In brief: Dell intros new storage subsystems

Also: Germany lands largest Linux mainframe

• Dell this week refreshed its storage-area network  products with the introduction of three storage subsystems that are faster and have higher storage capacities than previous arrays. The CX300, CX500 and CX700 have almost three-and-a-half times more bandwidth and twice the storage capacity, scaling to more than 58T bytes. A CX300 configured with five 73G-byte drives, Navisphere management software, installation and three years of service starts at $23,860. All three are available now.

• The German Federal Finance Office has implemented what IBM is calling one of the largest Linux-based mainframe deployments in Europe. The Berlin authority has replaced more than 30 smaller servers with one mainframe computer, IBM’s eServer z990, running the open source Linux system, IBM said last week. The Linux deployment is part of an agreement Big Blue struck in 2002 with the German Federal Ministry of the Interior to supply computers with Linux at a discount to federal, state and local governments, and other public authorities. The office is the largest of five federal authorities under the control of the German Ministry of Finance. Its computer center is responsible for operating the Internet and intranet applications of Germany’s entire federal finance administration, providing service to more than 120,000 users.