BLUE BELL, PA – Unisys has announced that it is partnering with Intel to bring to market a secure computing platform designed to handle the most demanding requirements of mission-critical cloud and big data workloads, while offering Unix clients a cost-effective path off legacy RISC-based platforms onto an Intel-based environment.
The new platform, to be released later in 2013, will build on the security Unisys delivers in mission-critical computing. It will combine Unisys’ advanced secure partitioning (s-Par) technology with the innovative computing and security features of Intel Xeon family processors, providing an extremely flexible and powerful environment.
The platform will support a range of Intel’s high-performance, availability and security innovations for the Xeon processor family.
As an Intel enterprise partner, Unisys believes that the platform will be the first architecture based on Intel Xeon processors to bring enterprise-level security, availability, scalability and predictable performance to the three key IT challenges facing enterprises today:
- Harnessing the power of the cloud. The Unisys-Intel platform will enable organizations to host Linux, Windows and migrated Unix application workloads on the same platform and provision them across all delivery models – from high-availability mission-critical environments to public clouds – with levels of security and performance required for each workload.
- Applying big data to real-world applications. The platform will provide extraordinary scalability for big data solutions. It can run open-source Hadoop queries in a single secure partition, adding virtual machines as necessary to solve complex problems in real time.
- Migrating from Unix-RISC systems. By bringing partitioning and other mission-critical attributes of RISC systems to an Intel x86 platform, the platform will provide a cost-efficient migration path from RISC systems running Unix applications without diminishing system performance.
Industry analysts estimate that segments of the cloud computing, big data and Unix-RISC migration markets represent an aggregate market in excess of $23 billion, opening potential joint growth opportunities for Unisys and Intel over the next several years.
According to Forrester Research, the private-cloud segment of the cloud computing market alone will grow to $9.8 billion by 2014. IDC forecasts that the big-data infrastructure market will reach $6.4 billion in the same time period. In addition, the mid-range and high-end server market, dominated by systems running Unix on RISC platforms, is currently valued at nearly $7 billion. Gartner projects that by 2017, enterprise users will migrate 65 percent of Unix applications to the Intel x86 platform.
“Unisys has two decades of experience in bringing the power of industry-standard Intel technologies to the high-end server market,” said Ed Coleman, Unisys chairman and CEO. “Now we are combining recent innovations from the two companies to provide a powerful, compelling and cost-efficient server platform able to handle today’s most demanding applications while delivering the security, reliability, predictability and other attributes that organizations have come to expect from true mission-critical systems. It’s a powerful combination that we believe will reignite the enterprise computing market.”
“Intel and Unisys have a joint vision for bringing greater flexibility, simplicity and predictability to the portion of the enterprise computing segment that still uses legacy RISC-based systems today,” said Shannon Poulin, vice president of marketing, Datacenter and Connected Solutions Group at Intel Corporation. “This innovative platform capitalizes on Intel Xeon Processor breakthroughs and the largest software ecosystem advancements to give organizations a powerful new alternative away from costly, outmoded RISC systems.”
Unisys will incorporate the following Intel Xeon processor family innovations into the new platform:
- Intel Integrated I/O to increase input/output speed and provide greater bandwidth using PCI Express Generation 3 (PCIe 3.0).
- New Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, which uses advanced algorithms to deliver increased performance with greatest power efficiency.
- Intel Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions (AES NI) for faster, more efficient high-volume encryption.
Unisys and Intel will continue to collaborate on integrating additional Intel innovations into the platform.
Unisys said it plans to provide more details on the new environment at the company’s Universe client-centered event on September 9 – 11 in Chicago, IL.