First there was the Multi-Billion Dollar Automobile “Cash for Clunkers” program that I wrote about back in early August. Then in late August we started reading more about the planned $300M state-run rebate programs for consumer purchases of new ENERGY STAR® qualified home appliances. Appliance categories eligible for rebates include: central air conditioners, heat pumps (air source and geothermal), boilers, furnaces (oil and gas), room air conditioners, clothes washers, dishwashers, freezers, refrigerators, and water heaters.
The government wants to make cars and homes more energy efficient, while helping to support the nation’s economic recovery.But what about making Data Centers more efficient?
A couple of years ago the US Environmental Protection Agency reported that the energy consumption associated with data centers had doubled between 2000 and 2006, reaching some 60 billion kWh in 2006, roughly 1.5% of the entire US energy use. The EPA says this is expected to double again by 2010.The same authors of that report previously calculated that US servers currently use the same level of electricity as all color TVs in the country combined.
So this got me thinking…which industries have done the most to increase output per energy unit and which products also offer the most attractive paybacks when you invest in them.The findings were interesting to say the least.Let’s first look at the sectors creating more energy-efficient products over the last 30 years*.
Agriculture – 1978 (0.63 units of output per unit of energy use), 2008 (1.46): Energy Efficiency gains = 132%
Steel Mfg – 1978 (63 lbs of steel per MBtu), 2008 (167 lbs): Energy Efficiency gains = 167%
Lighting – 1978 (Incandescent light bulb – 13 lumens per watt), 2008 (Compact Fluorescent Bulb – 57 lumens per watt): Energy Efficiency gains = 339%
Computer Systems – 1978 (1,400 instructions per second per watt), 2008 (40,000,000 instructions per second per watt): Energy Efficiency gains = 2,857,000%
*Source:“A Smarter Shade of Green,” ACEEE Report for the Technology CEO Council, 2008.
Next let’s look at some big ticket energy efficient products that offer the most attractive paybacks on their investments. (Note: Buying a hybrid automobile wouldn’t make this list below in terms of rapid payback, hence not included.)
New Intel Xeon 5500 based Server: 9 months payback per the Xeon ROI estimator at www.intel.com/go/xeonestimator. (I modeled refreshing from older 2005 Single-Core servers, getting 10:1 server consolidation ratio.)
IT industry far exceeds others at increasing output per energy unit… and Intel servers also offer a faster payback on investment than other energy efficient products (including Energy Star Products).Yet there is not government stimulus package to help encourage these purchases in energy efficiency. Simply, this is the most energy efficient investment that the government won’t help you make.
I and Sean Varley will be jointly presenting a session on ‘I/O innovations optimized for enterprise cloud’ at Intel Developer Forum (IDF). We are focusing on the I/O challenges in virtualization based enterprise cloud infrastructure and how current innovations, collaborations and technologies solve some of the challenges efficiently.
I have written in the past we have a view that evolution of virtualization has different phases to it. IT begins with basic consolidation, what we call virtualization 1.0, and then wants to extract more efficiency through flexible resource utilization and automation that we term as virtualization 2.0. The next phase to flexible resource management is deployment and management of scalable applications on a dynamic infrastructure, which we can relate to as enterprise cloud or virtualization 3.0.
In our view, the requirements of virtualization 2.0 makes virtualization 1.0 better and similarly the requirements of virtualization 3.0 makes 2.0 phase better. This means some of the challenges and solutions we discuss for enterprise cloud will make the IT datacenter today much efficient.
So what are the I/O challenges for enterprise cloud built on virtualization? There are many.
Enterprise cloud model would mean being able to deploy the workload on available infrastructure (given that security and compliance needs are met) in a more flexible manner. This could lead to large scale consolidation given the new server capacity and performance. More VMs on a single server means more pressure on the I/O. So we need a balanced platform solution that maps the I/O capability to the CPU performance increases.
