Smart servers

Most server vendors have launched a new generation of servers with technologies that enable improved manageability and take advantage of the latest Xeon chips from Intel. By KTP Radhika

Recently, Dell, HP and Oracle all launched a new family of servers. Aiming at high-performance, improved manageability, increased efficiency, low energy consumption and better scalability, the server manufacturers have incorporated embedded processors and spruced up the architecture of their latest generation of servers.

Improved technology for better performance

The manufacturers have reinforced the system architecture of their new array of products in a big way to meet specific needs. Vikram K, Director, Industry Standard Servers, HP India, said, “Our ProLiant Gen8 servers are the result of a two year program called Project Voyager. This line of servers are powered by the ProActive Insight architecture and are self-sufficient. Along with the intelligent system components, these servers continuously analyze system parameters in order to optimize application performance and proactively improve uptime.” Incorporating 150 new design innovations, Gen8 enables customers with integrated lifecycle automation, dynamic workload acceleration, automated energy optimization and proactive service & support.

On the other hand, with a foundation of Fluid Data Architecture, Dell’s PowerEdge 12th generation servers come with the second generation of embedded systems management for better performance and manageability that helps deploy, update, monitor and maintain these servers through their entire lifecycle by means of agent-free management. Dell has a PCIe-based Flash cache solution. Sridhar S, Director – Enterprise Solutions Business, Global 500, Dell India, commented, “These servers can give greater flexibility for increased virtual machine consolidation with their large-scale memory capacity. These are changes that will have a positive impact on an organization’s bottom line”.

Also based on Intel’s Xeon E5 series, Oracle’s Sun x86 servers aim to reduce costs, streamline data center operations and offer higher performance with increased reliability. In the release, Ali Alasti, VP of Hardware Engineering, Oracle, said, “Whether you are looking to support new applications or deploy in the Cloud, Oracle’s new x86 servers are ideal platforms for Oracle software with comprehensive management, virtualization and support built-in.”

With integrated systems, these next-generation servers often need less time for deployment. Dell’s PowerEdge 12g servers deliver bare-metal deployment and provisioning that requires substantially less time thanks to fewer manual steps being required. HP’s Gen 8 servers are fully integrated systems and the OS configuration tool and firmware, drivers and tools etc. are preloaded and ready to deploy.

Energy-efficiency is another area of improvement in the latest servers. Dell’s PowerEdge servers come with dynamic and granular power management, which helps to set power thresholds to ensure that the blades operate within the specified power envelope. There is also real-time reporting for enclosure and blade power consumption as well as the ability to prioritize blade slots for power, providing optimal control over power resources.

HP has incorporated automated energy optimization capabilities in the new ProLiant family. Vikram said, “With the help of the power discovery technique, a customer can get visibility and control over power utilization and thermal demand.”

On the other hand, Oracle has introduced a chassis design that helps reduce the need for cooling. With up to 45% improvement in energy-efficiency over the previous generation of systems, Sun x86 servers capacity can expand without added power and cooling load on data center infrastructure. Oracle said that Sun x86 servers came with no limit on virtualization, a choice of operating systems and a Cloud-provisioning infrastructure built-in at no additional cost. The single integrated management tool enables simplified control across the entire stack of Oracle hardware and software components.

Dell’s PowerEdge 12g servers are optimized for virtualization across the portfolio to meet the customers’ density, flexibility and performance needs

Intelligent processors

Most of these servers use the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family. Xeon E5 series of processors deliver 80% improved performance as compared to the prior generation and offer excellent performance per watt and I/O innovation alongside trusted hardware security features.

Srinivas Tadigadapa, Director – Enterprise Solutions, Intel South Asia, said, “The Xeon E5 family of processors are not only at the heart of servers and workstations but will also power the next

generation of storage and communication systems from leading vendors around the world.” Based on 32nm process technology, Intel’s Xeon E5 family of multi-core processors implement capabilities such as four channel integrated memory controller supporting DDR3, integrated I/O with up to 40 lanes for PCI Express Generation 3.0 and point-to-point link interface based on Intel QuickPath Interconnect. “These processors are optimized for performance with the power efficiencies of a low-power micro-architecture to enable smaller, quieter systems,” added Tadigadapa. Moreover, the latest Intel Xeon processor E5-1600/2600 product family include technologies to help solve storage challenges, eliminate network bottlenecks and strengthen security on x86 servers built around them.

Investment & the market

Customers using the previous generation of servers have already started upgrading to the latest generation. Vikram said, “We have quite a few customers who have already installed the Gen8 servers. Also, there are in active discussions taking place for clients not only in the IT sector but for across other verticals like banking, manufacturing, telecom, etc.”

Dell said that the company was aiming at customers who were looking for rapid virtualization for their 12g servers. The company will invest $700 million for its R&D activities in 2012 and the major chunk will go for enterprise solution offerings including servers, storage, services and networking.

Vikram said, “With the amount of workload, if a company is not satisfied with the previous generation of servers, they can go for Gen8 without much investment.”

As companies strive to satisfy customer demand in a better way, improved performance is the key. For this, increased server efficiency is a must, which opens up an opportunity for vendors selling the new generation of servers.

radhika.ktp@expressindia.com