UPDATED: The latest rollout includes the new HP StorageWorks X1000 and X3000 Network Storage Systems, which combine file and application storage. The other new storage systems in the launch are the StorageWorks 2000i and 2000sa G2 Modular Smart Arrays, which feature 2.5-inch, small form-factor drives that increase storage capacity and reduce power draw, thanks to cooler-running, multicore processors.
Hewlett-Packard, continuing to brand itself as the go-to supplier of data storage systems for small and midrange businesses, on May 28 launched a bevy of new unified computing and storage-related products aimed at those growing markets.
Unified storage systems combine both storage and application deployment through a single set of controls. Cisco Systems made news back on March 16 by announcing its own unified computing initiative, which is scheduled for product release later this year.
In April 2007, when HP realized it was losing market share to IBM, EMC and other storage makers in the high-end enterprise ECB (external controller-based) disk storage market, it made the decision to focus more sharply on the SMB and midrange markets. Its response at that time was the All-in-One storage system for SMBs, which did well to boost HP's overall storage reputation.
HP's newest strategy, called Total Care for SMBs, includes not only storage but infrastructure offerings for virtualization, remote access and consolidation system packages.
The latest rollout includes the new HP StorageWorks X1000 and X3000 Network Storage Systems, which combine file and application storage.
"With a single, unified system, SMBs do not need to invest in siloed storage systems for file and database data," Lee Johns, HP director of marketing for unified computing, told eWEEK. "The X1000 and X3000 are self-contained systems; they have iSCSI and file serving with an automated storage manager, which makes it very easy for an SMB to configure.
"A user can basically just request extra capacity—for example, it can add an extra 100MB for an application like [Microsoft] Exchange. The system will just go off and configure what's needed, carve up the LUNs automatically, and get it deployed."
The network-attached X1000 and X3000 systems also come with HP's file deduplication, which is provided by its OEM partner, Sepaton. This produces up to 35 percent more usable capacity, Johns said.
That's a conservative estimate. Data deduplication, when used correctly, has been known to provide up to anywhere from 30 percent to 80 percent more usable capacity, depending on the type of data stored.
The other new storage systems in the launch are the StorageWorks 2000i and 2000sa G2 Modular Smart Arrays, which feature 2.5-inch, small form-factor drives that increase storage capacity and reduce power draw, thanks to cooler-running, multicore processors, Johns said.
Pricing has been lowered, also. HP is offering a starter system consisting of a ProLiant server, 1.2TB of StorageWorks storage, VMware ESX hypervisor and all the other software licenses for about $6,000. A year ago, the cost for that system would have been 50 to 60 percent higher.
HP also launched a new SMB package called Virtualization Bundle, which recasts existing data center server disk drives into more efficient shared virtualized storage. The package includes an HP ProLiant server, storage and networking software, the VMware ESX hypervisor, and a simplified interface that doesn't have to be utilized by a highly trained technical staff person.
HP announced a new service for SMBs and remote corporate offices called Secure Remote Access, which uses Citrix XenApp Fundamentals to enable mobile employees to stay connected with necessary business applications, regardless of their location or connectivity device.
As part of this new initiative, HP is offering SMB channel partners discounted servers and storage through its SmartBuy program. The company also is offering customers and partners a free trial of Citrix XenApp Fundamentals.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
AMD, Intel Eye High End with New Server Chips
AMD, Intel Eye High End with New Server Chips
With AMD almost ready to launch the six-core Istanbul chip and Intel talking about its upcoming eight-core Nehalem EX processor, the two rivals are on a collision course as they compete for the high end of the x86 server market. AMD officials say Istanbul will touch on the two-, four- and eight-socket spaces, and is coming out six months ahead of schedule. Nehalem EX will start appearing in systems in early 2010. But the high end could prove to be fertile ground for Intel and AMD, as many enterprises are looking to move away from the RISC/Itanium/mainframe space, according to one analyst.
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are both aiming at the high end of the server space with their upcoming processors.
Intel officials on May 26 outlined details of its eight-core “Nehalem EX” Xeon MP processor aimed at servers with four or more sockets. Boyd Davis, general manager of Intel’s server platforms marketing group, said during a press conference that the chip—which will start shipping to OEMs later this year and appear in systems in early 2010—will give enterprises an alternative to RISC-based environments.
Now comes AMD with the launch of its six-core “Istanbul” Opteron chip, which officials say will compete not only with Intel’s Xeon 5500 Series “Nehalem EP” in the two-socket space, but also with Nehalem EX in the four- and eight-socket arena.
