IBM, 3Com tout server, voice application combo

Computerworld - IBM and 3Com Corp. this week announced that their combined server and voice-over-IP technology has been deployed in two locations.

Polar Beverages Inc. in Worcester, Mass., has been beta-testing the system for about 10 users for a few days and will expand its deployment to 40 users in a month and then to 400 employees in February, said Paul Paciello, director of IT for the family-owned beverage business.

The IBM System i IP Telephony system uses IBM System i with 3Com's VCX software, the companies said. On a single server box, Polar is running its ERP system, e-mail and WebSphere applications on three separate OS/400 partitions as well as three Linux operating system partitions. On the three Linux partitions, Polar is running one primary 3Com VCX, a secondary VCX and a file-sharing application, Paciello said.

Physically, the System i fits on a single rack in Polar's data center, which amounts to two Intel-based servers and a box for the Hosted Management Console used to manage System i, Paciello said. "It's amazing how much computing they can put in these small physical spaces," he said. "About 95% of our business runs off a single System i."

Paciello said the beta incurred a few problems and required changes to the company's network so that Cisco Systems Inc. routers could handle voice traffic.

In typical VoIP deployments, customers find they need multiple server boxes, one for each function in VoIP, such as messaging or conference-calling. But the combined IBM and 3Com initiative reduces the hardware to one system, IBM and 3Com officials said.

3Com makes the VCX available for Red Hat Linux, which is stripped down for telephony uses. IBM has included specific code in System i to allow Linux partitions.

Paciello said he doesn't yet know what his system costs will be, since he's waiting for a price from the two companies. But he estimated that it will be between $50,000 and $100,000 for the phone and conferencing capabilities alone.

The change to VoIP at Polar started earlier this year when the company realized it needed to replace an older Siemens AG voice switch that was based on circuit-switched technology. The Siemens lease will expire in April and Polar knew it needed a newer voice system, so it asked Siemens, 3Com and Cisco for bids. "3Com was a better value," he said.

VoIP will allow convergence of various technologies that will be useful to mobiles users and others in remote locations, he said. "As we become more of a mobile world, the technology has to be broadened," Paciello said.

The System i integration with 3Com VoIP "makes it very easy for a customer to deploy," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group Research Inc. in Boston. He added that "because 3Com isn't that strong of an enterprise vendor, they need to do what they can to make deployment easier."

The other customer using the system from 3Com and IBM is the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. Officials there could not be reached for comment.