Intel Communities : Blog List - Server Solutions Insider

Webinar - Dell, Red Hat, and Intel help you plan migration from SPARC/Solaris

michihiro.koyama@intel.com — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:29:46 GMT

It is not late to register for a joint webinar delivered by Red Hat, Intel, and Dell.

This webinar delivers how to plan and execute your migration from SPARC/Solaris to Dell/Intel/Red Hat, a popular content also delivered in seminars the companies did in North America in October.

A clear roadmap showing the estimated timeframe and costs for your migration
Effective training for you and your IT staff
Proven best practices to ensure a smooth implementation
Join Red Hat, Intel, and Dell on December 2 2009 at 2pm ET to see how these open source pioneers can help you move from a RISC/UNIX environment to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Customers on the move - Solaris to RHEL migration guide

michihiro.koyama@intel.com — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:29:51 GMT

Just completed 8 city roadshow with Dell and Red Hat, talking to customers face to face over lunch about how a migration should be planned and done from UNIX/RISC to RHEL/Intel/Dell.

I had opportunities to attend two of the seminars in different cities, meeting few different customers. Customers came to our seminar to look for a template to quickly develop a plan that could also be approved quickly and get the project going to counter the enormous management pressure they get to do more with less.

Most of the customers I had conversations with were from medium size business.

One customer clearly said, it is no brainer, there is no reason to advocate to purchase new AIX/Power or Solaris/SPARC machines any more.

The other customer said, much of the knowledge accumulated to manage UNIX servers can immediately applied for migration activities while he saw the needs to get the UNIX administrators trained on RHEL through the training programs offered by Red Hat.

Consistently, there were the nuance that customers needed to act now, for a short term result.

For those who needs to get going on planning, Red Hat has put together a very good migration guide. The document helps you start thinking about and resourcing your migration. Register, to get started. Also, a lighter version to get an idea.

Please contact RHEL, Dell, or Intel representative for the next steps, and if you don’t have such resource, let me know. I’ll help dispatch one to you.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes!

eoin.j.mcconnell@intel.com — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:46:06 GMT

It has been a little while since I shared some thoughts about moving from RISC due to a 3 month assignment managing the Nehalem-EX product line. One word describes that product, ‘wow’, and the change it will bring to the IT marketplace as we know it. But I’m not here to talk about that….

David Bowie was certainly introspective when he wrote his “Changes” song about his need to constantly look at oneself, previous decisions and the need for frequent reinvention and change. The sentiments reflected within “Changes” can be applied to all aspects of life both personal and business. Reflecting on previous business decisions and looking for newer and better ways to do things should not be seen as the previous decision being wrong, but rather should be rewarded as looking to change and do things better based upon the environment today.

Previous business decisions to deploy your IT solutions on RISC based architectures was most likely the right decision at the time based on the business need, the solutions availability and the architecture available to run that solution. Some of these solutions are likely due for an upgrade due to changing business needs, a better version of the application now being available or have become to expensive to maintain and support on older server system. It is time to make a change and change is likely to include upgrading to next generation of software solution and choosing a new server system that will perform and work with the software solution.

With the rapid pace of technology innovation and evolution over the last number of years, the decision is not necessarily as clear cut as it may have been in the past.

What I wanted to share with you was some information around how Intel’s Xeon microprocessor has evolved and can now compete with the POWER architecture offered from IBM. Some of you may say that this is not possible, but Xeon 5500 is getting some attention as shown with information posted on IBM website

Price/performance is a key consideration for database workloads and $ / tpmC is pretty widely accepted as a good rule of thumb. Its good to see that the IBM System x3950M2 (based on the Xeon 7400 processor) has a $1.99 $ / tpmC compared to IBM Power P570 $3.54 $ / tpmC;-)

Xeon 5500 has a performance per socket leadership against a similar class POWER 6 2S system. This can be seen by comparing results at www.spec.orgfor benchmarks such as SPECJbb2005, SPECint-rate 2006 etc. IBM makes reference to performance per core leadership over the Xeon 5500. A fair statement, but most customers look at overall system level performance to do the require task. I guess my key takeaway is that if you are looking for a solution to run infrastructure type workloads and get the best bang for your buck then the Xeon 5500 delivers best price/performance

There is also some interesting discussion around scalability of Xeon Vs POWER6. Xeon 5500 is used in 2 socket configurations, and not in scalable systems. So it seems to be a little like comparing apples to oranges!. Scalable Xeon platforms are available in the market today from both IBM and Unisys. There are also 15+ designs for scalable platforms from 8 OEMs coming with Intel’s next generation scalable Xeon product, Nehalem-EX. Some good material was shared recently at Intel’s Developer Forum in San Francisco. Look for Mission Critical Server Deployment class at https://intel.wingateweb.com/us09/scheduler/catalog/catalog.jspThis material provides a good overview about how Nehalem-EX provides supportfor high-end computing with a scalable micro architecture, advanced RAS capabilities and how Redhat will support Nehalem-EX scalability. This presentation also shows an example of the innovation of NEC who are developing mission critical Linux solutions based on NEC’s Scalable architecture using Intel Xeon processors.