And, they said, it is about ready to go now, a good half-year before Nehalem EX and months before it was initially scheduled to ship. The chip is expected to launch the week of June 1, and most top-tier OEMs are expected to roll out Istanbul-powered systems.
That’s a big deal not only to OEMs and end users, but to AMD itself, Pat Patla, vice president and general manager of AMD’s server and workstation division, said in an interview.
“Yes, AMD did not execute, and we had some issues bringing it to market,” Patla said.
“It” was “Barcelona,” the company’s first quad-core Opteron that was hampered by technical problems and delays. However, AMD changed the processes used to develop chips—for example, putting one engineer in charge of the entire process, as well as the creation of Centers of Excellence centered around particular areas of engineering expertise—and the result was the next Opteron chip, “Shanghai,” came in months ahead of schedule.
Raghuram Tupuri was the lead architect for Shanghai, and Steven Hesley was the lead for Istanbul.
With Istanbul, AMD officials first decided in March 2008 to put it on the product road map to meet demand from OEMs and end users, and within 15 months is ready to ship, Patla said.
With AMD almost ready to launch the six-core Istanbul chip and Intel talking about its upcoming eight-core Nehalem EX processor, the two rivals are on a collision course as they compete for the high end of the x86 server market. AMD officials say Istanbul will touch on the two-, four- and eight-socket spaces, and is coming out six months ahead of schedule. Nehalem EX will start appearing in systems in early 2010. But the high end could prove to be fertile ground for Intel and AMD, as many enterprises are looking to move away from the RISC/Itanium/mainframe space, according to one analyst.
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices are both aiming at the high end of the server space with their upcoming processors.
Intel officials on May 26 outlined details of its eight-core “Nehalem EX” Xeon MP processor aimed at servers with four or more sockets. Boyd Davis, general manager of Intel’s server platforms marketing group, said during a press conference that the chip—which will start shipping to OEMs later this year and appear in systems in early 2010—will give enterprises an alternative to RISC-based environments.
Now comes AMD with the launch of its six-core “Istanbul” Opteron chip, which officials say will compete not only with Intel’s Xeon 5500 Series “Nehalem EP” in the two-socket space, but also with Nehalem EX in the four- and eight-socket arena.
And, they said, it is about ready to go now, a good half-year before Nehalem EX and months before it was initially scheduled to ship. The chip is expected to launch the week of June 1, and most top-tier OEMs are expected to roll out Istanbul-powered systems.
That’s a big deal not only to OEMs and end users, but to AMD itself, Pat Patla, vice president and general manager of AMD’s server and workstation division, said in an interview.
“Yes, AMD did not execute, and we had some issues bringing it to market,” Patla said.
“It” was “Barcelona,” the company’s first quad-core Opteron that was hampered by technical problems and delays. However, AMD changed the processes used to develop chips—for example, putting one engineer in charge of the entire process, as well as the creation of Centers of Excellence centered around particular areas of engineering expertise—and the result was the next Opteron chip, “Shanghai,” came in months ahead of schedule.
Raghuram Tupuri was the lead architect for Shanghai, and Steven Hesley was the lead for Istanbul.
With Istanbul, AMD officials first decided in March 2008 to put it on the product road map to meet demand from OEMs and end users, and within 15 months is ready to ship, Patla said.
EMC Adds Server Management Controls with Configuresoft Acquisition
EMC Adds Server Management Controls with Configuresoft Acquisition
Storage and data protection infrastructure giant EMC completes a trifecta of data center management with the acquisition of OEM partner Configuresoft, a provider of server configuration, change and compliance management software.
EMC on May 27 demonstrated once again that automation is the definitive trend in data centers in 2009.
The storage and data protection infrastructure giant added a key component to its data center control software catalog when it announced the acquisition of OEM partner Configuresoft, a provider of server configuration, change and compliance management software.
Financial details of the transaction were not made public. EMC said the deal for the privately held company is expected to close in June and will not materially affect its multibillion-dollar balance sheet.
Configuresoft, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., claims to have about 400 customers worldwide, including 13 of the world's 25 largest companies. The company was founded in 1999 by E. Alexander Goldstein, Dennis Moreau, Louis Woodhill and Alan Sage and named Fundamental Software. It was renamed in 2001.
Configuresoft provides automated and optimized server management software that speeds up the adoption of virtualization, monitors policy and security compliance, and aids GRC (governance, risk management and compliance) across IT system infrastructures.
