Wintel Servers Challenge Domination of Big Three

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UNIX vendors such as Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM have long dominated the mid-range server market, but Wintel systems finally look like they are overcoming their desktop image. After almost a decade at the low end of the server market with ubiquitous NT boxes operating as file and print servers, Windows is now making a major play into the mid-range sector. The average data center these days consists of hundreds of Intel and UNIX servers — 230 servers to be exact, according to a recent survey of 300 data center managers by Patrick Marketing (Calabasas, CA). This survey highlights the dominance of lower end Windows NT and Windows 2000 servers (Exhibit 2). A server-management labyrinth is the result and can mean that adding a single application often requires adding three to five servers to the data center for production, development, testing, and backup. Further, many of these distributed servers run at very low utilizations. It has gotten to the point where, for many, the honeymoon is over with regard to the deployment of inexpensive, commodity-type servers for every function throughout the enterprise. The economics used to be attractive, but the licensing and administrative expenses may now be tipping the financial scales in favor of server consolidation.

This has been demonstrated in Gartner Group surveys that reveal a marked shift in attitude toward server consolidation in recent years. In 1998, 30 percent were already consolidating, 45 percent were considering the possibility, and 25 percent had no intention of consolidating. By the end of 2001, 69 percent were already consolidating, 25 percent were thinking about it, and only 6 percent had no plans to do so (Exhibit 3). Based on a large volume of interviews with enterprise clients, Gartner Group now regards server consolidation to be one of the most important issues its clients are facing. The analyst group believes that consolidation and effective resource management within a single operating system can dramatically reduce TCO and improve enterprise flexibility.

Exhibit 3: The Trend toward Server Consolidation

Server consolidation was difficult with Windows NT, however, as the operating system struggled to overcome the 4-CPU limit, although some clustered approaches scaled higher. This effectively locked Wintel out of largescale, demanding commercial computing applications. At the lower end, Wintel offered appealing price/performance characteristics, hence its widespread deployment as file, print, intranet, and infrastructure servers, but rarely was Windows NT used in core data centers and mission-critical business applications. That may be changing, however, due to the range of scale offered by the Windows 2000 Server family (and now the Windows Server 2003 family). Windows 2000 Advanced Server, for example, scales up to 8 processors. But, more importantly to the mid-range market, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server scales up to 32 processors within a single symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) server, putting it on a par with many UNIX systems but at far less cost. Factor in the improvements in CPU horsepower of late, and it can be seen that these servers perform well enough to be a serious rival to some mainframe machines. Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, in particular, has achieved some impressive scores using industry benchmark tests.

Windows 2000 Datacenter Server

The Datacenter Server is the most robust member of the Windows 2000 family. This operating system is designed to offer scalability and reliability for enterprise users. It provides companies with the ability to quickly expand to meet system needs while maintaining a high level of availability, as well as the opportunity to phase out smaller NT servers, replacing them with Datacenter Server clusters. Datacenter Server supports up to a 4-node server cluster, doubling the availability in any previous Microsoft operating system. It also supports network load balancing on up to 32 nodes. Perhaps the best news, though, is that it is impossible to purchase Windows 2000 Datacenter off the shelf; instead, it is available through only a handful of certified OEM partners, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Unisys, Compaq, and IBM. Each offers an approved Datacenter program that includes a package consisting of a specific hardware platform, Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, and the installation/ tuning/maintenance support needed to run a high-end Wintel server. Users must buy the entire package and can only obtain it from approved vendors who meet such standards as guaranteeing 99.9 percent availability, 24/7 support, on-site support, change management, and a minimum number of Microsoft certified professionals (MCPs) available in the support center. The whole idea is to hold these vendors 100 percent accountable for the system as a whole, as opposed to causing finger pointing between software and hardware vendors.

Unisys, for example, places a heavy emphasis on support services to maximize performance. A large group of support and implementation staff is available to walk users through the planning, prototyping, and deployment of the ES7000 server. Customers can take advantage of a wide range of services, such as setup and installation of Windows NT/2000, preinstallation analysis, hands-on sessions on the system management applications of the platform, capacity planning, Active Directory planning, customer training, benchmark services, and performance analysis.

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