Trends Report

x86 Servers Hit The High Notes

x86 Servers Are A Viable Landing Place For Selected RISC/Unix Workloads

December 22nd, 2010
Richard Fichera, null
Richard Fichera
With contributors:
Lindsey Kempton , Robert Whiteley III

Summary

While x86 servers have been an alternative for low-end Unix workloads in recent years, two key factors, scalability and reliability, kept them from being considered for the largest critical enterprise workloads. These workloads, usually large application images such as enterprise resource planning, financial packages, and other critical systems, were considered too critical and too resource-intensive for migration to x86 systems. Compounding the unease among application and infrastructure and operations (I&O) management were limitations of the candidate environments for migration, notably Linux and Microsoft's server OS. Advances in OS maturity and the latest generation of x86 servers based on Intel's Xeon 7500 CPU have moved the combination of x86 servers firmly into the realm of being a viable platform for offloading RISC/Unix workloads from. However, while performance of these x86 platforms is at a level approximately equal to RISC systems three or four years ago, and overall reliability has improved, RISC/Unix servers still have a performance advantage for the largest workloads.

Want to read the full report?

Contact us to become a client

This report is available for individual purchase ($1495).

Forrester helps business and technology leaders use customer obsession to accelerate growth. That means empowering you to put the customer at the center of everything you do: your leadership strategy, and operations. Becoming a customer-obsessed organization requires change — it requires being bold. We give business and technology leaders the confidence to put bold into action, shaping and guiding how to navigate today's unprecedented change in order to succeed.