IBM Announces Expanded E-Mail Archiving and Storage Solution

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced an e-mail archiving and storage solution, which includes Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 software and IBM server and storage hardware, software and services. The IBM and Microsoft software is pre-loaded and pre-tested as part of the solution delivery.

"Customer demand for content management and e-mail storage solutions continues to grow," said Dr. Claude Lorenson, group product manager for Microsoft storage. "We are pleased to work with IBM to meet that critical need and provide customers with an end-to-end Windows-based archive solution to help customers streamline e-mail archiving and reduce IT complexity. Microsoft will work with business partners to identify opportunities and include this solution in recommendations to customers."

The IBM e-mail archiving and storage solution announced today will be available through IBM Business Partners and is designed to enable companies to retain e-mail for corporate governance and legal discovery purposes, as well as help to address immediate and future challenges with growing e-mail systems, improve performance and optimize storage investments, reduce backup/restore times, and allow for faster server consolidation and upgrades. This solution incorporates Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) award-winning technology that includes tiered archiving storage capability for attached tape storage, supporting lower costs, and provides options for data encryption capabilities, for added security.

"We're looking forward to working with Microsoft, their partners and clients to deliver archiving solutions that meet the needs of our mutual clients. The IBM e-mail archive and integrated storage solution presents a 'best-of-breed,' end-to-end offering that will help customers manage their information on demand needs," said Kristie Bell, vice president, IBM System Storage. "The solution we're announcing is designed to address the mushrooming e-mail and storage management needs of businesses today, and unlike the EMC Centera, this solution provides customers with a Windows-based e-mail archiving solution in their Windows environment, better leveraging their existing skills. In an area of increasing complexity, a simple solution is paramount."

The solution includes archiving storage software and hardware for a total end-to-end solution. It extends the existing IBM CommonStore eMail Archiving Preload with e-mail search functionality, pre-tested on an IBM System x BladeCenter Server platform powered by Next-Generation AMD Opteron™ processors, and integrated with comprehensive archiving capabilities via IBM System Storage Archive Manager software, as well as the reliable and economical IBM System Storage DS4200 Express disk storage system with Serial ATA (SATA) storage capacity.

The DS4200 with SATA drives gives the IBM e-mail archiving solution a scalable and economical storage design providing cost effective support for mission critical data along with flexibility to configure the archiving system to meet varying service levels. The DS4200 component can be ordered in a 4TB or 8TB option, and can be expanded via expansion modules. As part of the IBM Express portfolio, the DS4200 brings with it features that are easy to install, deploy and manage.

"AMD is pleased to be working in concert with IBM and Microsoft to deliver a Windows-based solution that addresses the growing need for e-mail archiving by the small to mid-sized business community," said Terri Hall, vice president, software alliances and solutions, AMD. "AMD Opteron processors with Direct Connect Architecture offer the perfect platform for data archiving, providing both performance and power efficiency. Three industry powerhouses working together can lead to powerful results -- like this solution that addresses every day business problems of our customers."

This solution is intended not only to address the economic needs of small- and medium-sized businesses with a simple, easy and fast implementation that saves companies time and money, but also to help large enterprises as well. Its preloaded configuration is designed to support quick, consistent and repeatable installations, reducing installation time significantly.

This offering extends IBM's portfolio of industry-leading content management and e-mail archiving solutions, with powerful data retention functions to help companies address corporate governance requirements, emerging government regulations, and internal policies, as well as reduce the cost of producing e-mail evidence as part of litigation. Additionally, IBM's offerings are designed to help improve e-mail server performance and reduce storage operation costs.

The solution, including storage and services, will be available from IBM and IBM Business Partners in the first quarter of 2007 starting at a list price of $55,000 with optional eMail Search for an additional $2,000.

For more information on IBM e-mail archiving, visit http://www.ibm.com/software/data/commonstore/email.html

For more information about IBM storage, visit http://www.ibm.com/storage