Flexible resource utilization should mean that the even the I/O hardware resources are flexible. However typical I/O architecture in a server is very rigid today. IT typically configures a virtualized server with a bunch of HBAs for storage I/O and eight or ten ports of Ethernet device for network traffic. Add to it separate cabling associated with each. Well, that means we cannot reallocate resources as needed in a flexible manner. So I/O hardware resource limits the extent of true flexibility. How to get around the challenge of rigidness in I/O architecture? And how do we reduce the complexity of the fabric and the power consumption? We perhaps need a unified converged high-speed I/O fabric.
Is it sufficient to have a converged fabric or do we need more? Ofcourse we need more, what about the QoS and SLA of the I/O traffic? How about the scalability of the I/O fabric and security features to isolate the traffic between two VMs?
All these are important as well in a multitenant enterprise environment.
In our session we explain how Intel in its products and through standards work has been targeting solutions for these challenges and delivering those to market with the ecosystem. To learn more make sure you attend the IDF session ECTS006. And for those who cannot attend, look for a blog from me and Sean post-IDF where we will succinctly define how we solve the challenges with Intel technology solutions.
Since we started the Ask An Expert discussion thread in the Server Room a couple years ago, I found that the community often asked for guidance between selection of server system type and processor number as IT professionals sought to make the best purchase for them.
As I responded to these threads, I realized there were a lot of the same questions occurring over and over again. I then thought that having a selection tool to allow the community to guide themselves through a few questions to help narrow the options might be a valuable.
Sometimes the world (ok Intel) moves too slowly for me. My brainchild on this was something I wanted to have done about a year ago with the first 45nm quad-core processors (Xeon 5400). However, our server and corporate marketing teams got a little distracted by the Xeon 5500 (Nehalem) processor launch.
However, after much delay I’m proud to introduce this simple, interactive Xeon Server processor selector tool that can help you choose which server system type and processor would be ideal for your application and business goals. With Three Easy Steps, you can narrow your choices.
Step 1: Identify the business environment, application type and primary purchase criteria
Step 2: Compare and Choose the processor family (7000, 5000, 3000)
Step 3: Compare and Choose the specific processor within that family
In this 3rd step you can look at price, performance, power and feature set across multiple CPUs to help you narrow. Take a short cut and look at the most popular CPUs or expand your options and look at the whole range of offerings.
We also have a Workstation Selection Tool (this tool was what triggered the idea to create a server one)
Other IT and business value assessment tools from Intel include:
Found this video about how intel IT converted what was a high volume manafacturing facility to a high performance computing datacenter that now is on the top 500 list. Watch Tom Greenbaum, Data Center Operations Manager for Intel IT, provide a description of this retro-fit and tour of the new facility.
Some key facts highlighted in the video
avoided several million $ in facility cost avoidance
landed traditional enterprise environment in raised floor, hot/cold aisle design in one section of facility
landed HPC environmet on existing concrete slab floor which enabled higher density deployment of servers
6M Watt, 10K server capacity (4.7k today)
room to grow for future to support data center consolidation
I'm always looking for good ways to describe to end-users what Intel Intelligent Power Node Manager can relate to everyday activities. Over the weekend, I was helping a buddy of mine move to a new home, and of course we rented a truck. While we were driving, we noticed a cool gauge on the dash and a pretty simple sticker describing what it does:
Keep it in the Green - what a simple concept! Most everyone can relate to the gas pedal in your vehicle directly with gas mileage. If you have a lead-foot, you burn more gas. But people who want to conserve, and keep it green - use cruise control.
Well, Intel servers can also be managed to optimize the energy consumed by the platform. Power Optimzed servers using X5500 Series Processors (Nehalem) and the X5500 chipset in conjunction with Node Manager is like cruise-control - you set your "speed" and the servers keep that maximum speed. It's all managed via P/T states using Intel Datacenter Manager.
Of course, at times the RED ZONE is needed - work needs to get DONE - so you throttle up, kick in the Turbo Boost and release that power cap! But there are also times when all that energy isn't needed - so you lift your foot off the gas pedal, and set your speed for the work that needs to be done. Intel Xeon based servers can transition to higher/lower power states using technologies like EIST, DBS, and Node Manager.
