire IBM eServer family - as well as with a variety of interfaces, including Fibre Channel, Ultra SCSI and ESCON.
In June 2002, IBM sold its 10 000th Shark to Commerzbank, a leading international investment and banking institution based in Frankfurt, Germany, with worldwide assets of approximately $450 billion.
Since shipping the first Shark in 1999, IBM has sold and delivered more than 22 petabytes of storage capacity to retailers, financial institutions, hospitals and research centres worldwide - including 74% of the world`s Fortune 100 companies.
The amount of data stored globally on Enterprise Storage Server systems is equivalent to more than 37 million CD-ROMs.
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IBM is the world`s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate.
The IBM home page can be found at www.ibm.com/za
For more information about Shark, please visit http://www.ibm.com/totalstorage/ess.
IBM storage systems
IBM is the world leader in storage systems, software, services and technology. IBM led all companies once again with the number of US patents granted in 2001. IBM`s open storage solutions are designed for the rigors of e-business collaboration utilising next generation concepts for open storage by integrating modular technologies including disk, tape and optical storage media, powerful processors, and rich software.
For more information on IBM TotalStorageTM products and their advantages over competing products, visit www.storage.ibm.com.
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