EMC has contracted with Configuresoft since mid-2008 to provide most of these features under the labels of EMC Server Configuration Manager and EMC Configuration Analytics Manager.
EMC's goal of providing a complete data center automation package is now reached, Bob Quillin, EMC's senior director of product development, told eWEEK.
"We have been building out a pretty formidable array of data center automation tools," Quillin said. "We've had excellent automated storage management products for a long time, and we just announced Storage Configuration Advisor as a new product. Two years ago we acquired Voyence, which provides automated network configuration. Configuresoft focuses on the server, which was the one big puzzle piece that was missing.
"We now have completed that trifecta of storage, network and server for a whole data center automation package."
Configuresoft's own Enterprise Configuration Manager and Configuration Intelligence Analytics will continue to be known as EMC Server Configuration Manager and Configuration Analytics Manager, based upon the OEM agreement, Quillin said.
These tools help IT administrators detect, prioritize and correct configuration compliance issues, Quillin said, in keeping with such legislation as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and PCI (payment card industry) regulations. Rich analytics are provided in one dashboard for viewing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
Storage and data protection infrastructure giant EMC completes a trifecta of data center management with the acquisition of OEM partner Configuresoft, a provider of server configuration, change and compliance management software.
EMC on May 27 demonstrated once again that automation is the definitive trend in data centers in 2009.
The storage and data protection infrastructure giant added a key component to its data center control software catalog when it announced the acquisition of OEM partner Configuresoft, a provider of server configuration, change and compliance management software.
Financial details of the transaction were not made public. EMC said the deal for the privately held company is expected to close in June and will not materially affect its multibillion-dollar balance sheet.
Configuresoft, based in Colorado Springs, Colo., claims to have about 400 customers worldwide, including 13 of the world's 25 largest companies. The company was founded in 1999 by E. Alexander Goldstein, Dennis Moreau, Louis Woodhill and Alan Sage and named Fundamental Software. It was renamed in 2001.
Configuresoft provides automated and optimized server management software that speeds up the adoption of virtualization, monitors policy and security compliance, and aids GRC (governance, risk management and compliance) across IT system infrastructures.
EMC has contracted with Configuresoft since mid-2008 to provide most of these features under the labels of EMC Server Configuration Manager and EMC Configuration Analytics Manager.
EMC's goal of providing a complete data center automation package is now reached, Bob Quillin, EMC's senior director of product development, told eWEEK.
"We have been building out a pretty formidable array of data center automation tools," Quillin said. "We've had excellent automated storage management products for a long time, and we just announced Storage Configuration Advisor as a new product. Two years ago we acquired Voyence, which provides automated network configuration. Configuresoft focuses on the server, which was the one big puzzle piece that was missing.
"We now have completed that trifecta of storage, network and server for a whole data center automation package."
Configuresoft's own Enterprise Configuration Manager and Configuration Intelligence Analytics will continue to be known as EMC Server Configuration Manager and Configuration Analytics Manager, based upon the OEM agreement, Quillin said.
These tools help IT administrators detect, prioritize and correct configuration compliance issues, Quillin said, in keeping with such legislation as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and PCI (payment card industry) regulations. Rich analytics are provided in one dashboard for viewing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
Cisco Beta Tests Its UCS Box
Cisco Systems has been running a Unified Computing System machine in its own data center since before the March announcement of the heavily touted converged data center product. The system runs several applications, including the Website for CEO John Chambers. The UCS boxes also are being planned as the backbone for not only Cisco’s current data centers, but also a new 10,000-square-foot facility being planned, as well as Cisco’s CITIES internal cloud computing initiative.
Cisco Systems has been one of its best beta customers for its widely hyped Unified Computing System data center technology, deploying the technology in one of its own data centers to run several applications, according to company officials.
Cisco also plans to replace the bulk of the x86 servers currently in their 52 data centers worldwide with the UCS technology—codenamed “California”—over the next two years, according to the officials.
The UCS, announced by Cisco in March, is an all-in-one offering that brings together computing, networking, storage and software management into a single offering. It includes not only Cisco server and networking products, but also offerings from partners such as VMware and its vSphere platform for virtualization, EMC for storage and BMC Software for management software.
The product, which is not yet shipping, includes Cisco blade servers powered by Intel’s quad-core Xeon 5500 Series “Nehalem EP” processors and networking technologies such as FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Cisco offers the FCoE fabric in its Nexus 7000 switches.