Keep your eyes on the lookout for more data on Intel and server power management at the Intel Developer Forum 2009
New Server Security Technologies Are Coming & Why We Need Them
The other day I had the opportunity to talk with Jeff Casazza and James Green from Intel’s Server Platform Group.The topic? server security.Our conversation was focused on the introduction of some new security technologies that are on their way and why we need them.During our discussion, I found myself thinking back to my days in the US Navy, where security was a core topic of everything we did. The introduction of submarines transformed naval tactics and the stealth fighter changed aviation tactics.
So, why does IT put so much emphasis on information security?… because the cost of a data breech is extremely high.Imagine if a data breech of your IT systems resulted in losing employee social security numbers or customer information – the cost to recover that data (if possible) and the legal costs (penalties from regulatory agencies) is very, very high.Jeff and James mentioned that business models are also exposed if these types of information escapes happen – a company’s brand, business and employee relationships could be at risk given the nature of trust and integrity that circle throughout our business.
Security always ranks high in importance, especially when we feel at risk.As I have transitioned into my new role inside Intel IT, I have found a significant focus on security solutions especially as new threats (for profit attacks), new usages (client / server virtualization, cloud computing) and new collaboration tools (social media) challenge our existing paradigms of information security.
During my discussion, I learned about two technology standards that Intel is implementing for servers that reduce security risks and address the changing nature of information security attacks happening today and expected tomorrow.
Stealth Fighters Attacking Your Data: The nature of security attacks have changed.Previous generation hackers used to target broad wide spread attacks on corporations or the worldwide web trying to disrupt business, gain notoriety with the ability to affect tens of thousands of people.The newer generation attackers are seeking a smaller target .. a single laptop or a single server.These new for-profit attacks are aimed at both industrial (business) or government entities and only need a single penetration into your infrastructure to get enough information to create a serious issue for your business.
Encryption: A solution to defend against the stealth fighter point attack on your data is increased encryption of data.Data encryption is not new.Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption for communication over the internet, harddisk encryption and enterprise application encryption are all standard methods IT shops use to protect information.Unfortunately, encryption is not free, and I’m not talking about purchase cost .. but rather compute cost.Encryption is a compute intensive process that consumes processing cycles. Intel is planning on introducing new instructions for Advance Encryption Standards (AES-NI) that are intended to dramatically improve the efficiency of encryption in a future version of it’s processor micro architectures.
Submarines Seeking Your Data From Under Your Hypervisor: Much of the anti-virus and security protection that resides on servers and client machines resides and is run through either the Operating System, Hypervisor or Application layer.New malware software and root kits are targeting systems at startup before the hypervisor and/or OS boot up undermining the protection you have at the higher levels of the application stack.
A new server technology from Intel, called Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT) works to ensure your system can boot up to the secure, protected environment you have deployed through your software stack.In doing this, TXT ensures that your anti-virus software “perimeter” is secure and has not been compromised by a root kit “submarine”.TXT has been available in Client Intel® vPro™ processor technology-based platforms since 2007.
Tune into the upcoming Intel Developers Forum (www.intel.com/idf) to learn more about plans for securing your server’s data and many other technology innovations from Intel.
Intel's RK Hiremane & Sun's David Caplan discuss Xeon 5500 blade servers virtualization ROI
Join experts from Intel, Sun Microsystems, and Ziff Davis Enterprise on August 20 for an informative eSeminar, where you will learn:
• How Sun’s Network Express Module technology works • How easy it is to achieve high availability and near-instant failover • How to reduce network cabling by a factor of 10:1 • How to simplify network and storage management.
If you have been around the workstation community for a while you may be used to seeing numbers like 4, 8 12 64GB. Those are the old numbers – sorry.
When the Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series debuted it introduced systems with up to3 memory channels as opposed to just two. So how much memory do you need now? Well to get peak performance from your workstation you need to think in multiples of 3 and not 2. That means not 4GB and certainly not 3 GB. Numbers that work best are identified in the table below.
