Unisys Unveils Forward! Fabric-Based Platform Ideal for Intel-based Servers

Organizations planning to migrate from costly proprietary Unix environments to affordable and flexible open Linux and Windows operating environments can now opt for a new fabric-based solution called as Forward! by Unisys (News - Alert) Corporation, an information technology company.

Available from December, 2013, the new Forward! platform features a flexible fabric architecture offering mission-critical security, availability, scalability and predictable computing performance to workloads running on Intel (News - Alert)-based servers, said a spokesperson from Unisys.

Priced from $89,000 for basic configurations, the new Forward! platform integrates Unisys’ advanced secure partitioning (s-Par) technology with Intel Xeon family processors and virtualization technology to form a flexible fabric architecture that can handle mission-critical computing challenges on an industry-standard platform.

Built in collaboration with Intel Corporation, the Forward! platform can run secure cloud as well as big data workloads while boosting the performance of enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications. Chiefly, it will support a range of Intel's high-performance, availability and security developments for the Xeon processor family.

Even though the Forward! platform uses Intel Xeon E5 processors initially, the company plans to leverage Intel Xeon E7 processors in its future models.

For the reason that Intel has incorporated high-performance, availability and security features, such as PCI (News - Alert) Express Generation 3 (PCIe 3.0) for enhanced I/O and bandwidth, Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 for power-efficient high performance and advanced encryption standard new instructions (AES NI) for high-volume encryption, into its Xeon E7 processor family.

It is anticipated that the platform can address an estimated aggregate market of more than $23 billion for cloud computing, big data and Unix-RISC migration.2.

“The new Forward!by Unisys platform breaks the paradigm for enterprise-class computing,” said Ed Coleman, chairman and CEO, Unisys, in a statement. “…With Forward! by Unisys, they can choose one platform for their mission-critical workloads that gives them the performance and security that they need today while providing the flexibility to manage new applications and disruptive technologies as they emerge.”

In addition, the Forward! platform can be integrated with the Unisys Stealth cybersecurity solution, which uses advanced data cloaking and encryption techniques to run applications, data and devices that are virtually invisible on the network.

Unlike Unix systems, the Forward! platform can cut capital expenses by between 50 to 60 percent and reduce total cost of ownership by up to 40 percent. In addition, a partitioned Forward! platform can eliminate up to 70 percent of physical servers and also reduce software licensing and hardware maintenance costs by as much as 70 percent, cited a press release.

The bottom line is that the new Forward! platform can deliver single-pane management of individual platforms and partitions, interconnects, internal storage and extended computing infrastructure, in an affordable and flexible way on Linux and Windows operating environments.