1. IBM Systems Group This document is intended for IBM sales force and Business Partner education. It is not intended for customers. © 2004 IBM Corporation IBM eServer xSeries 255 vs. Dell PowerEdge 6600 and HP ProLiant ML570 G2 Product to Product Comparison Mike Easterly, WW ISG Competitive March 2, 2004

2. IBM Systems Group This document is intended for IBM sales force and Business Partner education. It is not intended for customers. © 2004 IBM Corporation 2 Agenda Page  Key Selling Points Overall ► Get in the Bid Specs ► Get out of the Bid Specs  x255 vs. Dell PowerEdge 6600 ► Feature Comparison ► Key Selling Points  x255 vs. HP ProLiant ML570 G2 ► Feature Comparison ► Price Comparison ► Key Selling Points

3. IBM Systems Group This document is intended for IBM sales force and Business Partner education. It is not intended for customers. © 2004 IBM Corporation 3  Designed to support Ultra320 capability, which provides investment protection. (vs. Dell only)  Support 12 internal disk drives, plus two additional bays which can be used for tape backup.  Enhanced Predictive Failure Analysis decreases planned and unplanned server downtime for improved reliability & maximum utilization  Light path diagnostics speeds diagnosis of failures by providing a path to problem components, minimizing maintenance expense and downtime  IBM Director advanced systems management with more feature then the competition  Integrated Systems Management Processor standard allows IT to diagnose and administer local and remote servers even when the server is completely down  Hot-swap redundant fans standard for higher levels of availability. KEY SELLING POINTS

4. IBM Systems Group This document is intended for IBM sales force and Business Partner education. It is not intended for customers. © 2004 IBM Corporation 4  The need for more then six PCI slots is less then 4% of the customers*.  With 6 PCI slots available, it is easy to add additional Ethernet adapters as required. With hot-plug capability this also provides a higher level of availability vs. embedded Ethernet.  When it comes to memory expansion it is important to evaluate your applications memory requirements. Often 24GB is more then enough. COMPETITOR SELLING POINTS *IBM Internal Research

5. IBM Systems Group This document is intended for IBM sales force and Business Partner education. It is not intended for customers. © 2004 IBM Corporation 5 x255 vs. Dell PowerEdge 6600 FEATURE COMPARISON * See Legal Notes page for additional Limited Warranty information. Product Comparison xSeries 255Dell 6600 Configuration/SizeTower or Rack 7UTower or 7U Rack ProcessorUp to 3.0GHz Intel® Xeon™ Processor MPUp to 2.8GHz Intel Xeon Processor MP Maximum # Processors44 Memory TechnologyECC PC1600 DDR SDRAM Maximum RAM24GB via 12 DIMMs32GB Chipkill MemoryYes Hot Spare MemoryYes Memory MirroringYes DASD ControllerDual Channel Ultra160 SCSISingle Channel Ultra160 SCSI Designed to support Ultra320YesNo RAID SupportOptional Available Hot Swap Bays12 (6 standard and 6 optional)8 hard drive bays (option for 4 more) Open Media Bays22 (zero if using 12 drives) Storage Capacity1.76TB1.76TB (eliminated 2 media bays for tape) Slots7 available (6x64-bit/100MHz, 1x32-bit for mgmt card)10x64bit/100MHz and 1x32bit/33MHz Hot-swap PCI SlotsYes, 6 Active PCI-X Slots10 EthernetIntegrated Gigabit EthernetIntegrated Dual Gigabit Power Supply / Hot-swap/redundantYes / Optional (4x370w)Yes / Yes (3 standard) Hot-swap / Redundant Cooling fansStandard / OptionalYes / Yes Light path diagnosticsYesNo Advanced Mgmt ProcessorIntegrated Systems Management ProcessorEmbedded Server Mgmt III Server ManagementIBM DirectorOpenManage Limited Warranty* 3 years on-site, Next Business Day response3 years parts and labor next business day response time Components covered by PFAProcessors, memory, hard drives, power supplies, VRM & fans Memory & hard drives

