January 26, 2001, 3:23 PM — Analysts and users say they're optimistic that the major server vendors will stick to their product schedules this year, despite a predicted slowdown in corporate IT spending.
Major enterprise hardware vendors such as Sun Microsystems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM have either just started shipping or are slated to ship major upgrades to their technologies this year.
Though some of these vendors have warned of weak demand in the coming months, so far none has announced any plans to slow or defer its product rollouts as a result.
"I am not concerned at all [about vendors delaying products this year]," said Dan Kaberon, a parallel sysplex manager at Hewitt Associates LLC, a Lincolnshire, Ill.-based human resources outsourcer.
Hewitt has just placed orders for six of IBM's new 64-bit mainframes, which started to ship late last month. Kaberon said Hewitt plans to upgrade as needed through the year.
'Brighter chrome'
"In fact, it's when things slow down that vendors push much harder to show something that has the longer fin and the brighter chrome," Kaberon said.
Such sentiments come at a time when corporate users are getting ready for some major product migrations. All of the server vendors have recently announced significant refreshes to their technology and are expected to ramp up to full production this year.
"These are all infrastructure products that are budgeted for," said Joyce Becknell, an analyst at Boston-based Aberdeen Group Inc. "I can't imagine a vendor saying they are going to delay rolling them out."
Other products expected in 2001 are new servers based on Intel Corp.'s upcoming Itanium chip -- the first of its new IA-64 family -- from all major vendors of Intel hardware.
"I don't see vendors holding back anything," said Bob Sutherland, an analyst at Technology Business Research Inc. in Hampton, N.H.
That's because doing so will only concede the market advantage to other vendors in an already tight situation, according to analysts.
