Compaq ProLiant 1000 Compaq Leadership in Server Innovations - Page 3

Doc. No. ECG072/0298 WHITE PAPER COMPAQ LEADERSHIP IN SERVER INNOVATIONS ... OVERVIEW Compaq is number one in providing customers solutions which match their needs. Compaq accomplishes this by providing servers which "innovate within the standard", providing advantages of standards-based computing with value-added enhancements. One way Compaq shows its commitment to innovation includes its involvement in technology. An example is Compaq's patent growth for 4Q97, which was over 32%. Customers have recognized and rewarded Compaq's superior innovations by buying one million servers after seven years of server sales far surpassing volumes of x86 servers shipped by IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Digital Equipment Corp. combined as of November 19, 1996.3 These server sales illustrate Compaq's leadership in delivering server products that best meet customer requirements. COMPAQ SERVER EVOLUTION: THE COMPAQ SYSTEMPRO TO THE COMPAQ PROLIANT Compaq has historically focused on the growing demands for client/server technologies and their benefits to customers. In 1989 the Compaq Systempro, the first standards-based multiprocessing server, led the growing client server revolution for the enterprise environment. Building on its technical expertise and customer focus, Compaq's creative server innovations continued in 1992 with the SystemPro XL and ProSignia families and in 1993 with the Compaq ProLiant families. The SystemPro XL was the world's fastest PC server and the ProSignia family set a new price:performance standard for the PC server industry. The ProLiant servers, a class of database and application servers, were the first of their kind to provide customers with a tested, proven, and optimized database platform. Progressing with industry standards, in 1996 Compaq introduced the Compaq ProLiant 5000 family of servers that included dual-peer PCI bus architecture and redundant Ethernet fail-over (NIC) technology on industry-standard architecture. The two current ProLiant servers, ProLiant 6500 and ProLiant 7000, offer the newest in industry standards including the PCI Hot Plug and Intelligent Hot-Pluggable Power Supplies. The ProLiant family focuses on a common set of architectural consistencies including Compaq Insight Manager and SmartStart that guarantee ease of operation, service, and training, and other benefits which result in value for the customer. These consistencies were developed in 1993 and have been built upon through today. Since the beginning, Compaq focused on driving innovations to meet customer requirements. The following chart illustrates Compaq's historical progression of industry standards: 3 Numbers correspond to x86 servers shipped 1994-1996. Source: IDC Report 3