Number of Dimm’s
3
6
9
12
18
Size
Of
Dimm’s
2GB
6
12
18
24
36
4GB
12
24
36
48
72
8GB
24
48
72
96
144
Ok that is a lot of choices. Which one is most likely to deliver the best workstation experience when you have three memory channels and why?
As before in the two channel days, the best experience will be arrived at when you evenly populate dimm slots.That answer will vary on whether or not you have a single processor workstation or a dual processor digital workbench.
If you have a single processor entry level workstation you will want to configure your systems with 6, 12 or 18GB if you are using 2GB memory sticks. If you are using 4GB sticks you want to think of 12, 24 and 36GB. And if you are really thinking rich memory configurations you will want to focus on 24, 48 and 72GB configurations. This assumes you have up to nine dim slots.
If you are using dual processor digital workbench and you are mega-tasking through a number of complex task you may want to consider the following sweet spots.
With 2GB memory sticks you will need to think of 12, 24, 36Gb. With 4GB memory sticks you should think of 24, 48 and 72GB and with 8GB memory sticks you should be thinking of 48, 96 and 144GB. Again the goal is to keep the memory channels with the same memory sizes and speeds to see the best performance.When you do that you are most likely going to see the best performance.
If you are wondering which kind of workstation is best for the work you do, you want to visit the Intel workstation technology page and use the workstation selection tool. It can be found at www.intel.com/products/workstation/processors
One of the key elements that change going from a non-virtualized environment to virtual environment is the security model. The security model needs some additional considerations going to virtual environment.
I and a few of my colleagues who meet with IT end customers deploying virtualization on a regular basis have realized that there are some frequently asked questions/concerns and also misconceptions about protection in virtualized environment.
We also did a bit of research on types of documents available to help IT understand the topic of security model in virtualized environment better, but found most articles to be either outright dismissive of security concerns or took a very opposite theoretical and conservative view on lack of security.
So with the help of our architects we developed the below white paper with an intent to help IT managers, strategists and implementers understand resource protection in virtualized environment better. We also address some of the frequently asked questions and typical misconceptions with security in virtual datacenter.
The white paper essentially takes a balanced view and provides an overview of security model changes, challenges and considerations that organizations must address when implementing virtualization. It introduces hardware, software, and policy measures available to help address those challenges, including their strengths and limitations and then closes with a brief discussion of some key issues associated with security in emerging cloud computing usage models.
We created a server refresh ROI estimator tool to help IT managers make sense of the significant OpEx savings they can achieve by making targeted investments in new server hardware. In my previous blog when we introduced the ROI tool back in April 2009, I talked about the capabilities of the estimator and the benefits of server refresh.In the first 3 months, we have had nearly 4,000 users of the ROI estimatorand of those users almost 800 users have printed reports to share with others in their organizations. The feedback we have received from users has been very encouraging.
CIO for major US hospital: “This would help my IT staff justify the financial value of the technology investment they are proposing. This has been a barrier to freeing up capital internally”
IT Manager for major US bank: “I used to have regular funding for technology refresh projects. It was a given for my budget. However, with the increased constraints on capital, I now have to justify this type of spending”
Technology Sales Consultant: “This tool helped me work better with my customer to gain a deeper understanding of their server environment and allowed us to jointly identify high ROI investments to improve their infrastructure”
I have also heard many constructive suggestions for improvement.As a result, we have continued to evolve the tool based on feedback from users.
Tool Training – How to Use: We heard that the benefits of using the Savings Refresh Estimator spanned many functional roles, making us realize that the use models for this type of tool and what users were looking for would vary dramatically from person to person.This has challenged us to look at ways to streamline the user interface (something we continue to work on) for different users and analyses.In the interim, we are in the process of developing a video training guide to help users understand how to use the tool to get maximum benefit. We have a pdf training guide today that can help you get started now.
