MARLBORO, Mass.—November 6, 2006—Egenera Inc., a leader in datacenter virtualization architecture, today announced that SK C&C of Korea has selected Egenera to run SAP® ERP and other mission-critical applications in a utility computing environment. SK C&C chose Egenera over blade server offerings from large server vendors based on the Egenera® BladeFrame® system's advanced virtualization technology and ability to dramatically simplify datacenter infrastructure. SK C&C is one of Asia's largest IT services companies, specializing in IT outsourcing and systems integration.
Demonstrating its commitment to offering customers IT services that enhance business agility, improve productivity and ensure high availability, SK C&C made a strategic decision to implement utility computing in early 2006. The legacy RISC systems housed in SK C&C's Daejon datacenter had become difficult to manage and no longer delivered adequate performance. In addition, as more and more systems were added over the years to support growth, datacenter infrastructure had become overwhelmingly complex. To maintain competitive advantage, SK C&C executives initiated a search for a new computing platform.
"Since we knew we'd be running SAP and several other mission-critical services on the new utility computing platform, 24x7 availability was a crucial requirement," said Kil-Sub Lee, vice president, SK C&C. "We also looked at price, performance, flexibility and manageability as part of our evaluation."
BladeFrame: A New Server Architecture
Along with the Egenera BladeFrame system, the SK C&C team closely evaluated blade servers from other major industry vendors. While Egenera provides a completely new server architecture specifically designed to eliminate datacenter complexity, SK C&C found that the other blades being evaluated were nothing more than legacy servers in smaller form factors. As a result, they were not able to meaningfully simplify the environment. Egenera's Processing Area Network (PAN) architecture combines diskless Egenera Processing BladeTM (pBladeTM) modules; a high-speed fabric; and software that virtualizes compute, storage and networking resources.
The virtualization of datacenter resources means that servers are no longer tied to specific operating systems or applications, and can be easily shared and automatically repurposed based on business priorities and service-level agreements. By turning servers from fixed resources into dynamic assets, enterprises can dramatically reduce the number of servers they need, use a single server as backup for many servers, and reduce datacenter complexity by up to 80 percent.
Kil-Sub Lee continued, "Because virtualization enables a datacenter to configure and reconfigure resources dynamically, we knew it was essential to our utility computing business model. So we carefully evaluated the capabilities of each solution. Egenera was clearly more advanced in virtualization than either of the other two vendors we evaluated."
In addition to simplicity and virtualization, SK C&C has documented several other benefits since implementing Egenera. The BladeFrame architecture has enabled significant consolidation of servers, storage and backup systems. As a result, system administration requirements have dropped dramatically. Performance of the Intel®-based Egenera pBlade modules has exceeded expectations, while the system's ability to run Linux®, Microsoft® Windows® and SunTM SolarisTM on a single platform has also been a great advantage. Finally, a financial analysis showed that capital costs for hardware and software will be nearly 20 percent lower over the next four years.
Kil-Sub Lee added, "Egenera leads the industry in virtualization, blade technology, SAN connectivity, mission-critical Linux and Windows, and enterprise-class hardware based on x86 processors. The PAN architecture is an excellent design uniquely suited to utility computing. We have great confidence in Egenera and look forward to working with them to help keep SK C&C at the forefront of IT services."
About SK C&C
Founded in 1991, SK C&C provides consulting, IT outsourcing and systems integration services to the financial, telecommunications, energy, logistics and other industries throughout Korea. The company also participates in 10 Next Generation Growth Engine Projects spearheaded by the Korean Government. SK C&C's forward-thinking focus on digital convergence and ubiquitous computing makes it the ideal IT partner for businesses that seek competitive differentiation through technology innovation. Through "IT-based Social Contributions," SK C&C is also committed to fostering the common good of society.
About Egenera Inc.
Egenera is a global leader in delivering enterprise computing solutions that simplify datacenter operations and infrastructure. The Egenera BladeFrame system simplifies the datacenter with an innovative server architecture specifically designed to reduce complexity and enable IT to respond rapidly to business requirements. Market-leading enterprises around the world trust the Egenera BladeFrame system to run their most important business applications and achieve higher resource utilization, faster application time to market and lower total cost of ownership. Headquartered in Marlboro, Mass., Egenera has offices worldwide. For more information visit www.egenera.com, call 508-858-2600 or send email to info@egenera.com.
Egenera, Egenera stylized logos, BladeFrame, pBlade and Processing Blade are trademarks or registered trademarks of Egenera Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other product names, service marks and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.
