Power Tools 1993 November - Disc 2/Power Tools Plus (Disc 2 of 2)(November 1993)(HP).iso/cpet/50916465/seq/seqprof.txt

Text File | 1993-01-29 | 35KB | 665 lines

Sequent Corporate Profile
  What's new
o Updated hardware and software summaries.
o New sections describing software subsystems and performance issues.
o New section on futures as they relate to product issues.
o New sales tactics relating to HP's strengths and Sequent's perceived
  strengths.

Corporate overview
Sequent, founded in 1983, develops and manufactures symmetric
multiprocessing (SMP) computer systems for the commercial, open systems
marketplace, with a focus on online transaction processing and
relational database applications.  Sequent has also developed parallel
enabled versions of Oracle, NetWare, and AT&T's Streams.
  During 1991, Sequent had three consecutive quarters of losses.  Among
various measures they took to return to profitability was to cut
approximately 26 percent of the work force (excluding the sales force),
assign quotas to the support staff, and consolidate various sales
offices.  Sequent also put more emphasis on direct end-user sales after
a heavy reliance on two key OEM partners (Unisys and Siemens-Nixdorf)
seriously affected their 1991 revenues.  Their change of focus resulted
in returning to profitability in the fourth quarter of 1991.  For the
first three quarters of 1992, Sequent has managed to turn in a small
profit with steadily increasing revenue.  For example, revenue in the
third quarter stood at $81.9M with net income of $4.2M.  Sequent
attributes its turn-around to robust sales in Europe.
  In fact, much of Sequents' success comes from its increasing emphasis
on major accounts; Sequent with its "near" quasi-parallel SMP technology
has attracted a group of elite customers who need high-end OLTP and
NetWare servers.  Additionally, Sequent's traditional tie with Oracle
and new links with Novell and Microsoft has given corporate users the
perception that Sequent is in the forefront of high-end database and PC
servers market.

Key executives
Casey Powell        Chairman, President, and CEO
Sandy J. Chumbley   Vice President and General Manager of Core System
                    Operations
J. Patrick Maley    Vice President and General Manager of North American
                    Operations
Roger A. Cooper     Vice President and General Manager of European
                    Operations
Alan Schallop       Vice President and General Manager of Relational
                    Solutions Operations
Waldo J. Richards   Senior Vice President and COO

Financial highlights

[Figure: Financial Highlights Recent Quarter Results, Caption: none]

R&D costs of $25.8 million were the same as in 1990 but increased from
$15.9 million in 1989.
  Cost of sales as a percentage of total revenue was 54 percent compared
to 41 percent in the previous two years.

[Figure: Revenue by Product Segment, Caption: none]

[Figure: Revenue by Region FY91, Caption: none]

[Figure: Revenue by Industry, Caption: none]

[Figure: Revenue by Sales Channel FY91, Caption: none]

Sales organization
During 1991, Sequent consolidated some of their sales offices in the
U.S. and Canada due to their financial difficulties.  Sequent now has 27
sales and service locations in the U.S., 2 in Canada (Toronto and
Vancouver), 8 in Europe (Amsterdam, Great Britain, Dusseldorf, London,
Munich, Nice, Paris, and Stockholm) and 3 in the Far East (Hong Kong,
North Sydney, and Auckland).
  Sequent also has relationships with a variety of distributors to
provide sales and service in other countries.  These include Control
Data in Mexico, International Turnkey Systems in the Middle East, Far
East Computer in Singapore, Mitac in Taiwan, and Ssang Yong in South
Korea.  In Japan, Sequent systems are sold through Pana-Sequent, a joint
venture between Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Ltd.  In
addition, Sequent has relationships with value-added resellers for such
markets as telecommunications, financial services, library automation,
and the public sector.
  Sequent had OEM partners that included Unisys Corp., Siemens-Nixdorf
Informationssysteme AG, MAI-Basic Four, and Prime Computer.  Prime
terminated its OEM relationship with Sequent at the end of FY90, due to
channel conflicts.  There has been no revenue from MAI-Basic Four after
first quarter 1991 and the Siemens relationship was temporarily
terminated in November 1991.  Of the original partners, Unisys is the
only one that continues in its OEM relationship and, at this writing,
the business relationship with Siemens-Nixdorf seems to have been
renewed.
  The financial difficulties during 1991 were primarily caused by a
shortfall in OEM revenues.  As a result, Sequent has decided not to
invest any more effort in developing the OEM channel but rather to focus
on direct and distributor revenues.  They are now focused on increasing
the size and effectiveness of their direct and distributor channels and
are also focusing on international revenues.  The direct sales force is
300 strong and the number of VARs is better than 44.

