Plans Include New Versions of Both OS/2 Warp Server and WorkSpace On-Demand

AUSTIN, May 5, 1998 . . . IBM today announced several enhancements for the OS/2* Warp Server family of products improving system management and back-up and recovery capabilities. In addition, IBM has outlined plans for a new version of OS/2 Warp Server and the next release of WorkSpace On-Demand, IBM's server-managed client operating system.

IBM plans to introduce this next release into the OS/2 Warp Server family of products in early 1999 and will serve as IBM's entry level server platform for running e-business applications. In addition, IBM's new release of WorkSpace On-Demand is also targeted for early 1999 and will offer customers support for a broader range of hardware devices.

"We continue to strengthen the OS/2 Warp Server platform as a true enterprise solution to meet our customers needs today," said Jeff Smith, director of IBM's OS/2 Business Unit. "As more companies become e-businesses, we want to offer an entry-level server platform that will provide all of the features and functionality needed to build a network computing architecture that can grow to meet customer's expanding e-business demands in the future."

OS/2 Warp Server systems management provides network administrators with a highly flexible tool that allows them to configure, monitor and manage local and remote systems in a heterogeneous environment. This new update offers administrators management of Windows NT 4.0 clients, expanded hardware support, and added functionality such as continuous resource monitoring, utilization reports for all servers, and report generation ranging from hourly to monthly.
IBM's backup and recovery feature in OS/2 Warp Server provides users with non-stop system backup and recovery functionality through an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) or a new command-line interface. This enables users to schedule backups to run with minimum intervention and allows for lost files to be restored in minutes with its unique indexing facility. New features included in OS/2 Warp Server's backup and recovery include:

• Large Network Administration and Backup -- In addition to the easy-to-use graphical interface, the new command-line interface now offers network administrators flexibility to automate and customize the backup process for large networks.
   
• Dual Device Backup Set and Removable Media Support -- Administrators can now backup data on one or more different backup devices allowing for full system backups to a tape drive, with incremental backup on a quick access drive. The tape drive can be used for disaster recovery while the removable drive, such as IOMEGA JAZ and ZIP drives, can be locally available for quick recovery. This allows an administrator to take advantage of the price, capacity and speed characteristics of different storage devices, minimizing the time needed to recover an up-to-date system.

Roadmap Includes New Version of OS/2 Warp Server and WorkSpace On-Demand

The next release of OS/2 Warp Server is planned for beta availability in late 1998 and will be IBM's entry level e-business server and an ideal platform to help reduce the total cost of management with WorkSpace On-Demand. In addition to all of the feature and functionality found in today's OS/2 Warp Server, the new release will offer customers out-of-box support for Year 2000 and Eurocurrency -- two critical issues businesses are facing today. It will also include a high-performance Journaling File System offering faster performance, improved scalability, and enhanced Web serving capabilities. General availability is planned for early 1999.

The plans for the new release of WorkSpace On-Demand include support of a broader set of hardware using standard IP Protocols allowing customers to continue to build upon their existing hardware investments. IBM also plans to provide additional pre-configured machine classes for hardware that has broad appeal to today's customers. One example of the extended pre-configured machine class support, will be WorkSpace On-Demand's support for select IBM Network Stations. Additional planned enhancements will focus on continued ease-of-use for administrators by enhancing WorkSpace On-Demand's application installation and machine class creation tools. This release will also include Java 1.1.6 with support for additional releases as they become available. General availability is planned for the fourth quarter of 1998.

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*IBM and OS/2 Warp are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.

**Windows 95 and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.