6. IBM Systems Group This document is intended for IBM sales force and Business Partner education. It is not intended for customers. © 2004 IBM Corporation 6 x255 vs. Dell PowerEdge 6600 FN Selling points for x255  Performance ► Support for up to 3.0GHz Intel Xeon processor MP ► Dual channel Ultra160 vs. single channel Ultra160  Economics ► Designed to support Ultra320 capability ► Expansion up to 12 drives with out having to use the two media bays, which some customers would use for tape devices  Reliability, Availability and Serviceability Features ► Enhanced Predictive Failure Analysis ► Light path diagnostics vs. limited LED function ► IBM Director Systems Management offer more features then Dell OpenManage Dell selling points ► Support for up to 32GB of memory vs. 24GB of memory ► Eleven slots (10 are hot-plug) vs. 7 slots (6 are hot-plug) on the x255 ► Dual Gigabit Ethernet vs. single Gigabit Ethernet ► Comes with 3 power supplies standard for redundancy, x255 has to add a 3rd and 4th. KEY SELLING POINTS  FN - Data on competitive products from publicly available information. Contact the manufacturer directly for the most recent information

7. IBM Systems Group This document is intended for IBM sales force and Business Partner education. It is not intended for customers. © 2004 IBM Corporation 7 x255 vs. HP ProLiant ML570 FEATURE COMPARISON * See Legal Notes page for additional Limited Warranty information. Product Comparison xSeries 255ProLiant ML570 ConfigurationTower or Rack 7U ProcessorUp to 3.0GHz Intel Xeon Processor MPUp to 2.8GHz Intel Xeon Processor MP Maximum Processors44 Memory TypePC1600 ECC DDRPC1600 ECC SDRAM SDRAM memory maximum24GB via 12 DIMMs32GB ChipkillTM ECC DDRYesAdvanced ECC Hot Spare memoryYes Memory MirroringYes Integrated SCSI ControllerDual Channel Ultra160 SCSI Designed to support Ultra320Yes Hot Swap Bays12 (6 standard and 6 optional)14 x1” Hot-plug drives (using optional 2x1 drive cage) Media Bays22 (zero is using 14 drives) Storage Capacity1.76TB2TB Active PCI-X I/0 slots6 available (6x64-bit/100MHz, 1x32-bit for mgmt card)7 available PCI-X 64-bit/100MHz Hot Plug PCIYes, 6 Active PCI-X SlotsYes, 4 Active PCI-X Slots NetworkingIntegrated Gigabit EthernetIntegrated 10/100 Hot Plug / Redundant Cooling FansYes / YesYes / Optional Hot Plug Power / RedundantStandard / Optional (4x370w)2 600W standard, optional 3rd required for redundancy Light path diagnosticsYesNo Service Processor/Out-of-BandSystems Management processorOptional Remote Insight Board in a PCI Slot Server Management SWIBM DirectorInsight Manager Limited Warranty* 3 years on-site, Next Business Day response Components covered by PFAProcessors, memory, disks, power supplies and fansProcessors, memory, disks

8. IBM Systems Group This document is intended for IBM sales force and Business Partner education. It is not intended for customers. © 2004 IBM Corporation 8  IBM eServer xSeries 255 ► 2x 2.5GHz Intel® Xeon™ Processor MP ► 2GB memory ► 2x36GB 10K Ultra320 SCSI HDD ► Gigabit Ethernet ► Redundant power and cooling ► 3-years limited warranty ► Web Price $12,086*  HP ProLiant ML570 ► 2x2.5GHz Intel® Xeon™ Processor MP ► 2GB memory ► 2x36GB 10K Ultra320 SCSI HDD ► Gigabit & 10/100 Ethernet ► Redundant hot-swap power & cooling ► 3-years limited warranty ► Web Price $11,954* Vendor web pricing 2/26/04 PRICE COMPARISON