Cisco’s strategy is part of an overall trend in the data center—fueled by such technologies as virtualization, cloud computing and Web 2.0 applications—to converge resources. For example, Hewlett-Packard in April rolled out such an offering with its BladeSystem Matrix that integrates server, storage, networking and software into a single product.
Speaking on a Webcast May 27, two Cisco data center officials said their goal is not only to incorporate the UCS into their own data centers, but—like any beta tester—to use their experiences with the technology to give informed feedback to Cisco’s engineers.
The UCS will be a key building block for their own data centers going forward, enabling them to scale their infrastructures while driving down power and operating costs, they said.
“We’ve very much integrated it into our current models,” said Chris Hynes, director of IS for Cisco’s Network and Data Center Services group.
Cisco has been running the UCS product in its Mountain View, Calif., data center since mid-March, before the company announced the offering. The systems currently are running the site for Chairman and CEO John Chambers, Cisco’s public relations site and a host of legal and financial applications, according to John Manville, vice president of IT at Cisco.
The UCS product is running a host of virtual machines as well as an Oracle database that has not been virtualized.
Cisco also is using a new 10,000-square-foot data center it’s planning as a platform for UCS, Hynes said. The 1 megawatt facility will run UCS boxes, saving the company money in a number of areas. A traditional data center of that size would need 135 server racks, with 4,320 Ethernet cables and 2,160 copper cables, he said. With the UCS, all that will be reduced to 72 racks, 1,008 Ethernet links and 300 copper links.
Hynes said the reduction in cabling is important because it frees up space and resources to add more computing power to the data center. It also saves money, he said. Cabling in the traditional data center would cost $2.7 million; with the UCS, that drops to $1.6 million, he said.
The number of physical servers that can fit into facility grows from 720 hosting up to 7,500 virtual machines in the traditional data center to as many as 1,400 servers hosting 12,000 to 14,000 VMs with the UCS technology.
Virtualization technology will continue to be a key part of what Cisco has planned for all of its data centers, which cover about 215,000 square feet throughout the 52 facilities, Manville said. Currently, about 30 percent of all the servers are virtualized, he said. Over the next two years, the goal is to increase that to 70 to 80 percent.
With all these capabilities coming into the data centers, Cisco officials also are in the process of creating an internal cloud computing environment which will be based in large part on UCS. Dubbed CITIES—for Cisco IT Elastic Infrastructure Services—the goal of the project is to bring as many applications as possible onto the internal cloud, Manville said.
Eventually Cisco will move to a hybrid model, moving applications and workloads between the internal cloud and public clouds depending on need, he said. The first phase—called “Mist”—will launch in August or September, he said.
Cisco Systems has been one of its best beta customers for its widely hyped Unified Computing System data center technology, deploying the technology in one of its own data centers to run several applications, according to company officials.
Cisco also plans to replace the bulk of the x86 servers currently in their 52 data centers worldwide with the UCS technology—codenamed “California”—over the next two years, according to the officials.
The UCS, announced by Cisco in March, is an all-in-one offering that brings together computing, networking, storage and software management into a single offering. It includes not only Cisco server and networking products, but also offerings from partners such as VMware and its vSphere platform for virtualization, EMC for storage and BMC Software for management software.
The product, which is not yet shipping, includes Cisco blade servers powered by Intel’s quad-core Xeon 5500 Series “Nehalem EP” processors and networking technologies such as FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) and 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Cisco offers the FCoE fabric in its Nexus 7000 switches.
Cisco’s strategy is part of an overall trend in the data center—fueled by such technologies as virtualization, cloud computing and Web 2.0 applications—to converge resources. For example, Hewlett-Packard in April rolled out such an offering with its BladeSystem Matrix that integrates server, storage, networking and software into a single product.
Speaking on a Webcast May 27, two Cisco data center officials said their goal is not only to incorporate the UCS into their own data centers, but—like any beta tester—to use their experiences with the technology to give informed feedback to Cisco’s engineers.
The UCS will be a key building block for their own data centers going forward, enabling them to scale their infrastructures while driving down power and operating costs, they said.
“We’ve very much integrated it into our current models,” said Chris Hynes, director of IS for Cisco’s Network and Data Center Services group.
Cisco has been running the UCS product in its Mountain View, Calif., data center since mid-March, before the company announced the offering. The systems currently are running the site for Chairman and CEO John Chambers, Cisco’s public relations site and a host of legal and financial applications, according to John Manville, vice president of IT at Cisco.
The UCS product is running a host of virtual machines as well as an Oracle database that has not been virtualized.