PowerPoint Output: What would we do without powerpiont? JWe received feedback on the desire to make the output of this tool more sharable inside IT organizations and with business partners in a powerpoint format as a way to communicate the opportunity and benefits for server refresh investment.So, we now have a powerpoint output option in the reports section that breaks down the benefits of server refresh for a variety of audiences from executive staff to facilities to finance.Everyone inside your business can benefit from server refresh and now you can show them how.
Secure Analysis: We received feedback that many users wanted access off-line either as a way to use in meetings when connectivity was challenged or to protect internal data from exposure online.We now have the ability for you to run the tool on your laptop to support these use models.
More … More … More Functionality. We heard lots of requests and ideas to expand the level of functionality and analysis capabilities.We have to balance scope, complexity Keep these requests coming.The following changes are incorporated into today’s estimator.
Virtualization to Virtualization Refresh Scenario – now included
Virtualization Loading: Can edit and change VM/server new and old
Custom Performance Data – enter you own performance data to better model what you expect to see in your biz
Depreciation Cycle – no longer fixed at 4yrs .. can adjust
Memory Sizing: information added to allow user analysis
Processor Description: allows user to cross reference data to other more familiar terminology.
Accuracy / Approach: We have also heard some feedback challenging us on different ways to look at refresh scenarios, especially as we learn more about how people are looking at and using virtualization and sizing their environments after refresh.Sizing is a very customer-centric and application specific task that is difficult to model in a one-sized fits all.We won’t be able to model every sizing situation, but are planning some future enhancements intended to help you self-evaluate.
I want to thank everyone in the community for their input on this tool and helping us to deliver a better product over time.Keep the ideas coming.Feel free to respond with comments here.
Japan announced today that it has emerged from recession, following Germany and France’s announcements last week that their economies also grew in the second quarter.
Moody’s Economy.com Business Confidence survey shows that confidence has been steadily increasing since March ‘09.
For the first time since September ’08, “Economic Recovery” nudges above “Economic Crisis” in Google Search Volume in early August.
In addition to this, economic forecasts (WW GDP, US GDP, and EU GDP) point to a recovery over the next 6 months.A couple of quotes:
The direction of real GDP is even expected to turn from negative to positive in the current quarter. The academic arbiters of the business cycle at the National Bureau of Economic Research will eventually proclaim that the Great Recession ended sometime this summer. Moody’s Economy.Com – July 7, 2009
The global economy is beginning to pull out of a recession unprecedented in the post–World War II era International Monetary Fund, imf.org – July 8, 2009
So, why am I bombarding this blog with various optimistic economic data? Because if we really are pulling out of the abyss, I’m worried that many companies out there are sitting on servers that will not be ready for the increased demand right around the corner.
John Gantz, IDC Vice President in his keynote speech at the start of this year’s CIO Summit in Auckland was quoted as saying there will be an unprecedented amount of IT-driven change in the next four years.He projected that there will be a three-fold rise in mobile users and information will grow five-fold, resulting in heightened levels of security and privacy and questions on which data to store or throw away. He also mentioned that the number of interactions between people on networks will grow eight times.
So this got me thinking… Is your company looking to differentiate and go after more market share while your competitors are hunkered down and not investing in the downturn? My guess is that there are a lot of IT managers being asked to support more social media, offer more SaaS, deploy more virtual machines, and support more real time analytics to get a leg up on the competition.My gut tells me that it will be hard to do all of this with older servers that were put into another year of extended warranty because that felt like the right move when the proverbial economic s**t hit the fan last year.
It’s critical to be prepared for when the recovery comes, and data points to an economic turnaround happening now – are you positioning your department to own it when it arrives?
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Intel's Chief Virtualization Architect Rich Uhlig to discuss the new usage models and virtualization technologies in Intel new Xeon 5500 series platform. Rich and I have been friends and colleagues for several years and the video of our discussion is attached and can be viewed on Youtube. The conversation sparked some interesting questions from my colleagues, friends and children which I thought I would share with a wider audience.