So is it the time for you to change?. Are existing options like the Xeon 5500 or the Xeon 7400 the right choice for you? Nehalem-EX is coming and I believe will bring a huge change to the marketplace as we know it today.

What do you think?

Come join our RISC migration seminar, Oct 14, at Kokkari, San Francisco

michihiro.koyama@intel.com — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:11:32 GMT

Looking for an excuse to sneak out of the office for a RISC migration seminar? Here's one for you which you can't resist. How about a seminar associated with a spectacular lunch at a great Greek restaurant in the city of San Francisco?

Dell, Red Hat, and Intel are hosting a RISC migration seminar over lunch, during Oracle Open World next week.

Register here for the seminar held at the Kokkari restaurant, 12pm, Wednesday, October 14. It is not too late. Small number of seats still available.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn when and how the migration should be done and ask questions to Dell/ Red Hat/ Intel team members present on site. I am hoping the hosting members do their job not just busy enjoying lunch.

Red Hat - Intel RISC migration webinar ready for download

michihiro.koyama@intel.com — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:42:14 GMT

The webinar the Red Hat - Intel team delivered on Sep 23rd is now available for download for those who missed listening in real time.

96% of the webinar guests thought the content was good or better,

91% of the guests thought the content met expectation, and

in general, the audience has requested more of technical "how to's" of UNIX/ RISC to RHEL/ Intel migration.

Enjoy...

Another webinar and a whitepaper on migrating UNIX/RISC to RHEL/Intel

michihiro.koyama@intel.com — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:48:39 GMT

Register and mark your calendar. On Sep 23, 10am EDT (New York) / 14:00 GMT / 16:00 CEST (Paris), Red Hat and Intel team will host another webinar, guiding you through the steps to take to migrate your enterprise workload from UNIX/RISC to RHEL/Intel. The "why" and economics of the migration is now quite evident. This webinar presents "how" a migration should be carried out. The time is scheduled best for audience in Europe, Middle East, and Africa, but also works well for those on the east coast of Americias.

In the mean time, Red Hat has written this migration whitepaper that walks you through methodologies of a migration.

Happy migration! and drive your data center cost down!

Take actions, UNIX/RISC to Linux/Intel migration guides

michihiro.koyama@intel.com — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:23:09 GMT

There has always been a Linux option for enterprise workloads. But today, with greater uncertainty and greater pressure for cost reduction, the option, these days, is now THE course to take. But how?

Here are two whitepapers we developed with our friends in the industry, giving data center managers guidance and directions on what to look for and what actions could be taken for UNIX/RISC to Linux/Intel migration.

With Ziff Davis, Dell, Red Hat... http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-3631;jsessionid=BF37C65ED3F67E934DD8DB579D28898E.node3COMS

With Red Hat... http://communities.intel.com/docs/DOC-3642;jsessionid=BF37C65ED3F67E934DD8DB579D28898E.node3COMS

Also, visit http://www.redhat.com/intelligence/ for more information on the RISC migration program we run with Red Hat.

HP Tech Forum 2009 - HP Z600 Workstation

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:17:37 GMT

Intel's Clayton Craft shows and discusses a HP Z600 Workstation featuring the Intel Xeon 5500 processor at the HP Tech Forum.

Cisco Live 2009: "The Datacenter of the Future"

webadmin@intel.com — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 18:02:02 GMT

Steve Phillips with Cisco gives us a tour of "The Datacenter of the Future". Check out this short video:

What does your Datacenter of the Future look like? How can Intel and Cisco help?

SuperComputer Under Your Desk?

webadmin@intel.com — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:37:45 GMT

Today, I was made aware through my twitter contacts about the Cray CX1 product. Since i have been doing several online webinars and blogs recently talking about the advances in HPC performance over last decade and what innovation has enabled for mainstream HPC users. So i wanted to share what i found about Cray. In short, the CX1 is an HPC solution Purpose-Built for Offices, Laboratories or Other Constrained Environments and sized to fit under a desk, contains up to 8 server blades and an awful lot of storage and I/O.

Read more straight from Cray's CX1 product brief ... "Who says world-class high performance computing (HPC) should be reserved for large research centers? The Cray CX1™ supercomputer makes HPCperformance available to everyone, combining the power of a high performance cluster with the affordability, ease-of-use and seamless integration of a workstation. Equipped with powerful Intel® Xeon® processors and state-of-the-art visualization and storage capabilities ... (more)

Chris

http://www.twitter.com/chris_p_intel