The Server Room Blog : Tags : smb

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Do I look like a big corporation to you?

Posted by Emma Hitzke Oct 14, 2009

Just because you’re a small or medium-sized business doesn’t mean you don’t deserve benchmark data that’s relevant to your environment. In fact, the right kinds of comparisons are critical for you and your decision-making. Why? Because those performance differences can mean the difference between good and great service to your customers, or cost savings that boost your bottom-line, or maybe even help you better use your scarce resources.

That’s why Intel brings you independent and reliable benchmarks that mean something for companies like yours. For example, for our latest entry-level servers, the new Intel® Xeon® processor 3400 series, Principled Technologies* Inc. conducted a benchmark based on applications that most small and medium businesses use to run their data, web, and email exchange servers. Now you have meaningful results that you can actually use to make an informed decision about transitioning from a desktop-based server to a real server or even upgrading from an older Intel Xeon processor-based server to this new generation.

Curious what Principled Technologies found? Well, the Intel Xeon processor X3450-based server delivered 119% more performance than a desktop-based server. So, that means you can do things more than twice as fast. Plus, the energy efficiency was significant too – with an 87% increase in performance-per-watt compared to the desktop-based server and 136% more than a previous generation Intel Xeon processor.

So, whether you’re looking to transition to your first real server or it’s time to refresh your hardware, you can see what the business benefits will be – more productivity and increased energy efficiency (which can equate to utility savings and simply being a better environmental citizen). And one more thing, the benchmark also showed that the Intel Xeon processor x3450 could do all of that using only 60 percent of its capacity. That means plenty of room for future growth. Now that’s big!

Check out the benchmark results for yourself here in the PDF document. And, if you want to see more, you can visit http://www.intel.com/performance/server/

Talk to your Intel IT solution provider reseller about these results and what they can mean for your business: (http://premierlocator.intel.com)

0 Comments Permalink Tags: cost_savings, xeon, servers, refresh, hitzke, benchmark, small_business, first_server, performance, smb, xeon_3400, productivity, xeon_5500, server

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Selecting the Right Xeon Processor Just Got Easier

Posted by Chris P_Intel Sep 12, 2009

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 3^rd 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:

Chris

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0 Comments Permalink Tags: tools, processors, workstations, servers, datacenter, business, performance, power, pricing, compare, select, 5500, family, server_room, intel, calculators, xeon, sizing, smb, small, choose, nehalem, energy_efficiency

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Should I stay or should I go now?

Posted by Emma Hitzke Sep 10, 2009

Are you hearing this clamor? Nope, this is not London Calling! But your employees calling for more performance, your customers calling for faster response time, your boss for more savings.
Have you been waiting to upgrade until your existing servers clash, I mean, crash? This economy has led to a lot of indecision, but when it comes to upgrading your servers, the benefits are pretty big not matter the size of your company.
Good news, the new Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series-based servers will deliver just that and more.

• Save money. By spending money now, you can save in the long run. The latest Intel Xeon processor-based servers deliver more performance than previous generations. Small businesses can consolidate three older servers to one new server and still have room to grow (1). And make sure to take advantage of government and manufacturer server incentives. All of that adds up to a return on your refresh investment in about a year. This tool can help your calculate your ROI: www.intel.com/go/xeonestimator

• Be more competitive. You want to be ready when things rebound and rely on competitive IT equipment. The additional performance and improved reliability offered by updated servers means a more productive staff and faster response times for your customers.

• Avoid hidden costs. The other thing to consider with older servers is the expenses that you don’t expect, like maintenance and downtime. You know - one day is fine, next day is black. To get your boss off your back and your business running smoothly, newer equipment now is a great idea.

So, if fast ROI, savings, increased performance, improved productivity, new warranty sound like music to your ears, talk to your IT solutions provider (http://premierlocator.intel.com) about going with an Intel Xeon processor-based server.

And for more info, check out this new brochure:
Almost as good as the lyrics from The Clash

[1] Source: Intel Xeon Server Refresh Savings Estimator, Jul 09

0 Comments Permalink Tags: performance, servers, smb, clash, productivity, xeon_5500, server, hitzke, xeon_estimator, roi, small_business, refresh, cost_savings, xeon

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Why Small Businesses and Educators should care about Intel Xeon processor 3400 series based servers?

Posted by Naveen Bohra Sep 9, 2009

Intel has launched entry 1 socket servers based on Intel® Xeon® processor 3400 series and Intel® 3400 series chipset. So what? Why should a small business refresh a desktop based IT infrastructure with a server one or refresh an existing server(s) with Xeon 3400 based server? How do these new servers help educators?

As a background, there are a large number of small businesses today with no or limited IT that are either using desktops or running server operating systems on desktops for running their day to day operations. These small businesses are frequently characterized as DTOS (Desktop-On-Side) users. While DTOS may be perceived as a low cost way of meeting IT needs by small businesses, there are several limitations to this approach that can cost much more in the longer term. Desktop solutions can’t keep up with the business forever as they are not designed for continuous use or supporting multiple users, thereby putting a lid on employee productivity and business growth. Also, desktop used as a server and supporting multiple clients can cost a business dearly in the event of a downtime or silent corruption of a financial transaction due to transient memory errors.

Intel® Xeon® processor 3400 series based servers provides more dependability over desktop systems by protecting critical data through differentiated features such as ECC (Error Correcting Code memory) and RAID 0/1/5/10 for server operating systems. ECC helps detect and correct single bit memory errors which eliminate the need for rebooting a system to fix most errors. This reduces business downtime and minimizes corruption of critical data. RAID 0/1/5/10 provides additional data protection by providing a data backup on multiples hard drives in the event a single drive should fail. The cost of downtime can quickly negate any perceived savings from using DTOS.

These servers based on new Nehalem micro architecture are designed to help small businesses grow by enabling up to 64 percent more sale transactions and up to 56 percent faster business response time. Intel® Turbo Boost Technology and Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology enable these servers to automatically adapt their performance to unique business needs. These improvements are significant enough for a small business to replace a 3 year old desktop to get greater that 200% better performance. Xeon® 3400 processor based servers also deliver new capabilities such as support for 6 RDIMMs (Registered Dual In-Line Memory Module), not available on desktop or prior generations. Option for 6 DIMM slots provide headroom to keep employees productive as the business needs grow by enabling 32GB of memory capacity (4x the prior generation), providing flexible memory configurations and future cost effective upgrades. Performance headroom enables a small business to support more simultaneous users.

Entry servers are also starting to find place in classrooms and schools. As the usage of computers in classrooms starts becoming rampant, there is need for sharing content such as email, files and web content and print services similar to small business needs. These new servers improve education by enabling dependable classroom collaboration and making school administrative services more productive.

So to summarize, Intel Xeon processor 3400 series are ideal for small businesses stepping up to a first server, companies or government agencies

requiring a dedicated server for a workgroup, or education departments that need a server to support multiple clients. These servers provide technologies designed to deliver 24/7 dependability to help improve productivity and performance that automatically adapts to changing workloads at an entry-level price point comparable to desktop systems. Any price premium is likely due to additional server features, many of which can lead to reduced operating costs in the long run.

Watch “First Server Video” on the benefits of using a server at www.youtube.com/watch?v=IebtI5cab0o

For more information on Intel® Xeon Processor 3400 series based platforms, please look at the attached product brief or go to http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/products/server/processor/xeon3000

2 Comments Permalink Tags: xeon, server, xeon_3400, small_business, education, first, dtos, smb