Target markets
o health care
o telecom
o state and local government
o financial services
o insurance
o accounting
o manufacturing

Representative sample of Sequent customers:
Federal, State, and Local Governments
  - Central Statistics Office (U.K.)
  - Internal Revenue Service
  - Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
  - State of Oregon - Dept. of Environmental Quality
  - City of San Antonio

Financial Services
  - Liberty Life Assurance Co., Ltd.
  - London Stock Exchange
  - Lloyds Bank
  - Merrill Lynch
  - Royal Bank of Canada

Manufacturing
  - Boeing Computer Services
  - Ford Motor Company
  - PPG Industries
  - TRW, Inc.
  - Union Carbide Canada Ltd.
  - British Petroleum
  - DuPont Co.

Medical
  - Baylor Health Care System
  - GTE Health Systems, Inc.
  - Mercy Health Care - Sacramento
  - Rush-Presbyterian - St. Luke's Medical Center
  - San Diego Naval Hospital Research
  - Argonne National Laboratory
  - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Telecommunications
  - AT&T 911
  - Cincinnati Bell Information Systems Inc.
  - GEC/Plessey
  - NYNEX Enterprises

Strategic goals
o Emphasize leading-edge technology as a differentiator - parallel
  processing in hardware as well as software; object technologies in
  high-end systems environments
o Build OLTP features into UNIXª systems
o Improve the direct and distribution channels
o Increase international revenues
o Pledge processor technology with Intel
o Provide PC network superserver with parallel version of Novell NetWare
o Provide the best solution for distributed processing between central
  office and branch operations
o Provide multivendor connectivity including SNA, 3270, and DECnet
o Leverage strong relationships with RDBMS vendors (for example, Oracle)
  into higher sales

Major claims
o First to deliver commercial SMP systems
o First to deliver parallel enabled databases and communications
  software
o First to develop object-oriented software for high-end OLTP server
  environments
o Standards-based open systems
o Leading price/performance
o Outstanding reliability
o Cost-effective expandability
o Primary partner of AT&T's UNIX Systems Laboratories (USL) to develop
  SMP version of UNIX System V

Product portfolio and positioning

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                        Symmetry 2000 systems
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Customers               Commercial

Competition             HP, DEC, IBM, Pyramid, DG

Purchase rationale      Database server, OLTP performance, scalability

Base pricing            S2000/250  $  53,500
                        S2000/450  152,000
                        S2000/750  226,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Competitive positioning

[Figure: Low-End Systems Performance Positioning, Caption: none]

[Figure: High-End Systems Performance Positioning, Caption: none]

