Hewlett-Packard Co is claiming worldwide disaster tolerance for its new HP SharePlex/iX, a RISC-based computing cluster for the HP 3000 business system. SharePlex/iX is claimed to use standard networking capabilities such as X25 to provide complete application-environment replication anywhere in the world, and it is supported on all HP 3000s, including the old 16-bit ones. The key components of the system are the HP OpenView System Manager networked systems management product, and NetBase, a product from Newport Beach, California-based Quest Software Inc. The OpenView System Manager management tool monitors and controls geographically dispersed systems within the cluster, keeping an eye on system, subsystem, job stream, tape requests and applications; and controlling functions such as node shutdown, start-up failover and console commands. Netbase, integrated with the OpenView System Manager, is claimed to provide proven capabilities in application-environment replication, transparent network file access, shared print queues and transparent network program execution. Following a disaster, the system is designed to bring users back on line in minutes, and offers enhanced availability through a no single point of failure configuration, transparent workload balancing across systems, data shadowing and transparent printer spooling throughout the network. HP SharePlex/iX will be sold through Hewlett-Packard and is expected to be orderable on May 1. Marketing and support will be handled jointly by the company and by Quest Software, but no indication of price was given.