Cisco also is using a new 10,000-square-foot data center it’s planning as a platform for UCS, Hynes said. The 1 megawatt facility will run UCS boxes, saving the company money in a number of areas. A traditional data center of that size would need 135 server racks, with 4,320 Ethernet cables and 2,160 copper cables, he said. With the UCS, all that will be reduced to 72 racks, 1,008 Ethernet links and 300 copper links.
Hynes said the reduction in cabling is important because it frees up space and resources to add more computing power to the data center. It also saves money, he said. Cabling in the traditional data center would cost $2.7 million; with the UCS, that drops to $1.6 million, he said.
The number of physical servers that can fit into facility grows from 720 hosting up to 7,500 virtual machines in the traditional data center to as many as 1,400 servers hosting 12,000 to 14,000 VMs with the UCS technology.
Virtualization technology will continue to be a key part of what Cisco has planned for all of its data centers, which cover about 215,000 square feet throughout the 52 facilities, Manville said. Currently, about 30 percent of all the servers are virtualized, he said. Over the next two years, the goal is to increase that to 70 to 80 percent.
With all these capabilities coming into the data centers, Cisco officials also are in the process of creating an internal cloud computing environment which will be based in large part on UCS. Dubbed CITIES—for Cisco IT Elastic Infrastructure Services—the goal of the project is to bring as many applications as possible onto the internal cloud, Manville said.
Eventually Cisco will move to a hybrid model, moving applications and workloads between the internal cloud and public clouds depending on need, he said. The first phase—called “Mist”—will launch in August or September, he said.
HP, IBM Atop of Declining Server Market: IDC
The global server market saw revenue and shipment declines across all major segments during the first quarter as enterprises delayed system purchases in light of the crushing worldwide recession, according to IDC. The x86 server space was particularly hard hit, though analysts don’t expect that to continue much longer. HP and IBM tied for the lead in server revenue market share, though all the top vendors saw double-digit revenue declines.
The worldwide server market continued to get hammered in the first quarter of 2009, with the volume x86 space bearing the brunt of the global recession.
According to numbers released by research firm IDC May 28, overall server revenue in the quarter fell 24.5 percent over the same period in 2008, while shipments declined 26.5 percent.
All of the top server vendors also saw double-digit server revenue drops, and each segment within the market also declined. IDC analysts attributed the declines to businesses pulling away from normal server refresh cycles and new IT projects, opting instead to hang on to the systems they already have.
Hewlett-Packard and IBM shared the lead, each with 29.3 percent of market share. Dell was third with 11 percent share, followed by Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu, at 10.3 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively. All experienced revenue declines of between 18.8 percent and 31.2 percent.
“Market conditions worsened in all geographic regions during the first quarter as customers of all types pulled back on both new strategic IT projects and ongoing infrastructure refresh initiatives,” IDC analyst Matt Eastwood said in a statement. “Most enterprise organizations are deferring new IT procurements and instead focusing on extending server lifecycles and improving existing asset utilization.”
Eastwood said such a strategy was smart in the short term, but predicted that server demand would pick up in the second half of 2009, with businesses buying systems in anticipation of the expected recovery beginning in 2010.
The quarter was particularly hard on the x86 server market, where revenues declined 28.8 percent, to $5.1 billion—the lowest since the third quarter of 2003—and shipments dropped 26.3 percent, to 1.4 million servers. Analyst Dan Harrington said it was easier for businesses to delay purchases of the x86 volume server than of RISC- or CISC-based systems—which tend to run more mission-critical workloads—but he didn’t expect the trend to last.
“IDC expects x86 systems to rebound faster than the overall market in the coming quarters,” Harrington said in a statement.
Similarly, blade server revenue and shipments also declined, by 14.4 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively, though it did grow its share of the overall server revenue as businesses continued to look for technology that help reduce costs and increase efficiencies.
While non-x86 segments also experienced revenue declines, their shares of the overall server market rose. For example, while Unix server revenue declined 17.5 percent, the $3.3 billion was 33.1 percent of the overall revenue spending, compared with 30.2 percent in the same quarter last year.
Analyst Jean Bozman said the delaying of server purchases hurt the Unix server space as well, but the increase in market share was due in part to the presence of midrange and high-end Unix servers, which tend to have higher average sales prices than their x86 counterparts.
IBM’s mainframe business also got a boost. According to IDC’s numbers, IBM’s System z servers running the z/OS operating system outperformed the overall market for the fifth consecutive quarter. Revenues declined 18.9 percent, but accounted for 9 percent of all server revenue, the largest percentage for the System z in five years.
