Sun packs mainframe features into servers
Sun last week unveiled midrange servers designed to give businesses more redundant and flexible -- yet less-expensive -- machines than those from rivals IBM and Hewlett-Packard.
Sun, which Dataquest says eked past reigning leader IBM with $4.8 billion in server sales last year, is vying to expand its market reach with four new Solaris servers powered by the company's 64-bit UltraSparc III processor.
Company officials claim the new 3800, 4800, 4810 and 6800 Sun Fire servers -- which start at $73,200 -- are the first midrange Unix boxes that support features originally found only in mainframes, including Sun's own E10000 system.
A key feature is the Fireplane interconnection that allows a server to be partitioned to handle different applications. Partitioning allows companies to test software or fix a broken component on one part of a server without disrupting the rest of it.
The Fire servers, which Sun expects will appeal to data center hosters and companies running back-end data warehouses, also offer hot-swappable CPUs, I/O memory upgrades and concurrent maintenance while the system and applications are running.
Although the Fire servers are shipping, there is a hitch. According to Sun's Web site, features such as hot-swappable CPUs and dynamic partitioning won't be available until later this year.
Even so, analysts are bullish about Sun's ability to deliver mainframelike features on midrange systems.
"They've brought the best features [such as hot-swapping CPUs and I/O redundancy] in the high end and brought them down to a lower-end machine at a [better] price performance," says Joyce Beckwell, an analyst at Aberdeen Group. "No one else can do that now."
But that doesn't mean IBM or HP won't try to match Sun. IBM is readying an enhanced midrange server line called Regatta, and HP just started shipping its high-end Unix Superdome server in volume after its initial announcement five months ago. Still, analysts say Sun is at least six months ahead in hardware capability for midrange servers.
"They've got a good lead on [IBM and HP], and I don't see anybody on the Wintel side" adding such high-end capabilities to their midrange line anytime soon, says Brad Day, an analyst at Giga Information Group.
Hosting service provider Digex, in Laurel, Md., will add Fire servers to its Sun lineup, which includes the E10000, to house mission-critical applications, says Charles Boyle, the company's co-founder and director of research and development. "These things can never fail, and we'll be able to service [the servers] on the fly" without dissembling them, he says.
» posted by ITworld staff
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