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Apple To Discontinue Xserve
Toe, The writes "Apple has announced that they are discontinuing their line of 1u rack-mount servers. With their usual understated style, the announcement comes in the form of a box on their website and a transition guide (PDF) to their low-end Mac mini server or their now-more-powerful-than-Xserve Mac Pro server. Attitudes about the Xserve have ranged from considering it a token nod to enterprise to an underpowered wimp to a tremendous value. Apparently, the migration to Intel processors removed some of the value of clustering Xserves, leaving them somewhat overpriced compared to other, more traditional offerings. The odd thing is that Apple clearly has shown they have the capacity for enterprise, but rarely the will to take it on. So, does the discontinuation of their rack-mount mean they have abandoned enterprise for their post-PC offerings, or are they simply acknowledging that their products aren't gaining traction in the data center? Or do they have something else up their sleeve for next year?"
Xserve aside, OS X Server provides some very, very powerful tools. Many of them are based on open-source, but for the ~$1K price, a well-paid employee would be hard pressed to roll them all in less than $1K worth of time. And all these tools have no per-seat cost, unlike Microsoft solutions.
The question remains, of course, how seriously can people take OS X Server now that apple discontinued the Xserve?
OTOH, it makes a really nice home server, if it is a bit over-powered and pricey for that application.
> 1. You are stuck on one platform. It is like getting a Sun Solaris platform but worse because apple never really had a strong enterprise department.
They're Intel boxes. Run whatever OS you want on them.
Also, they're UNIX, so run whatever software you want on them.
> 2. You didn't get any real extra functionality over a Linux/BSD even Windows servers.
Setup times are far less time-consuming than Linux. Per-user cost is far less than Windows.
> 3. There is 0 fore-site on what will happen for the next version. What new features. Apple is too closed
Absolutely true, and a real deal killer in the enterprise.
>4. You had limited options. So that means you are paying for stuff you don't need
Somewhat true, but the Xserve is 1u. Most of the options are externalized.
>5. Limited server tools. Sure the Apple stuff is good but you need that one extra tool that apple doesn't support.
Then install it. The Xserve is UNIX. Also, most data centers have more than one machine, and hardly any have all the same brand throughout.
>Like Apple or Hate Apple, it really isn't a good server platform.
Well, they still make servers, just not rack-mounted ones.
Starting an offensive statement with "no offense" doesn't make it less offensive. :p
(not that I'm offended)
Remember to maintain your supply of
When Apple first moved to Intel the XServes were actually VERY price competitive with Dell and HP and whatnot. The problem is that eventually interest waned an Apple let the refresh cycles get longer and longer and less spectacular when they were refreshed.
Monstar L
Why does everyone think Apple stopped making servers? They just stopped making xserves.