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 estimator and 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? J We 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.

Chris

twitter: @chris_p_intel

You’ve seen it on the front pages of the papers lately.  The program that offers consumers incentives to trade in older used cars for more fuel-efficient new cars is pushing auto sales into overdrive.  The $1B in govt. funding for it was burned through in less than a week. The U.S. House of Representatives rushed through an additional $2B in emergency funds just to keep the program going, but will need Senate approval if it’s going to extend beyond Tuesday August 4^th. My guess is to make a continuation of the program palatable to the U.S. taxpayer, the incentive will need to be cut (from $4500 for a new fuel-efficient car to somewhere in the $1-2k range) but it’s great to seen people buying cars and stimulating part of the economy – while getting older fuel-inefficient cars off the roads.

I saw an interesting article talking about whether a similar program for servers would work…and though I think it’s a creative idea, I’ll argue that Intel and our OEM partners have been offering “Cash for Clunkers” for quite some time now – without any U.S. taxpayer help.  How? Through promoting the benefits of server refresh, a strategy that is proving to be one of the most beneficial investments to IT and business. Using the Xeon ROI Estimator I spent 2-3 minutes modeling potential savings by comparing 4-year old 2P Intel Xeon based servers to new 2P Intel Xeon 5500 based servers – and this is what I found:

An investment in one Intel Xeon 5500 based server (~$8.5k including purchase price, migration cost, and software validation) enables up to 10x performance per server, a 10:1 server consolidation opportunity vs. 10 older servers purchased 4 years ago that as an IT manager I can now get rid of.  So where’s the cash for the clunkers? Well, I would save over $4k a year in energy costs and over $11k a year in server / software maintenance costs by cutting out the old and putting in the new.  The 4-year total savings is about $38k, with a break even period of about 9 months. Not bad…and that doesn’t even take into consideration software licensing costs that I probably can save by cutting down the server count. Try modeling this yourself and check out the new PowerPoint report that you can generate from it – really explains the benefits in a way that the finance and facilities folks will find useful.

I also found this link that explains why Intel IT decided to move ahead with server refresh in 2009 after current economic conditions forced Intel to re-evaluate the strategy. Analysis found that delaying server refresh for a year would increase costs by USD 19 million.

And a refresh strategy also applies to the bigger 4 Socket and above servers as well, as documented in this server refresh brief. 

Server Refresh is a strategic investment for IT – the cash for clunkers program that keeps on giving.

bryce

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)

1. Improved bandwidth. Up to 9 times memory bandwidth of previous generations
2. Introduction of Quickpath Interconnects to the EX systems
3. Add new RAS features previously seen on Itanium products to Xeon products
4. Significant improvement in performance vs previous generations e.g. Database 2.5xe
5. More scalable platforms through 8 OEMs offering >8S. These platforms are key to manage large databases and for large scale consolidation
6. Mainframe class availability in scalable platforms

For more information check out the press briefing from May. See more the details in the presentation

Nehalem-EX goes into production later this year and I am pretty excited about how it will change the game. What do you think?

I’ve spent a fair number of words in the past on the benefits of 10 Gigabit and what it means for the server market.  Through the addition of FCoE and DataCenter Ethernet as well as advanced virtualization features 10 Gigabit seems likely to have its big day in the sun here pretty soon.  But the question is still “When”?

While the proof is ultimately in the raw volumes of 10 Gigabit that ship, and the number of IT users who utilize the higher performance, there are some key reasons to think that 10 Gigabit momentum is accelerating beyond just the numbers* below:

Over the past year, there has been a raft of new 10 Gigabit switch announcements** from Cisco (Nexus 5k/7k), Arista (7100, 7124, and 7148), BNT (G8100), Extreme Networks (Summit X650) Juniper (EX8200), Voltaire (8500) and many others that have increased the choice, and the density of 10 Gigabit switches in the marketplace.   There are now many 48+ port 10 Gigabit switches available and even a few 200+ port models.  Also, the improved density and feature set of certain switches (such as Voltaire’s 280+ port 8500 series switch) provide a path for 10 Gigabit’s ascent into the clustering market by improving port density and latency for clustering applications.

Broad acceptance of SFP+ has also helped to drive a rapid improvement in price, density, and power.  SFP+ provides a smaller form factor standard for optics, as well as a standard connection methodology to connect directly from switch to NIC via a Twin-Ax copper (read: ‘low cost’) cabling solution inside the rack (up to 10m).  The widespread adoption of SFP+ form factors has dramatically reduced the entry level price points for switches, and through the ‘direct attach’ copper connection capability it has also reduced the overall cost for initial and ongoing deployments of 10 Gigabit by providing a lower cost bridge to optical or full 10GBase-T support.

