Linux Servers Break out of HPC into Enterprise

Jane Walker writes "Watch out, IBM, Dell and HP. Linux server vendors that have carved out a space in high-performance computing markets are taking their tailor-made servers into new enterprise markets, providing a welcome change for businesses that want to save money and get customized products."

Comments

Re:Linux the Only Solution

[BinLadenMyHero]

Do you know that rsync also runs on Windows? I even use it to synch some machines at the company I work for.

I'm all for Linux and FOSS (I run Linux exclusively at home, and I try to convince my boss to use Linux here), but don't be so blind as to say Linux is the only way.

Linux has enterprise class support now

[Anonymous Coward]

EMC (leading enterprise class storage provider) has made it possible to use EMC Symmetrix and EMC Clariion enterprise storage cabinets with Linux. HP has ported HP ServiceGuard - enterprise level high availability cluster software to Linux. Yes, I would say Linux is enterprise ready.

Save money by not being a fool.

[woolio]

Only fools would pay for $1200/license to use somebody's pre-packaged open-source software.

If you have more than one license, you could easily hire someone full-time to do upgrades on your servers and use a free linux distribution like Fedora or Gentoo. (Or even consider the *BSDs). Plus you get someone you can immediately contact in the case of a problem (rather than a phone number).

I realize you are probably concened with uptime and availablity (and hence pay for the enterprise editions), but what kind of stuff are you really doing? A simple web or sql server can be handled very easily by a half-way competent admin. Yes it may be vitually important, but it if it is simple, then why bother with Redhat?

And if it isn't so simple, then do you really want Redhat holding the gonads of your operations? What are they going to do for you that a dedicated employee wouldn't?

Re:Linux the Only Solution

[gurutc]

Yes, I know RSYNC runs on Windows too and can even be configured as a Windows service. I set the system up initially with that configuration, and for smaller setups it would be adequate. But to run it in Windows you have to use the cygwin dll and a shell that is still contained in the Windows kernel. With data streams coming from dozens of sites the Windows server was overwhelmed, particularly in network and disk bottlenecks. Windows wasn't going to cut it at the level that we needed. But with Linux I was able to tune more parameters at the disk, memory, and network stack levels.