Major product line
  Hardware summary
Sequent has built its business on harnessing the power of a symmetric
multiprocessing (SMP) architecture for business tasks.  The architecture
was designed to be independent of the processor being used; as such,
Sequent was able to launch its business using National Semiconductor
32032 processors and switch to the industry-standard Intel 80386
processors while providing customers simple board-swap conversions to
the new systems.  Sequent's current systems are called the Symmetry
series and use Intel 80486 processors.  Various implementations of the
80486 processor (running at 25, 33, and 50 MHz) are used in the Symmetry
systems.
  Aside from high OLTP performance at competitive prices, Sequent has
been able to deliver good product reliability and system uptime.  Their
emphasis on quality in design, manufacturing, and testing, complemented
with high-availability functionality, has led to commercial users
considering Sequent as a viable vendor.
  Within the currently shipping Symmetry S2000 computers, the models 40,
200, 400, and 700 are based on the 80386 and the 25 MHz 80486 CPUs.  The
S2000 models 250, 450, and 750 use the 50 MHz 80486 CPU.  The S2000/40
is a uniprocessor system, Models 200 and 250 use up to 6 processors,
Models 400 and 450 use up to 10 CPUs and Models 700 and 750 use up to 30
processors.  Note that a configuration with the same quantity of CPUs in
any of these models would offer the same performance; the difference is
in the connectivity, memory, and disk capacity.
  At the high-end, although the system can accommodate up to 30
processors, the 26-processor configuration seems to be the peak of the
performance curve.  This is due in part to bandwidth limitations of the
current system bus which runs at 80 MBs (compared to close to 1 GB on
the HP Model 890).  These limitations have already been compensated for,
with larger processor cache sizes (1 MB for 486/50 MHz).  Since 1 MB is
the maximum amount of cache allowed for 486, Sequent will need to look
at a faster system bus for future growth.  A new bus will most likely be
incompatible with existing system boards such as memory cards and disk
controllers.
  Sequent also needs to evaluate a higher performance processor for use
in their systems.  In 1991, there was a research project under way to
evaluate the use of RISC processors in the next generation of computer
systems.  This project was canceled due to weak financial results and
the need to cut costs, including R&D expenses.  In lieu of the RISC
processor Sequent has decided, for now, to use the Intel P5 "due to its
RISC-like capabilities".
  There was a shift to invest more heavily in software in 1991 due to
financial constraints.  Recent news, however, showed Sequent has again
put more emphasis on hardware to achieve a 50/50 balance.

Software summary
Sequent has staked its future on parallelized SMP computers.
Recognizing that multiprocessing (MP) computer architectures are
becoming increasingly commonplace, Sequent is focusing efforts on using
parallelism in software.
  In a joint effort with Novell Inc. they have developed a parallelized
version of Novell's NetWare communication software.  Note that the
modified NetWare is not proprietary to Sequent and will be made
available by Novell to other vendors such as HP, IBM, and DEC.  Sequent
is also partnering with AT&T's UNIX Systems Laboratories in enhancing
UNIX System V to incorporate secure, fully symmetric MP support and has
new communication software using an SMP-optimized "parallel"
implementation of STREAMS.
  Sequent also joined the wave of "clustering" which enables
applications to view multiple-node systems as a single very large system
using a single shared database.  Availability is pegged for the first
quarter of 1993.  Not surprisingly, Oracle 7 will be the first database
supported.
  At present, Sequent's MP technology helps improve performance only in
OLTP applications and does not address performance issues with heavy
batch workloads.  This is the result of weak performance of each
individual processor that is used in the system.  To compensate this
shortfall, Sequent has devoted resources to find new ways of using MP to
improve performance with queries and batch jobs.  One example is to work
with Oracle, Informix, and Sybase to develop and to deliver a
parallelized version of relational database.  Providing built-in OLTP
features into UNIX systems is also part of Sequent's strategy.
  Sequent is developing its multivendor networking capabilities so
customers can install Sequent systems in a heterogeneous environment.
Recent introductions provide improved commercial functionality,
specifically with regard to online and remote backup, disk mirroring,
disk striping (allowing portions of multiple disks to be viewed as one
logical entity), disk concatenation (multiple disks being viewed as one)
and transaction monitors (Tuxedo).
  Sequent has also cultivated relationships with a variety of third-
party software vendors to offer more than 500 applications in
accounting, office automation, financial services, travel and
transportation, health care, manufacturing, and other areas.

Performance
Although Sequent can configure up to 30 processors in their systems it
is common belief (among industry consultants) that the current Sequent
bus and I/O architecture cannot support future high-performance Intel
microprocessors due to bus saturation issues.
  Sequent has published a few TPC-A results but only the most is worth
noting.  Sun published a TPC-A rating of 618.39 on its Model 750 with 26
main processors and 18 Compaq PC front-end processors.  HP's current 890
platform is right in the same performance range with much more potential
for future performance growth.  Sequent's leadership in the high-end
OLTP has essentially been eliminated once and for all.
  See the Appendix for system comparisons with respect to TPC-A and TPC-
B benchmark results.

