IBM's New NetFinity 3.0 Software Continues to Offer Customers Superior
Benefits

SOMERS, N.Y., June 27, 1995...IBM today announced a new release of
NetFinity, its innovative and front-running PC systems and asset
management software for PC networks. NetFinity 3.0 offers system
administrators the capability to predict system failures and potential
errors before they occur -- all from a remote site. This new IBM release
further eases the workload by enabling capacity planning for the system
administrator. It also slashes PC networking costs and saves time for
systems managers faced with the challenge of troubleshooting hardware and
software in today's complex PC network environments.

Announcement Highlights:

Additions to the IBM PC Server family also announced:

  o PC Server 320 - PCI/Micro Channel version.
  o NetFinity comes preloaded on most IBM PC Servers and
    commercial desktops.

Recent studies show that PC systems and asset management is a major part of
the expense of operating PCs or PC-based LANs. NetFinity 3.0 attacks this
expense head-on by providing significant new tools for the systems
administrator. For example, NetFinity 3.0 monitors hardware performance
and gives details on software and hardware inventory as well. A systems
administrator can have NetFinity beep him or her if any software or any
hardware system on the network stops running or is nearing capacity.

NetFinity Enables Better Systems Control

NetFinity 3.0 also allows for remote dial-in support, automatic scheduling
of events, remote notification of failures and errors including power-on
startup warnings, as well as detection and monitoring of disk drive
failures. Predictive Failure Analysis--pioneered by IBM--offers
significant fault management capabilities that enable the administrator to
detect disk drive failures before they occur -- from remote sites.

"The beauty of NetFinity is that it brings major league PC systems and
asset management into the PC server space, at a PC price," said Michael
Coleman, general manager, IBM PC Servers, Somers, N.Y. "NetFinity is easy
to install and use. The software drastically lowers networked PC operating
costs, reduces travel time to remote sites, reduces system downtime, and
provides for better overall control through accurate monitoring and fault
prevention."

NetFinity provides a totally integrated system solution for local and
remote PC systems and asset management across desktop, PC Server and
mobile lines. NetFinity 3.0 also runs on any x86 PCs, not just IBM's. That
is an essential benefit for customers with PCs from multiple vendors.

NetFinity, a member of the IBM SystemView family of systems management
software, gives customers exceptional capacity, asset and fault management
capabilities across multiple PC-based platforms, while providing a
platform that can be extended for integrated systems and asset
management.

NetFinity Runs On The Desktop

NetFinity comes preloaded at no extra cost on most IBM PC Servers and
commercial desktops. It also can be preloaded for an additional cost on
other IBM products as well as servers and desktop systems of other PC
manufacturers.

"Preloaded NetFinity offers customers the kind of systems flexibility
unmatched by any other competitor," said Bruce L. Claflin, general
manager, product and brand management, IBM PC Company, Somers, N.Y. "With
NetFinity on an IBM Thinkpad, for instance, the customer has a traveling
LAN administrator and HelpDesk manager," he said. "By preloading NetFinity
on the desktop at no extra cost to customers, IBM delivers a total
commercial desktop solution with the most value for customers." Customers
Reaping Productivity Benefits

Customers are already seeing benefits. "NetFinity has improved our
notification time to the customer helpdesk for network problems," said
Jerry Silves, distributed systems architect, for Barnett Technologies.
"NetFinity actually enables our helpdesk to detect problems on the network
before they occur, reducing our customer response time to just minutes,"
he said.

"Barnett Technologies also plans to implement NetFinity to help detect
problems that occur when the network is running the bank's batch
processing application," Silves said. "Currently, we encounter about two
to three problems on the LAN each day. We have people who have to
'baby-sit' the LAN every night to keep the system running smoothly. With
NetFinity, we won't need a 'baby-sitter' any longer. NetFinity will take
over and monitor the application to detect problems both before and as
they occur. And, more importantly, NetFinity can help to free that
employee to accomplish other tasks."

Barnett Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barnett Bank, is using
NetFinity to monitor CPU utilization on its PC Servers. NetFinity is
currently implemented on its PCs and PC Server 500 models; and is used, in
part, to monitor thresholds of drive utilization. Barnett Technologies
supports 750 branches, with 20,000 PCs on its network running IBM OS/2 LAN
Server, Novell NetWare with Windows system-based workstations.

"NetFinity will enable our LAN support group to be more proactive and less
reactive," said Eric Libow, LAN technical specialist, for
Alamo-Rent-A-Car. "With NetFinity doing the system monitoring instead of a
LAN support person, the employee's time is freed up to do other more
important projects," Libow said. "NetFinity will help improve employee
productivity while saving the company time and money."

