An interesting angle is that the Istanbul Opertons were pin-compatible with existing motherboards, enabling them to be used as drop-in upgrades.
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 AMD Istanbul | |
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AMD took its Istanbul strategy to the next level in September, announcing a new server platform spec, code-named Kroner. The salient feature here -- aside from giving a boost to AMD's home-grown core-logic chipset for Istanbul, one of three chipsets available -- is the low-power angle. The ability to hang a low-power tag on one's server is going to be a must-have checklist item to sell into the data center market in 2010.
My overall point here is that both Intel and AMD have given system builders a more advanced processor pallet to work with than ever before. So while I don't mean to suggest that we're going to see shockingly different servers from each vendor, I do believe this means there will be more differentiation at the margins. Low power or power efficiency, or whatever you want to call it, will come first. (Yes, I know that "efficiency" has a technical meaning, and is commonly misused.) But this differentiation will extend to other areas, notably ease of management.
For example, Dell, in a December press release, touted its offering of an Infrastructure Manager as part of its servers-for-the-data center solution. The manager, wrote Dell, "enables customers to dynamically allocate workloads in minutes by altering server, networking, and storage devices without the need to re-cable, reconfigure, or reload software."
The Infrastructure Manager runs on a (Nehalem) Xeon 5500-based PowerEdge M610 Blade.
Then there's Hewlett-Packard, which has taken an interesting approach to the energy-savings play via taking some of its ProLiant servers "skinless." These aren't barebones in the processing department, but rather eschew the traditional rack for a lighter tray carrier. This enables HP to bundle them into something it calls the ExSO, or Extreme Scale-Out, portfolio. It's positioned as a modular data center solution. (I should note that other vendors also have similar, skinless rack-type products.)
In closing, I should note that perhaps I'm conflating vendor differentiation with a broader trend. That would be bundled packages positioned as one-stop data-center solutions, all under the umbrella of competing with, and stealing the center of gravity from, Cisco's Unified Computing System. UCS is a brilliant marketing method of pulling everything under an "easy-to-manage" umbrella. It's almost hard to beat, even with a best-of-breed argument.
For Further Reading
HP Revs Data Center Strategy, Stabbing At Cisco
AMD, Intel Remake Servers From Processor Up
Q&A: HP ProCurve Chief Technology Officer Paul Congdon
Intel CTO Envisions On-Chip Data Centers
What's your take? Let me know, by leaving a comment below or e-mailing me directly at [email protected].
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Twitter: (@awolfe58)
Alex Wolfe is editor-in-chief of InformationWeek.com.
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