Enterprise-wide connectivity
Sequent offers products that can provide connectivity to industry-
standard conventions such as NFS, TCP/IP, OSI, and X.25.  A suite of
TCP/IP products provides connectivity to IEEE 802.3, X.25, and Berkeley
networking facilities.  The NFS product allows diskless Sun workstations
to boot from a Sequent NFS server.  The X.25 product is available with
parallel STREAMS for high performance.
  An LMserver product conforming to Microsoft LAN Manager Version 2.0
provides PC integration and interoperability with other vendors'
implementations of LAN Manager.  Ethernet/802.3, Token Ring/802.5, and
FDDI provide additional connectivity.
  Sequent also offers proprietary protocols such as NetWare, DECnet,
LAT, SNA, and BiSync.  IBM connectivity is delivered through products
that provide SNA-based 3270, RJE, and LU6.2 functionality as well as
Binary Synchronous protocols based on 3270 and RJE functionality.
Controllers are available to provide direct connectivity between Sequent
and IBM systems.
  HP offers comparable connectivity with industry-standard as well as
proprietary protocols.  Third-party solutions provide BiSync 3270 and
RJE functionality.  In addition, HP's OpenView network manager has been
widely recognized as a leading product.  Some of the licensees include
IBM, Andersen Consulting, GM/EDS, and Synoptics.

System management
Sequent offers software products for backup, disk management, and
transaction monitoring.  Their ptx/Backup allows files and databases to
be backed up even while users are at work.  It can backup multiple
machines concurrently, to one or several storage devices in a fully
automated manner.  It can also support machines from Sun, IBM (RS/6000),
and MIPS on the network.
  The ptx/SVM (Sequent Volume Manager) product optimizes disk I/O in
several ways.  It offers disk mirroring, making up to eight copies of
data.  It also offers disk concatenation, which allows two or more disks
to be viewed as one.  Another feature, disk striping, allows portions of
multiple disks to be viewed as one logical entity, so that data on a
heavily used partition can be split over several disks.  This product
also allows data to be moved among disks while the system is running.
  Sequent's ptx/Transaction is a monitor based on Tuxedo from the UNIX
Systems Laboratories.  It manages all communications within an OLTP
client/server environment.  It also shortens the time required to
develop complex applications and improves their quality.
  Sequent provides a menu-based "easy-to-use" system administration
package.
  HP offers all of these functionalities and more through products such
as OmniBack, disk mirroring, SwitchOver/UX, System Administration
Manager (SAM), Logical Volume Manager, GlancePlus/UX, LaserRX/UX,
RXForecast, Tuxedo, Encina, Top-End and OpenView Network Management
Server.  In addition, Computer Associates will make available on HP-UX,
their UNICENTER product to provide centralized control and
administration of the data center before anyone else.
  These products are among the reasons for the superiority of HP-UX in
commercial environments when compared to other UNIX products.

Software development
Sequent provides a single system architecture that allows binary
compatibility across their entire systems family.  A comprehensive set
of library routines are provided that support parallel programming in
all languages available on Sequent systems.  A parallel debugger is also
available to execute parallel programs in a controlled environment where
all execution streams can be monitored.
  Sequent provides development language support for C, C++, FORTRAN,
Pascal, and MicroFocus COBOL/2.  Third-party products are available for
development in BASIC, Lisp, and Prolog.  A third-party FORTRAN
parallelizing preprocessor is also available.  For commercial
development, the Focus, Informix, Ingres, Oracle, Progress, Sybase, and
Unify relational database management systems are also available.
  HP offers the common development languages and tools listed above
including the leading database products.  Agreements with companies such
as Computer Associates, Software AG, Cincom, IBI/Focus, Lawson
Associates, SAP, and ASK help provide capabilities similar to a
mainframe environment.  In fact, partners that include Innovative
Information Systems Inc. (IISI), InfoSoft, Integris, CGI Consulting, and
Andersen Consulting, help HP provide customers assistance in reducing
their dependence on expensive mainframe systems.
  HP has close to 4000 end-user applications compared to about 500 from
Sequent.  All the major ISVs are delivering their products on HP,
including the ISVs from the mainframe environment.

Service and support
Sequent offers support with their own staff as well as in partnerships
with strategic multivendor service providers.  Sequent provides coverage
24 hours per day, 7 days per week through some 200 of Sequent's and
Unisys's offices across the U.S. and Canada.  A variety of service
agreements are offered that range from simple parts replacement,
software support, software updates, or a complete set of system
services.
  Consulting services are available to provide technical expertise in
developing applications, databases, networks, or in migrations.
Educational services provide instruction at Sequent facilities or at the
customer's site.  Custom Integration services provide special solutions
tha   customers might require.

