Data Center Cost Analysis

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Although well-worn clichés abound on the subject of the Internet and E-commerce, it is nevertheless true that the advent of the Internet has brought about a massive shift in the way business is conducted. Whereas the old way involved isolated information silos, each one operating independently, the new paradigm depends upon instantaneous information access and sharing. As a result, many legacy platforms have been exposed as no longer being adequate to meet the needs of the modern enterprise. Today's systems must be able to cope with Web-based technologies and applications and must be attuned to the demands of large numbers of customers and/or internal users; otherwise, the business consequences can be catastrophic. Witness the collapse of some prominent E-tailers after they failed to cope with demand during the 2000 holiday season. Delays due to system slowdowns, therefore, can be disastrous, and, unless an enterprise's systems and applications are geared toward immediate response across the Internet, Intranet, or Extranet, its future is in jeopardy. This is where the latest high-end Wintel servers running Windows 2000 Datacenter Server and Windows Server 2003 come into their own (see Chapters 13 and 15). The Unisys ES7000, for example, has achieved impressive benchmark results running Windows 2000 Datacenter Server.

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