First the questions from my son's (I have three boys...yes this means that my wife has the patience of a saint):
Dad, what is virtualization? Does that mean you can take people and computers and teleport them to new places, like Star Trek? Did Intel invent virtualization? Why do you think it is so cool? When I grow up, can I be virtualized?
My Answer:
Slow down.....slow down...let me try to answer the questions one at a time.
Virtualization is the ability to increase computer, network and storage utilization with multiple operating systems or logical machines, called virtual machines. This allows Dad and his friends to use more of their computers with different applications and devices. Using virtualization allows Dad and his friends to save money, save power and increase efficiency.
Response (My three son's in unison):
Boring! I thought you said your job is cool. Your such a geek......(trailing off and looking at their iPods)
My response:
Guys, hold on...let me explain. Virtualization technology IS cool. While it wasn't invented by Intel, we have worked with an industry of incredibly gifted engineers, architects and designers to create new ways for people to use their computer technology....and the best part is we are only in the beginning. By the time you are an adult you will have the opportunity to use virtualization technology in ways we are only beginning to imagine. Think of virtualization as a journey and evolution of computer technology for Dad and his friends to maximize the use of the computers that we buy/build. Hopefully, with more innovation and computer technology advances you will be able to create a virtualization layer that will allow you and your digital identity to "teleport" to new places in a virtual cloud. You won't be "virtualized" but you will be able to create your digital environment wherever there is a machine that can understand your commands. That is pretty cool. Think of it this way, you can save and play your Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation or XBox profiles on any machine, any where in the world that can download your profile.
Response (from my 13 year old):
You mean I can play EA's Madden Football 24 hours a day with my friends, even when we are on vacation and you want me to see some historic landmark, like the Lincoln Memorial?
My response:
Well...yes but not exactly what I had in mind. (aargh!)
A recent question from my friend from a former job on Virtualization:
I hear the new Intel chip, Nehalem (formerly known as the Intel Xeon 5500 series), is the best product you guys have released in a long time, What makes the product so good, is it the virtualization technology that you work on?
My response:
Virtualization technology provides increased instrumentation and flexibility for the Intel Xeon 5500 series platform but it is only one a host of fantastic features which make this product the best we have ever released. For Data Center managers, increased efficiency is an every day part of life. Nehalem offers increased performance, increase memory capacity, a new Quick Path Interconnect (which acts like a NUMA switch fabric on silicon, remember that cool product we launched in 1997 at Sequent Computers?) and a 2nd generation of virtualization capabilities that deliver native virtualization instruction capabilities for VMWare, Microsoft, Citrix and a host of Xen providers. It is a truly a breakthrough server product. With this new architecture and design characteristics we are able to meet the needs of a platform of new Virtualization usage models including: Rapid Application Deployment, High Availability, Virtual Desktop Infrastructures and Server Consolidation. It is a very exciting time...
My friend's response:
Very cool. I miss working on hardware innovations...sounds like you guys at Intel are up to something special. Should I buy the stock?
My response:
Thanks. Intel is a great place to work and we are doing some very cool product innovations. Do we always have to talk about stock price?
Finally, a recent question from a dear colleague:
What happens if virtualization technology is deployed on every platform that Intel ships? Won't business and consumers need less devices? Won't users no longer have an insatiable demand for compute, network and storage resources?
My Answer:
Funny you should ask that question. Rich Uhlig, Fernando Martins, Rick Olha, RK and I have debated this exact question for years. The answer is simple. Virtualization increases demand for more resources than ever before. In fact, until the recent economic downturn virtualization technology was cited by a Citigroup analyst as the key driver to Server growth in 2H 2007. For the first time in over 10 years the markets average selling price was increasing. Why? Because users could do more with every server they purchased. Virtualization actually facilitiates more usages on more application development and production environments than ever before. As we increase the performance of the instruction sets and Intel Microarchitectures we increase the capabilities that virtualization can impact for new usage models, while preserving some the legacy compatibility that users require for 32-bit application workloads. Simply stated, "we can do more with less!"