There are also a few data points to suggest that the Server side cost for 10 Gigabit will also be dropping fast going forward.  As power for 10GBase-T continues to drop quickly, more and more Server vendors are looking at the options available to embedded 10 Gigabit directly into their systems.  This will not likely be a 2009 story, but it is approaching quickly.  Additionally, the acceptance of SFP+ form factors for optics/direct attach cabling has provided a path that some Server vendors may use to design 10 Gigabit down on motherboards without adding the extra cost and power of a 10GBase-T solution.  This looks like a likely near term given that the solution power and design are robust and ready for motherboard based designs today.

Finally, the continued cost reduction provides an attractive long term value of standards based 10 Gigabit Ethernet.  There is clear indication downward pressure on 10GbE prices already present today.  We will see 10 Gigabit pricing follow a similar price curve as we saw with Single Gigabit.  This is evidenced in the recent pricing announcement where Intel reduced the cost of single port 10GBASE-T adapter 40% from $999 to $599.  The competitive economics of standards based hardware will continue to drive down 10 Gigabit prices even further and we will see 10GBASE-T pricing below the $500 / port price in the near future. Once it gets on the motherboard, prices will drop even further.

Overall, the power, density, latency, and cost of 10 Gigabit are all improving at a rapid rate.  Form factor flexibility coupled with a wide array of switch and NIC vendors in the marketplace will provide choice and low cost for IT departments while virtualization and convergence in the datacenter and elsewhere continue to provide demands for ever greater I/O bandwidth and performance.

Sunsets can last a while, but in the end the sun will go down.  I talk to a lot of companies and listen to a lot of data center managers.  Customers trust their AIX-Power and Solaris-Sparc platforms.  These are solid platforms and deliver good features and reliability, but, if these managers could get the sense of security, performance, and reliability with Linux / Intel Xeon platforms, they would move tomorrow.  It is simple economics.

The reality is that customers are making this move, and being successful.  The hardware reliability on Intel platforms today is amazing.  Intel recently announced that their next generation of Xeon(Nehalem) EX based servers will support Machine Check Architecture.  This brings high end Xeon X86 servers into the RAS family previously reserved to proprietary RISC & mainframe platforms.  Intel Xeon already eclipses the performance of proprietary RISC processors both on a per processor basis and a per dollar basis.  It is reasonable to say Xeon can deliver better performance, better value, and equal or better reliability.  The only hurdle left is the software.

Linux has come a long ways.  It is no longer a university OS, run by geeky dudes in black T-shirts emblazoned with the quadratic formula.  It is mainstream and solidly supported.  Linux is the primary development and delivery platform for Oracle.  Other OS environments are ports, delaying support and innovation.  Linux is used by major financial companies.  Linux is available in solid and well supported distributions with a 20 year history of enterprise business.  Linux experts are broad community, worldwide, and growing in number.  Linux is economical vs proprietary RISC.

In an era of big budgets and conservative (don’t make any changes) philosophies, businesses will always stick to their proprietary RISC systems.  That era is over.  Sticking to your RISC systems may seem like the safe move, but failing to examine the opportunities for better performance and lower cost with Linux on Intel Xeon platforms is business negligence.  Business negligence is seldom rewarded. 

Performance, Price, Infrastructure, Ecosystem, TCO, RAS – when the decision factors are examined it becomes clear -  we are in the RISC twilight and the sun will set on Sparc-Solaris and Power-AIX.

My grandfather was born in the early 1900’s.  By all accounts he was a hardworking man with a strong degree of curiosity.  He passed away in his late 80’s and before he died I remember talking to him about my pursuit of an Electrical Engineering degree.  He nodded politely, asked a few questions and when I helped to fix the electrical outlet in his garage I got the sense that he thought I was heading down the path to be an electrician.  I believe that thought pleased him.  Several years ago I was explaining to my five year old daughter in layman’s terms what I did for a living and what my company made.  I said things like “We make tiny engines that run computers” or “I work with computers that run websites like Webkinz® and Disney®”.  She seemed impressed.  Months later when she was asked by a parent of her friend what her dad did for a living I was a combination of proud and surprised to hear that she replied “They make chips…”  (proud moment) “…and salsa!” (um OK.  I still have work to do).