9. IBM Systems Group This document is intended for IBM sales force and Business Partner education. It is not intended for customers. © 2004 IBM Corporation 9 x255 vs. HP ProLiant ML570 G2 FN Selling points for x255  Performance ► Embedded gigabit Ethernet vs. the ML570 G2 10/100 Ethernet  Reliability, Availability and Serviceability Features ► Enhanced Predictive Failure Analysis® ► Light path diagnostics vs. limited LED function ► Hot-swap redundant fans standard ► All 6 PCI-X slots support hot-plug vs. only 4 of the ML570 G2 ► IBM Director Advanced Systems Mgmt with more features than Insight Manager ► Embedded Systems Management processor vs. optional on the ML570 ($634) HP Selling Points ► ML570 support 32GB of memory vs. the x255 which supports 24GB –Most customers won’t even need 24GB ► Claim support for Hot-add memory, but not supported until Windows 2003 ► Support for up to 14 drives –Actually it is 12 drives, the other 2 drives will use the media bays often used for tape devices –Centralized servers, external storage is a great option, Remote office or departmental locations, it is important to keep tape-backup in mind. ► Support for 7 PCI-X slots vs. 6 PCI-X slots on the x255 ► If a customers wants Gigabit Ethernet or systems management available slots will be equal KEY SELLING POINTS  FN - Data on competitive products from publicly available information. Contact the manufacturer directly for the most recent information * web prices on 2/26/04

10. IBM Systems Group This document is intended for IBM sales force and Business Partner education. It is not intended for customers. © 2004 IBM Corporation 10 Footnotes (c) 2004 IBM Corp. All rights reserved. Visit www.ibm.com/pc/safecomputing periodically for the latest information on safe and effective computing. Warranty Information: For a copy of applicable product warranties, write to: Warranty Information, P.O. Box 12195, RTP, NC 27709, Attn: Dept. JDJA/B203. IBM makes no representation or warranty regarding third-party products or services. Telephone support may be subject to additional charges. For onsite labor, IBM will attempt to diagnose and resolve the problem remotely before sending a technician. IBM makes no representation or warranty regarding third-party products or services including those designated as ServerProven or ClusterProven. All offers subject to availability. IBM reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice. IBM is not responsible for photographic or typographic errors. This publication was developed for products and services offered in the United States. IBM may not offer the products, services or features discussed in this document in other countries. Information is subject to change without notice. Consult your local IBM representative for information on offerings available in your area. All statements regarding IBM's future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only. Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the full text of a specific Statement of General Direction. The examples given in this paper are hypothetical examples of how a customer can use the products described herein and examples of potential cost or efficiency savings are not based on any actual case study. There is no guarantee of comparable results. Many factors determine the sizing requirements and performance of a systems architecture. IBM assumes no liability for the methodology used for determining the configurations recommended in this document nor for the results it provides. Any performance data contained in this presentation was determined in a controlled environment. Therefore, the results obtained in other operating environments may vary significantly. Some measurements quoted in this presentation may have been made on development-level systems. There is no guarantee these measurements will be the same on generally-available systems. Some measurements quoted in this presentation may have been estimated through extrapolation. Actual results may vary. Users of this presentation should verify the applicable data for their specific environment.

11. IBM Systems Group This document is intended for IBM sales force and Business Partner education. It is not intended for customers. © 2004 IBM Corporation 11 Information in this presentation concerning non-IBM products was obtained from the suppliers of these products, published announcement material or other publicly available sources. IBM has not tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance, compatibility or any other claims related to non-IBM products. Questions on the capabilities of non- IBM products should be addressed to the suppliers of those products. Prices do not include tax or shipping and are subject to change without notice. Price may include applicable discounts. Reseller prices may vary. Unless otherwise specified, pricing information is current as of original publication of this document. MB, GB, and TB = 1,000,000, 1,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000 bytes, respectively, when referring to storage capacity. Accessible capacity is less.; up to 3GB is used in service partition. Actual storage capacity will vary based upon many factors and may be less than stated. Some numbers given for storage capacities give capacity in native mode followed by capacity using data compression technology. Maximum internal hard disk and memory capacities may require the replacement of any standard hard drives and/or memory and the population of all hard disk bays and memory slots with the largest currently supported drives available. IBM, the eight bar logo, eServer, xSeries, BladeCenter, ServerProven, ClusterProven, and ServeRAID are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. For a complete list of IBM trademarks, please see http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml Intel, Intel Inside, the Intel Inside logo, Pentium, Celeron and Intel SpeedStep are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.