IBM and other vendors—such as CA, BMC Software and Unisys—have been working to modernize the mainframe platforms by making them easier to deploy and manage, and enabling them to handle workloads such as Linux and Java applications.
The worldwide server market continued to get hammered in the first quarter of 2009, with the volume x86 space bearing the brunt of the global recession.
According to numbers released by research firm IDC May 28, overall server revenue in the quarter fell 24.5 percent over the same period in 2008, while shipments declined 26.5 percent.
All of the top server vendors also saw double-digit server revenue drops, and each segment within the market also declined. IDC analysts attributed the declines to businesses pulling away from normal server refresh cycles and new IT projects, opting instead to hang on to the systems they already have.
Hewlett-Packard and IBM shared the lead, each with 29.3 percent of market share. Dell was third with 11 percent share, followed by Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu, at 10.3 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively. All experienced revenue declines of between 18.8 percent and 31.2 percent.
“Market conditions worsened in all geographic regions during the first quarter as customers of all types pulled back on both new strategic IT projects and ongoing infrastructure refresh initiatives,” IDC analyst Matt Eastwood said in a statement. “Most enterprise organizations are deferring new IT procurements and instead focusing on extending server lifecycles and improving existing asset utilization.”
Eastwood said such a strategy was smart in the short term, but predicted that server demand would pick up in the second half of 2009, with businesses buying systems in anticipation of the expected recovery beginning in 2010.
The quarter was particularly hard on the x86 server market, where revenues declined 28.8 percent, to $5.1 billion—the lowest since the third quarter of 2003—and shipments dropped 26.3 percent, to 1.4 million servers. Analyst Dan Harrington said it was easier for businesses to delay purchases of the x86 volume server than of RISC- or CISC-based systems—which tend to run more mission-critical workloads—but he didn’t expect the trend to last.
“IDC expects x86 systems to rebound faster than the overall market in the coming quarters,” Harrington said in a statement.
Similarly, blade server revenue and shipments also declined, by 14.4 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively, though it did grow its share of the overall server revenue as businesses continued to look for technology that help reduce costs and increase efficiencies.
While non-x86 segments also experienced revenue declines, their shares of the overall server market rose. For example, while Unix server revenue declined 17.5 percent, the $3.3 billion was 33.1 percent of the overall revenue spending, compared with 30.2 percent in the same quarter last year.
Analyst Jean Bozman said the delaying of server purchases hurt the Unix server space as well, but the increase in market share was due in part to the presence of midrange and high-end Unix servers, which tend to have higher average sales prices than their x86 counterparts.
IBM’s mainframe business also got a boost. According to IDC’s numbers, IBM’s System z servers running the z/OS operating system outperformed the overall market for the fifth consecutive quarter. Revenues declined 18.9 percent, but accounted for 9 percent of all server revenue, the largest percentage for the System z in five years.
IBM and other vendors—such as CA, BMC Software and Unisys—have been working to modernize the mainframe platforms by making them easier to deploy and manage, and enabling them to handle workloads such as Linux and Java applications.
Dell, Microsoft Integrate Infrastructure Management Products
Dell and Microsoft are integrating their infrastructure management suites as a way of giving Dell customers easier management and deployments capabilities for both physical and virtualized environments. In addition, the integrations of Dell’s OpenManage offerings and Microsoft’s System Center suite will help enterprises and SMBs control power consumption and cooling costs in their data centers, according to Dell officials.
Dell is integrating its OpenManage systems management offerings with Microsoft’s System Center suite in a move designed to help enterprises and SMBs more easily handle their infrastructures.
The integrated offerings, announced May 27, touch on everything from client systems to servers to virtualization capabilities, and give users—particularly small and midsize businesses—management capabilities they have been pushing for, according to Dell officials.
Enrico Bracalente, senior strategist for product marketing at Dell, said the company’s SMB customers—those with up to 500 client systems and 20 servers—are looking for simplicity.
“They want something that’s easy to use, they want something that’s easy to install, and they want something that’s easy to manage,” Bracalente said in an interview. “They want to get up and running easily and without any complications.”
They also want a single console through which they can monitor, deploy and update their infrastructure resources, he said.
To that end, Dell is offering midsized enterprises Microsoft’s System Center Essentials management suite—which includes Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007 and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008—as a packaged solution with Dell’s PRO-Pack (Performance and Resource Optimization Pack) and its own Management Packs that will make it easier for businesses to centrally manage both physical and virtualized environments.