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Now the other day she walked up to me and said something like “Dad, I am having trouble getting the Slingbox to work on mom’s iPod Touch.  It is connected to the Internet but the remote does not seem to be changing the channel.  Can you help me?”  Clearly she has made some progress up the technology curve, but it also struck me how far she has come.  Kids these days are surrounded by technology.  In our house alone there are at least the following electronic devices; Oven, Microwave, AppleTV, refrigerator, smoke detector (3), carbon monoxide detector, programmable thermostat, furnace, radio, garage door opener (2), wireless speakers, televisions (3), set top boxes (3), ceiling fans with remotes (3), netbook, Slingbox, Clear wireless router, remote outlet, sprinkler control box, iPod Touch, desktop computer, Wii, iPod shuffle (2), alarm clocks (3), oven timer, electronic light dimmer, cordless phones (4), AV receiver, DVD players (3), VCR, iPod docking station, security system, motion sensor, camcorder, camera (2), USB hub, music keyboard, AV switch, computer keyboard, battery chargers (4), Wii remotes (4), Wii Fit Pad, Wii drums, copier/fax/scanner, computer monitor, AC, Power supplies (4), RFID credit cards (2), washer, dryer, noise canceling headphones, answering machine, internet modem, cell phones (2), handheld GPS, auto GPS and electronic battleship.

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I am sure I have forgotten several things and I did not count cars or anything at my children’s school.  I am also sure each of the electronic devices in our house has either a processor, microcontroller, ASIC or multiple of each.  Admittedly, the silicon content in our house is probably above average given where I work and the personalities my wife and I have.  But when I think back to my grandfather he had none of these silicon laden items.  I am sure he didn’t care since it is hard to miss something you never knew.  Of the hundreds of pieces of silicon in our house about a dozen or so are smart enough to connect to each other or to “the cloud” in some way.  I put “the cloud” in quotes because it is not only the most over-hyped word of it’s time it is also the best way to articulate what I suspect my children and many others think of the services that they get when all of this stuff gets connected.

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I can safely say two things are fact. First, my grandchildren will have in their house many more pieces of silicon than I do. Second, they will have more pieces of silicon that can connect to each other and communicate with “the cloud”.  There are many billions of devices connected to the Internet today and that number will grow.  At Intel we are building silicon, and increasingly software assets, that facilitate the processing and movement of data both on those devices and between them. Servers are increasingly becoming an important part of that over-hyped cloud word. My cable company has a cloud delivering me my on demand video content, A social media site allows me to upload pictures into their cloud to share with my friends, someone just used a cloud architecture to develop a perpetual motion machine.  OK, one of those things was false.

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My grandfather thought a cloud was something in the sky.  My children think it streams video to their handheld device.  What will our great-grandchildren think?

BMW automobiles are known for speed, agility, quality, style and probably some other attributes I’m forgetting. Their IT infrastructure requires the same attributes for them to remain competitive in their industry.

Proactive server refresh, now using Xeon 5500 are part of that equation.  This recent case study outlines how BMWs migration to Xeon 5500 series lowers total cost of ownership and increases flexibility for their business.

Server refresh with Xeon 5500 delivers 30% higher IT performance with 75% less hardware, compared to dual core Xeon 5100 technology. 

The case study also says that BMW’s next refresh target are their RISC based servers

Can you gain a competitive edge replacing aging servers in your infrastructure

Estimate your savings today (www.intel.com/go/xeonestimator)

Every day in our personal lives, we’re bombarded with “opportunities” to get a better deal.  At the grocery store, we might be able to buy a single item for $2.50 or 3 for $5.00…which then forces us to go thru the mental gymnastics of figuring out how good of a deal it is, and whether or not we really need three 96 oz. bottles of salad dressing.

But there are some opportunities out there for adding a bunch of compute performance are a bit more straight-forward.

Case in point: Dell recently had Principled Technologies compare the performance for the Intel® Xeon® Processor E5520 and E5506 CPUs each running on a PowerEdge R710 server.  Both are 4 core processors, but the E5520 has many advantages over the E5506: 

• higher frequency (2.26 GHz vs. 2.13 GHz)
• faster QuickPath speeds (5.86 GT/s vs. 4.8 GT/s)
• faster memory support (1066 MHz vs. 800 MHz)
• Turbo Boost
• Hyper-Threading support.

Long story short:  Buying a slightly better processor with a server purchase can drastically increase your performance.  So if you are looking to buy a Dell PowerEdge server configured with Microsoft SQL Server 2008* and an Intel® Xeon® Processor E5506, for an additional $300 you can get up to 75% more performance by upgrading to an E5520 CPU.  More performance headroom in a similar power envelope, faster QuickPath and memory speeds, Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost functionality – all for $300.  NOW THAT’S A GREAT VALUE!

Check out the summary document for the Dell R710 Principled Technologies performance testing, which also has comparative performance testing for the Xeon® E5540 and X5550 CPUs (also a great value for the money!), along with results for Microsoft Exchange.

NOTE:  System pricing from www.dell.com as of May 13, 2009.  Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability. See the actual Principled Technology report in the following link for complete system configuration