TCS will work with IBM in several areas, including Linux on eServers and Websphere-related technologies in the e-business areas, Tivoli TME/10 for Enterprise Systems Management, Lotus Notes and associated Groupware technologies, UDB in database and data warehouse applications and traditional application development on OS/390, AIX and OS/400 platforms. TCS will build its solutions and services around these strategic IBM offerings and will continue to invest in its association with IBM in diverse system software areas in OS/390, AIX and OS/400.

The TCS-IBM relationship has strong historical roots. TCS has worked on IBM mainframes from the IBM 370 days, having invested significantly in IBM mainframes from the early 80s, culminating in the new zSeries eServers. TCS has also carried out some of its large projects for Indian and global customers such as Sega Intersettle, NSDL, AXA Sunlife, Nedcor, Giro Bank, American Express and IBM itself using IBM mainframes.

Bernard Alter, the US Consul-General, inaugurated the new eServer at a function held in TCS' facilities in Sholinganallur. Mr Prakash, IT Secretary, government of Tamil Nadu, was also present during the occasion.

The eServer is the new family of 64-bit servers announced by IBM last October. zSeries servers are the mainframe-class servers within the eServer family, designed for high availability and aimed at production grade e-business work. TCS has purchased a model 102 machine, that can process about 480 million instructions every second. TCS has set it up at its solution development centre located at Sholinganallur and has also purchased high-performance enterprise storage server disks from IBM to power the disk storage requirements of the powerful eServer.

Participating in the inauguration function Abraham Thomas, managing director and chief operating officer, IBM India Ltd., said "The IBM-TCS system integrator relationship will offer customers total solutions. IBM's strength as a technology leader and TCS's leadership in SI will offer the customers the best of the IT solutions for their business needs."

"TCS is used to being the largest IBM shop and a model data center in India right from 1987," said executive vice-president S Mahalingam, who was also a prime force behind bringing IBM to TCS. "We are continuing the tradition with this record installation of the zSeries machines in our premises. With this computing power at our disposal, and a 5000-strong IBM-trained skills base, we are geared to help customers with challenging large projects in application development, migration with a very large automation percentage, large facilities management, and even benchmarking. This year could see us emerge as the largest Linux installation in India, opening up very interesting possibilities," he adds.