Alamo-Rent-A-Car has 14 file servers in one building supporting word
processing and accounting applications. The firm runs OS/2 LAN Server,
Novell NetWare and a Lotus Notes server on its system. NetFinity Supports
Industry Standards

NetFinity supports IBM OS/2, OS/2 Warp, OS/2 Warp Connect, Novell NetWare,
and Microsoft Windows and allows for multiple protocol support. NetFinity
also will support Microsoft Windows 95 and Microsoft Windows NT in a
future release.

NetFinity supports industry standards, including the Desktop Management
Task Force's Desktop Management Interface (DMI) and the Simple Network
Management Protocol (SNMP). In addition, NetFinity will support Novell's
NetWare Management Services.

NetFinity Partners In Management

A key component of NetFinity is its Partners In Management program, which
is focused on encouraging and assisting software and hardware developers
to design and develop extensions to NetFinity. These extensions include
features such as new management services, new resource monitors and new
alert actions. Customers can then purchase hardware and software from
these third parties, which will now easily integrate into the NetFinity
environment.

Members of the NetFinity Partners In Management program include American
Power Conversion, of West Kingston, R.I.; Vinca Corporation, of Orem,
Utah; and Applied Concepts, Inc., of Wilsonville, Ore. NetFinity Partners
In Management means total management through total integration. Customers
can acquire further information about the NetFinity Partners In Management
Program by calling (919) 254-6167.

NetFinity 3.0 also is included with ServerGuide 2.21, which is shipped with
most IBM PC Server systems. ServerGuide 2.21, which is a collection of
CDs, simplifies the installation and tuning of OS/2 SMP, OS/2 Warp, OS/2
LAN Server, Novell NetWare 3.12 and Novell NetWare 4.1. ServerGuide also
contains online documentation for IBM PC Servers; Network Integration
Guides, which contain additional tuning information; and Diskette Factory,
which contain reference, diagnostic, option and driver diskettes for IBM
PC Servers.

Additions to the PC Server Family

IBM also announced new PC Server 320 offerings that enhance and round out
the PC Server 300 family. These new PC Servers support the Micro Channel
bus architecture. With this newly released PC Server 320 version, IBM now
offers a full PC Server line, that includes the IBM PC Server 300 and PC
Server 320 models, supporting multiple bus architectures, including
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) and Extended Industry Standard
Architecture (EISA). The new PC Server 320 models combine the power of the
PCI architecture and the proven performance of Micro Channel technology.

Product Availability and Pricing

NetFinity 3.0 will be generally available in mid-July, and will come
preloaded at no extra cost on most PC Server, desktop and mobile systems.
NetFinity Services costs $79 per system. NetFinity Manager, which costs
$599, is installed on a PC system that manages multiple servers and
desktops. General availability for ServerGuide 2.21 is July and will come
preloaded at no extra cost on most PC Servers. General availability for
the IBM PC Server 320 with Micro Channel bus, (75 MHz Pentium processor,
no hard file) is in July with prices starting at $4,615. Each product can
be purchased through IBM PC Direct. Dealer prices may vary.

Service and Support

Each IBM PC Server offering comes with a three-year warranty. IBM also
offers its customers telephone support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
IBM also provides PC Server Start Up Support, a 90-day technical support
program offered, at no additional cost, for installing and setting up
server components and software configurations. Other usage and service
assistance is offered through IBM HelpWare. The HelpCenter number in the
U.S. is 1-800-772-2227.

Server Platforms

The IBM PC Server belongs to IBM's family of four server platforms: PC
Server, AS/400, RS/6000, and System /390. These servers are being
transformed to work with each other and with the systems of other vendors
through adherence to defacto and industry standards, as described in IBM's
Open Blueprint. They also reflect a relentless drive to maximize the use
of common technology, subsystems, and software across IBM platforms. The
teamwork is built in.

At the same time, the four server platforms retain and build on the
individual strengths that have made each of them winners in the
marketplace. Those strengths address the different styles of computing,
which can be summarized as: affordability (PC Server), simplicity
(AS/400), scaleable UNIX performance (RS/6000) and large scale robustness
(S/390).

As a result, IBM offers what no other company in the industry can offer: a
team of servers designed to meet every customer need, regardless of where
they are on the road to open client/server computing.

Product information can be accessed via the The IBM home page. The IBM home
page can be found on the Internet at http://www.ibm.com. IBM PC Servers
home page can accessed directly at
http://www.pc.ibm.com/products/C50347.html.
 
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