HP, SAP, BEA aim for uptime zenith

SAP AG and BEA Systems Inc. have joined Hewlett-Packard Co.'s 5nines:5minutes alliance, whose goal is to provide 99.999 percent uptime in computer hardware, operating systems, databases, storage and networks.

As part of the programs, HP and SAP will deliver SAP's Somersault fault tolerance software. Somersault, due initially on HP-UX in the first half of next year, provides process mirroring of SAP's R/3 enterprise software, thus eliminating a single point of failure.

HP, of Palo Alto, Calif., also will make available its MC/Service Guard Extension middleware for high-availability clustering to support R/3, HP officials said.

Separately, HP and BEA, of San Jose, Calif., will jointly develop the BEA Tuxedo Smart Plug-in for HP's OpenView network management software to improve availability of e-commerce data.

HP can be reached at (800) 752-0900 or www.hp.com. SAP, of Walldorf, Germany, can be reached in the United States at (888) 727-8590 or www.sap.com. BEA is (800) 817-4232 or www.beasys.com.