Dell also is offering consulting services around Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization technology. The company’s Hyper-V Technology Introduction and FastTrack Design services with Advanced Management options are aimed at helping businesses more quickly deploy and configure Hyper-V infrastructures. In addition, Dell and Microsoft offer reference configurations to help businesses speed up the implementation of Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V and System Center offerings.
Dell’s Infrastructure Consulting members help in the design and implementation of all Microsoft infrastructure.
In addition, the integration of Dell Management Packs with Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Essentials 2007 enables users to monitor and manage Dell products—from servers and client systems to storage and printers—in multivendor hardware and software environments.
Dell’s Server and Business Client Hardware Update Catalog tools also integrate with Microsoft’s management software—including System Center Configuration Manager 2007, Essentials 2007 and Windows Server Update Service—to make sure that drivers, BIOS and firmware are automatically updated.
The two vendors also are addressing power and cooling costs by giving users the ability to monitor and control the energy efficiency of hardware and software, and Dell’s Server Deployment Pack is integrated with Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager to automate the configuration and deployment of Dell’s PowerEdge servers and blade systems.
“We wanted to make this a one-stop shop” for customers, Bracalente said.
Dell is integrating its OpenManage systems management offerings with Microsoft’s System Center suite in a move designed to help enterprises and SMBs more easily handle their infrastructures.
The integrated offerings, announced May 27, touch on everything from client systems to servers to virtualization capabilities, and give users—particularly small and midsize businesses—management capabilities they have been pushing for, according to Dell officials.
Enrico Bracalente, senior strategist for product marketing at Dell, said the company’s SMB customers—those with up to 500 client systems and 20 servers—are looking for simplicity.
“They want something that’s easy to use, they want something that’s easy to install, and they want something that’s easy to manage,” Bracalente said in an interview. “They want to get up and running easily and without any complications.”
They also want a single console through which they can monitor, deploy and update their infrastructure resources, he said.
To that end, Dell is offering midsized enterprises Microsoft’s System Center Essentials management suite—which includes Microsoft System Center Essentials 2007 and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008—as a packaged solution with Dell’s PRO-Pack (Performance and Resource Optimization Pack) and its own Management Packs that will make it easier for businesses to centrally manage both physical and virtualized environments.
Dell also is offering consulting services around Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization technology. The company’s Hyper-V Technology Introduction and FastTrack Design services with Advanced Management options are aimed at helping businesses more quickly deploy and configure Hyper-V infrastructures. In addition, Dell and Microsoft offer reference configurations to help businesses speed up the implementation of Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V and System Center offerings.
Dell’s Infrastructure Consulting members help in the design and implementation of all Microsoft infrastructure.
In addition, the integration of Dell Management Packs with Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Essentials 2007 enables users to monitor and manage Dell products—from servers and client systems to storage and printers—in multivendor hardware and software environments.
Dell’s Server and Business Client Hardware Update Catalog tools also integrate with Microsoft’s management software—including System Center Configuration Manager 2007, Essentials 2007 and Windows Server Update Service—to make sure that drivers, BIOS and firmware are automatically updated.
The two vendors also are addressing power and cooling costs by giving users the ability to monitor and control the energy efficiency of hardware and software, and Dell’s Server Deployment Pack is integrated with Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager to automate the configuration and deployment of Dell’s PowerEdge servers and blade systems.
“We wanted to make this a one-stop shop” for customers, Bracalente said.
Cisco's Nexus 1000v Virtual Switch Is Poised to Push Virtualization Further, Faster
Virtualization in the enterprise is about to open up, and it's not because of VMware's new vSphere, Microsoft's Hyper-V or Cisco's Unified Computing System. The tipping point will come with the release of Cisco's 1000v virtual switch, which will open up virtualization to companies' networking groups, lowering barriers and opening new possibilities.
While I accept that x86-based server virtualization is a growing fact of life in the data center, it wasn't until I took a troubleshooting class at Interop Las Vegas in May that I fully understood why server virtualization is about to go further, faster.
The trigger isn’t virtualization giant VMware's recent release of vSphere 4, although this major platform release is fundamental to further virtualization adoption. The trigger isn’t the recognition of the improvements that Microsoft's Hyper-V and the upcoming release of Windows Server 2008 R2 will bring.
No, server virtualization is poised to go further and faster because of something Cisco is about to do—but it has almost nothing to do with that company's release of its Unified Computing System.
Cisco is wrapping up the beta tests of its Nexus 1000v virtual switch. With the release of VMware's vSphere 4, third-party switches including the Nexus 1000v can be incorporated into the virtualized data center infrastructure. The significance of this news is hard to overstate.
