IBM has launched two new types of iSeries, both cut down versions of their Enterprise counterparts, one for backup and another for high availability and both have the "capacity on demand" concept that drives so many IBM offerings these days. To avoid confusion they are called iSeries for Capacity BackUp and the iSeries for High Availability.

The machines were announced in some detail in July but slated for availability as you read this and pricing options are just released.

The iSeries for Capacity BackUp is an iSeries Model 825, 870, or 890 server configured so that it has the minimum possible number of processors switched on.

That would be 3, 5, 8, 16, or 24 depending on which machine you have. The idea is to store it offsite, and in the event of a natural disaster, switch on redundant processors that were asleep on the box and run live off that machine while you restore your production machine or buy a new one and set it up.

The BackUp iSeries doesn't have the full OS/400 Enterprise Edition but a specialized stripped down version and it cannot be used for anything other than backup, disaster recovery and restore. So it is cheaper than the usual hardware or software. The daily usage fees of the processors once they are switch on is based on the list price cost of the CPU divided by 45. So use them for one day, and it is one forty-fifth of the price, use them for 45 days and you might as well have bought it.

The iSeries for High Availability are much the same, in that there is a parallel for each machine model, but they are not truncated in the number of processors and are really about outages related to planned downtime or for failures caused by crashes or screw-ups. So these machines can be used for other production work in a cluster formation ready for failover. But they are still discounted against the full Enterprise Server versions by varying amounts around 30% plus, and as a result have fewer software options available and WebSphere Portal Server are not included in the price.

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