International Business Machines Corp. on Monday will launch a new line of midrange server computers that steps up the price pressures on its arch-rival, Sun Microsystems Inc.
IBM said servers in its new p670 line, which is targeted at large and medium-sized companies, would cost up to 40 percent less than the equivalent offerings from Sun because they will use fewer computer chips.
"IBM has been getting more astute at Unix and it is launching products at prices that put its competitors in palpitations," said Charles King, an analyst with Sageza, a Silicon Valley-based market research firm.
Sun, which is also expected to launch a midrange server this week, has been fighting IBM on technology and pricing to capture share in the moribund market for servers running the Unix operating system.
Competition has heated up between Sun, IBM and the third major Unix vendor, Hewlett-Packard Co. HWP.N , as recession-wary corporations have frozen technology budgets, and analysts have given mixed signals about Sun's recent performance.
"You're seeing these cheaper midrange boxes because, despite the government's protestations (that the economy is rebounding), there is a reluctance among companies to spend too much money," King said.
The server line, which will ship on April 26, includes four computers ranging in price from $178,270 to $535,522, compared with Sun's equivalent range of $257,525 to $792,731 IBM said.
Analysts categorize servers roughly into three groups with high-end computers, costing more than $1 million, midrange computers that cost between $100,000 and $1 million, and low-end computers that cost less than $100,000.
News source: Reuters - IBM Attacks Sun on Price with Midrange Unix Servers
IBM said servers in its new p670 line, which is targeted at large and medium-sized companies, would cost up to 40 percent less than the equivalent offerings from Sun because they will use fewer computer chips.
"IBM has been getting more astute at Unix and it is launching products at prices that put its competitors in palpitations," said Charles King, an analyst with Sageza, a Silicon Valley-based market research firm.
Sun, which is also expected to launch a midrange server this week, has been fighting IBM on technology and pricing to capture share in the moribund market for servers running the Unix operating system.
Competition has heated up between Sun, IBM and the third major Unix vendor, Hewlett-Packard Co. HWP.N , as recession-wary corporations have frozen technology budgets, and analysts have given mixed signals about Sun's recent performance.
"You're seeing these cheaper midrange boxes because, despite the government's protestations (that the economy is rebounding), there is a reluctance among companies to spend too much money," King said.
The server line, which will ship on April 26, includes four computers ranging in price from $178,270 to $535,522, compared with Sun's equivalent range of $257,525 to $792,731 IBM said.
Analysts categorize servers roughly into three groups with high-end computers, costing more than $1 million, midrange computers that cost between $100,000 and $1 million, and low-end computers that cost less than $100,000.
News source: Reuters - IBM Attacks Sun on Price with Midrange Unix Servers
The government is using partnership groups - such as the FBI's InfraGard chapters in each field office - to persuade companies to report the attacks directly to FBI agents without public disclosure.
"They need to use a mechanism to report these incidents and vulnerabilities broadly so they can be fixed, but won't be attributable back to them," Rasch said.
The survey respondents said they lost at least $455 million as a result of computer crime, compared with $377 million the previous year. In both surveys, only about half chose to quantify their losses.
The most serious monetary losses came from the theft of money or proprietary information, such as blueprints for computer programs, and fraud, such as failure to deliver services or equipment that have been paid for.
Despite concerns that foreign governments would begin using computer attacks as a method of terrorism or war, most attacks on American companies still come from individual hackers and disgruntled employees, the report said.
The survey also addresses the increasing frequency of attacks on Internet retailers. There have been several reports of thefts of credit card data over the past year, including some instances in which the thief threatened to release sensitive data unless the victim paid a ransom.
WorldCom, The New York Times and others have had holes exposed in their Web security, leading to unwanted intruders.
Thirty-eight percent of the respondents said their Web sites have been broken into over the past year, and 21 percent said they were not sure. Eighteen percent reported some sort of theft of transaction information, such as credit card numbers or customer data, or financial fraud.
Seventy percent of organizations reported online graffiti, usually the simplest and least damaging type of attack. A graffiti hacker replaces the Web site's front page with his or her own text and, sometimes, offensive pictures.
Companies are also seeing problems from within. Seventy-eight percent said their employees abused Internet privileges, including downloading pornography or pirated software.
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.