Next question (by the way this was a skeptical Intel exec.):
Doing more with less is fine...but what about our volumes for server products? what happens when virtualization is prevalent across all of Intel CPU and Platform offerings?
My response:
Flexibility and control are critical to all of our customers regardless of form factor. Is there anything worse then buying a new server, PC or handheld and having application compatibility errors? No. Do we really believe the world wants to become software compatibility specialists everytime Microsoft releases a new operating system? What about Dell, HP, Lenovo, IBM, Acer, Nokia, Motorola, LG, Samsung, RIM and HTC? It has taken us over 10 years of research, testing and product development to get here. Virtualization is a "Hot Topic" today and will be in the future because it makes a positive difference in our customers lives both financially and efficiently. Our job is deliver the greatest silicon products the world has ever seen, over and over and over again. Virtualization allows us to do that AND preserve the investments our customers and software partners make in developing their own operating environments. What is cooler than that? Virtualization facilitates innovation, consumption and utilization, our customers are telling us this everyday. Innovation is critical to this process, enabling our software colleagues is a must and opening up the discussion is part of the process.
Her response:
Well, I guess you are pretty passionate about virtualization?
My response:
I hope so...that is why you hired me.
Have a listen, enjoy the video and join the discussion of Rich and I. For us, Virtualization is a very Hot topic, that we have thought is Cool for a very long time.
I wrote a while back about how the Xeon 7400(Dunnington) processor series compared to RISC. Since then I have shared information through other blog posts and sharing content about how Xeon 7400 and Xeon 5500 will compare to both SPARC and POWER.
Xeon 7400 and Xeon 5500 are the current products shipping into the marketplace today. I.M.H.O they offer a pretty compelling alternative from both a performance and TCO perspective Vs SPARC and POWER. But I will not try and repeat all the reasons here
What I wanted to share with you was some thoughts about what the next product to succeed Xeon 7400 will bring to the RISC party. Nehalem-EX is the code-name for our next generation of product designed to serve workloads currently serviced by Xeon 7400 today (i.e. Database, ERP, BI etc). EX btw is what we all would traditionally call MP or multi processor servers
Don't stop reading now, here is why I'm EXCITED about what Nehalem-EX will bring to the RISC party.
My excitement is actually based on real customer discussions about what Nehalem-EX will do for them and why it delivers some new stuff (my code for features and benefits) which they see as a pre-requisite to make the move from RISC to Xeon. For some customers the TCO and performance of products have been enough to convince them to move. For some other customers there are still some checkboxes remaining which I believe Nehalem-EX will address
Here is a snapshot of some of the cool new stuff which is actually convincing customers (from some real deals that I have worked)
Improved bandwidth. Up to 9 times memory bandwidth of previous generations
I have been working in servers for almost 10 years with intel and in the last 4 years, much of my job had me focused on how IT uses server technology to create business value. It was an awesome experience where I learned new things every day from OEMs, Intel's customers, sales force and with social media ... many extended.
During my role as an end user product marketing manager, I found that Intel IT was an extremely valuable source of learning for me to understand the end customer of the products that Intel makes and enables. I also found that end user IT organizations valued hearing how Intel IT was approaching business challenges and deploying technology solutions to create value. So when I was given the opportunity to move into Intel IT and be part of that team and learn from the inside out, my decision was easy.
I'm excited about seeing all aspects of technology (client, server, storage, network, facility, pc companions ... ), how IT aligns to business goals, makes investment trade-offs, implements new projects without disrupting business processes, and a host of other topics. My learning curve is steep and fast (just the way I like it). So as I transition and learn about Intel IT from the inside out, I will continue to share my experiences and learnings as i go
If you'd like to follow along real time on my Journey to the Center of IT, follow me on twitter (@Chris_P_Intel) as I will share the things I find, learn and explore. Let me know if there is something you want to know.
In the mean time, check out the various resources available from IT@Intel including technical / business whitepapers, tools, videos and blogs. Many of these are already on my required reading list.