When it comes to overseas support, Sequent is strong in the UK;
however, in most parts of Europe, the Far East and Latin America, they
have minimal support capabilities, if any at all.  In contrast, HP
offers its industry-leading support regardless of geographic location.

High availability
Sequent does offer disk mirroring functionality with the ptx/SVM product
as described earlier.  Sequent's SMP technology also allows automatic
processor failover.  If one processor fails, the operating system
software automatically reconfigures the system to run on the remaining
processors.  However, system switchover and fault-tolerant products are
not available.  HP has superior capabilities in this area.  The range of
high MTBF, disk mirroring, SPU failover, and fully fault-tolerant
systems enables HP to offer solutions with higher degrees of high
availability.
  Although Sequent claims to put emphasis on quality in their
manufacturing process, they do not publish any information on failure
rates or mean time between failure of their systems.  Note also that,
uniprocessor systems are inherently more reliable than multiprocessor
systems.

Disk array functionality
Sequent provides I/O controllers that are capable of providing
functionality equivalent to HP's disk arrays.  Each of these "Quad
Controllers" can support four fast and wide 16-bit SCSI-2 I/O channels,
each channel being capable of supporting 12 disk connections.  This
provides a disk capacity of up to 96 GB per Quad Controller using 2 GB
SCSI-2 disk.
  HP offers disk arrays with a variety of benefits compared to stand-
alone disks; these include high data availability, data protection,
increased disk connectivity, enhanced performance, online replacement of
failed disks and uninterrupted access to user data in case of disk
failure.  The disk array controller supports up to five separate
channels which can be used simultaneously for disk I/O.

Futures
Sequent will continue to stay one step ahead of its major competitors in
adopting leading-edge technology.  The emphasis now is on software that
is specially tuned to run the best on its SMP platform.  For now,
Sequent is planning on using Intel 80586 processors in future systems.
To continue its new emphasis of the low-end market, Sequent is working
with Microsoft to port and tune Windows NT.  Last but not least, they
are concentrating on further enhancing their relationship with Novell
(developing a parallel version of NetWare) and on finding ways to use
parallelism to improve batch performance.

Some of the key issues that Sequent needs to address are as follows:
o A system bus with higher bandwidth.  Their servers currently use a bus
  with an 80 MB bandwidth which is saturated with SMP configurations of
  26 processors.  To support P5, a new faster system bus needs to be
  there.  To current customers, this means a box swap is inevitable to
  continue to grow with Sequent's future products.
o Weak performance in heavy batch workloads.  The processor power of
  Intel processors is sufficient to drive light workloads of a few batch
  processes running concurrently.  At this level, the I/O capabilities
  are important.  As the workload becomes heavier with an increasing
  number (more than 5 or 6) of batch processes running concurrently,
  processor performance becomes the bottleneck.  While an SMP
  architecture can help deliver high performance, it does not provide
  any benefits in a heavy batch environment.  Improvement in performance
  depends on the performance of the individual processors.  Since
  Sequent's processors are Intel 80486 processors, the servers are
  severely limited with regard to batch performance.
o Many industry analysts question the viability of Sequent as an
  independent company in the future.  Sequent's attempt to corner the
  high-end OLTP server is now challenged by HP, IBM, Sun, and DEC.  With
  even increasing pricing pressure from competitors Sequent is quickly
  loosing its traditional technology advantage.

Sequent does not appear to have either the financial nor the
technological means to stay in business.