Until now, switching in VMware virtualized environments has been handled by the same people who were creating the virtual machines: the systems group. The network group was often left out of the equation of creating new systems for a number of reasons, not least of which is that there was little or no physical switching work required to bring a new virtual system online. This has meant that a fair number of systems people have been getting a crash course in switching and networking.
As long as the virtualization project was limited to test and development, this wasn't such a big deal. However, the presenters at this tuning and tweaking workshop at Interop quoted analyst figures that said virtualization has penetrated about 10 percent to 15 percent of the data center. This was borne out in an informal audience poll at the session.
With the advent of the Cisco Nexus 1000v switch, which is a fully operational switch realized entirely in software, network staffers who may have raised concerns about and implementation barriers to further server virtualization projects will be able to use the familiar Cisco command line, management tools and scripts to help push virtualization projects forward.
By reducing the friction between the system and network groups--both of which have highly specialized, differentiated and essential skills--VMware has set the stage for a wave of data center virtualization.
I believe that other network switch makers are preparing software-only versions of their wares, but none to my knowledge has been announced. And even Cisco's switch is not commercially available yet. However, making room for best-of-breed, third-party components is a step in the right direction.
For one thing, using Cisco networking infrastructure means that the trained work force ready to tune and tweak the virtual infrastructure just got a lot bigger. Networking staff with architecting and operational experience--even in the purely physical world--will be tremendously useful in creating workable virtualized data centers. And this additional expertise couldn't come a moment too soon if the content from the Interop session is on target.
According to Barb Goldworm, president and chief analyst at FOCUS storage, performance and capacity management are the No. 2 and No. 3 limiting factors in virtualization projects. Adding networking experts already familiar with Cisco tools, and using a Cisco switch that can be slotted into an existing network management system, means that IT managers can focus on storage and capacity management concerns.
While I accept that x86-based server virtualization is a growing fact of life in the data center, it wasn't until I took a troubleshooting class at Interop Las Vegas in May that I fully understood why server virtualization is about to go further, faster.
The trigger isn’t virtualization giant VMware's recent release of vSphere 4, although this major platform release is fundamental to further virtualization adoption. The trigger isn’t the recognition of the improvements that Microsoft's Hyper-V and the upcoming release of Windows Server 2008 R2 will bring.
No, server virtualization is poised to go further and faster because of something Cisco is about to do—but it has almost nothing to do with that company's release of its Unified Computing System.
Cisco is wrapping up the beta tests of its Nexus 1000v virtual switch. With the release of VMware's vSphere 4, third-party switches including the Nexus 1000v can be incorporated into the virtualized data center infrastructure. The significance of this news is hard to overstate.
Until now, switching in VMware virtualized environments has been handled by the same people who were creating the virtual machines: the systems group. The network group was often left out of the equation of creating new systems for a number of reasons, not least of which is that there was little or no physical switching work required to bring a new virtual system online. This has meant that a fair number of systems people have been getting a crash course in switching and networking.
As long as the virtualization project was limited to test and development, this wasn't such a big deal. However, the presenters at this tuning and tweaking workshop at Interop quoted analyst figures that said virtualization has penetrated about 10 percent to 15 percent of the data center. This was borne out in an informal audience poll at the session.
With the advent of the Cisco Nexus 1000v switch, which is a fully operational switch realized entirely in software, network staffers who may have raised concerns about and implementation barriers to further server virtualization projects will be able to use the familiar Cisco command line, management tools and scripts to help push virtualization projects forward.
By reducing the friction between the system and network groups--both of which have highly specialized, differentiated and essential skills--VMware has set the stage for a wave of data center virtualization.
I believe that other network switch makers are preparing software-only versions of their wares, but none to my knowledge has been announced. And even Cisco's switch is not commercially available yet. However, making room for best-of-breed, third-party components is a step in the right direction.
For one thing, using Cisco networking infrastructure means that the trained work force ready to tune and tweak the virtual infrastructure just got a lot bigger. Networking staff with architecting and operational experience--even in the purely physical world--will be tremendously useful in creating workable virtualized data centers. And this additional expertise couldn't come a moment too soon if the content from the Interop session is on target.
According to Barb Goldworm, president and chief analyst at FOCUS storage, performance and capacity management are the No. 2 and No. 3 limiting factors in virtualization projects. Adding networking experts already familiar with Cisco tools, and using a Cisco switch that can be slotted into an existing network management system, means that IT managers can focus on storage and capacity management concerns.
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