HP 9000 versus Sequent/strengths and weaknesses
HP 9000 versus Sequent

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                   Sequent's Strengths
                         HP's Strengths            (HP's Perceived
Parity                   (Sequent's Weaknesses)    Weaknesses)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Open systems            -Financial stability      -Perception of easy
-Scalable OLTP servers   -Leading support services  upgrades
-Multivendor networking  -RISC                     -Parallel processing
-Distributed computing   -Leading batch            -Aggressive
-Leading OLTP             performance               prices/discounts
 performance             -Commercial UNIX          -Relationships with
                         -Fault tolerance           RDBMS ISVs
                         -Lower cost upgrades for  -Use of commodity
                          midrange performance      processors
                         -Incremental and fully
                          compatible growth path
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The issues listed under parity reflect areas that may be important in a
sales situation but both vendors offer equivalent products or services.
  The HP's strengths or Sequent's weaknesses reflect areas that HP
should discuss and sell as being critical to the prospect's success.
Being in the account first and discussing the importance of these items
may set the criteria for an HP win.
  Sequent's perceived strengths reflect areas that Sequent will discuss.
These may be HP's perceived weaknesses and HP can expect to be
challenged on these issues.  The handling objections section discusses
tactics to discount or turn these issues into an HP strength.

HP's strengths against Sequent
  Financial stability
HP advantage:
HP is a $16 billion company ranked Fortune 26.
Customer benefits:
HP will be a long-term and stable partner.  Our financial stability
ensures we can maintain levels of R&D budgets in developing new
technologies and maintain and improve our customer support resources.

Support services
HP advantage:
Aside from leading UNIX-based systems, HP provides an extensive range of
support, maintenance, and consulting services on a worldwide basis.
Customer benefits:
HP's support services on a worldwide basis have been consistently rated
among the best in the industry.  Customers can be assured that any
difficulties they encounter will be quickly and efficiently dealt with
by HP regardless of their geographic location.

RISC
HP advantage:
Unlike Sequent's systems which use Intel 80486 CISC processors, HP uses
state-of-the-art RISC processors.
Customer benefits:
RISC technology has proven benefits with regard to scalability,
price/performance, reliability, and easy growth paths.  PA-RISC is
enabling HP to deliver systems that provide all these benefits.  HP has
delivered CPU performance increases of over 60 percent per year compared
to Intel's 20 to 30 percent improvement per year.  The benefits of RISC
technology have caused all the large systems vendors to move to RISC-
based systems.  Even Intel has focused efforts on delivering a RISC
processor and is using RISC-like features in future processors such as
the 80586.  PA-RISC will protect customers' investment while allowing
them to upgrade to higher performance systems in the future.  Although
Sequent is delivering systems with comparable performance today, their
growth path is questionable.  Over the next 3 to 5 years, Sequent will
be forced to use higher performance RISC processors in their systems,
Intel, their current processor supplier is moving to RISC technology.
The investment protection that Sequent will be able to offer in moving
to RISC-based systems, is very questionable even if they continue to use
Intel's future processors.

Batch performance
HP advantage:
HP is far better positioned for superior batch performance.  It is
common knowledge that symmetric multiprocessing technology is beneficial
in online applications, but does not have any advantage over a
uniprocessor architecture in heavy batch environments.  For batch
applications such as payroll and MRP, processor performance plays a key
role in determining overall system throughput for heavy workloads.  HP's
processors outclass the Intel 80386 and 80486 in terms of performance.
Customer benefits:
The same systems from HP can deliver superior batch as well as OLTP
performance.  The Symmetry systems deliver good OLTP performance but
poor batch performance in heavy batch workloads.  Although Sequent is
examining ways to use multiprocessing concepts in order to deliver
better batch performance, these projects are only in the research stage.
HP's PA-RISC architecture and systems were designed specifically with
the intent of being able to deliver superior online as well as batch
performance.

Commercial UNIX systems
HP advantage:
HP is the premier choice of commercial UNIX solution providers and
offers the largest selection of commercial applications running on UNIX
systems.
Customer benefits:
The largest number of leading commercial ISVs, including those from the
mainframe environment such as Computer Associates, Dun and Bradstreet,
Cincom, Lawson Associates, and Software AG, have chosen HP to be the
platform for their UNIX system-based products.  Customers can be assured
that HP will be able to provide a full range of applications for all
their business needs.

Fault tolerance
HP advantage:
HP offers fully fault-tolerant systems for absolutely critical
applications.
Customer benefits:
HP can deliver fully fault-tolerant systems if customers need it.  These
are source-code compatible with the HP 9000 Series 800 systems.  Sequent
does not offer fault-tolerant systems.

Complete solutions
HP advantage:
HP offers a full range of products in addition to Model 890: midrange
and low-end servers, workstations, X-stations, peripherals, networking,
and support services.
Customer benefits:
HP delivers all the components necessary for a complete solution to fit
the customers' needs.  Sequent only sells primarily high-end server and
disk drives.  Other components of the overall solution must be obtained
from third-party vendors.

Sequent's perceived strengths against HP
o Benefits of symmetric multiprocessor architecture along with mature
  and commonly accepted processor technology - easy upgrades, better
  protection against CPU failure (since the system can reboot and
  continue running on fewer processors), and commodity processors.

Counter with:
While SMP does provide certain benefits, Sequent's particular
implementation has a few drawbacks.
  - SMP can indeed allow for simple board upgrades to achieve higher
    performance.  HP has achieved this in the high-end systems.  Note
    that even for systems that do not use SMP, HP has delivered the
    capability to improve performance with simple board swaps.  To
    improve I/O throughput, performance gains can be achieved with box
    swaps.  In either case, full software binary compatibility is
    maintained.  On the other hand, SMP technology is a must for Sequent
    to generate adequate performance from Intel X86 chips.
  - HP is delivering systems with industry-leading reliability.  If
    system uptime is critical, HP can offer the broadest range of high-
    availability solutions in the industry.  Even in general, HP's
    product reliability leads the industry in MTBF (Mean Time Between
    Failure) statistics.  Sequent does not even publish MTBF data for
    their systems - is there something Sequent would rather not talk
    about?  Also, note that higher number of components in a system
    leads to a higher probability of failure.
  - Although Sequent uses commodity processors, these processors are
    better suited for the PC and desktop environments where low
    processor performance is acceptable.  In heavy multiuser workloads,
    especially in batch environments, the Intel processors simply do not
    provide a competitive solution.  As for RISC technology, it is
    becoming widespread because of its proven benefits.  HP's PA-RISC
    architecture is rated by consultants and analysts as among the best
    in the industry.  It is a curious fact that although Sequent uses
    commodity processors, their board upgrades are priced as high as
    some HP systems.  A processor board for the same price as a fully
    functioning system, certainly doesn't seem to be a major benefit of
    using commodity technology.

o Pioneer in parallel processing technology - first with symmetric
  multiprocessing systems and now with parallel enabled software for
  RDBMS and networking.
Counter with:
SMP and parallel enabled software subsystems are the only areas where
Sequent is among the industry leaders.  HP has developed numerous
technologies, some of which have been incorporated into industry
standards.  Examples of HP technologies include Motif, DCE, DME,
OpenView, SoftBench, and the Distributed Object Management Facility.
  As for databases tuned for multiprocessing, HP has specially tuned
versions of the leading databases running on the Series 800 systems.
Some of the leading RDBMS vendors are using HP's SMP systems as
development platforms to tune their database products for an SMP
environment.  The parallel enabled networking software from Novell is
also available on HP systems.

o Scalability of Symmetry systems - supporting up to 30 processors at
  the high-end.
Counter with:
Sequent has demonstrated their ability to use up to 26 processors on
Model 750.  However, Sequent continues to lack competitive low-end
server and workstation/X-terminal client to meet the need of the
client/server environment.  HP provides the best and the most compatible
client/server family in the industry.  HP's current product line,
especially the 890 family, will continue to show strong performance
increase and scalability in the foreseeable future.

o Integration and customization services.
Counter with:
Sequent does indeed offer integration services to customers.  This is to
compensate for a major weakness that Sequent has, which is lack of all
components required for a complete solution.  HP offers not just systems
but also all the peripherals and networking that customers need for a
complete configuration.  HP also offers industry-leading support
services as necessary.  HP support has been consistently ranked number
one for nine years.

From Selling Against the Competition Competitive Binder, 5091-6465E,
  9301
Associated files:  seqprof.doc, SEQ01.gal, SEQ01.hpg, SEQ03.gal,
  SEQ03.hpg, SEQ04.gal, SEQ04.hpg, SEQ05.gal, SEQ05.hpg, SEQ06.gal,
  SEQ06.hpg, SEQ07.gal, SEQ07.hpg, SEQ08.gal, SEQ08.hpg,
Sequent Corporate Profile