Real-world results are even more dramatic, we run about 50x better than a U320 15k drive with a read-only database.
But the use of flash drives for servers is still quite limited. I wouldn't use it for anything with large amounts of sequential IO, but only for lots of random IO in very small chunks (4k or less). Even a slow HD beats the flash drive for reading many files over 512K and a HD clobbers flash on any kind of writing.
IME, large databases with very few UPDATES/INSERTS and very sparse file systems are pretty much all that run well.
We installed one of these for processing millions of small, read-only database transactions. The database only gets written once a day, but is too big for efficient cacheing. Even with a U320 15k drive we were still suffering, only being able to run about 700/min. With a flash drive, we're running over 25,000/min, peaking at 50,000/min. But the weekly copy of the database takes about 20 minutes, vs the 3 or 4 minutes it used to take.
Anti-virus and anti-spam ``solutions'' do not a good business make. When your primary objective is to obsolete yourself, how long of a run can one have? Symantec and others have been around a very long time; longer than I could have predicted, especially when there are _real_ solutions to the virus problem and have been for years. The nihilistic I, for one, am happy when our fat Gatesian Overlords bundle away the little fish. Now watching the starvation death of a bigger fish should be quite entertaining:)
FWIW, Symantec has never created an original product; everything they offer was acquired.
If every business has different needs why do you think they should all go with a hybrid environment?
Any company smart enough knows their needs will eventually involve mixed platforms.
For example, I'm the head of IT at a large printing company. We use Windows in the front office and in the server room to drive those boxes. We have Mac's in production, UNIX on the Internet and Intranet, and a number of other proprietary platforms pushed onto us by some of our vendors (AGFA, for example).
Just this week, I completed an upgrade for our MIS, a move from SCO OpenServer to Windows. (Our MIS vendor gave us specific requirements for the SQL server; it had to be Microsoft). Over the next 6 months, I'll be refactoring a large in-house application from Windows to BSD and Solaris. In the next month, the Octane (IRIX) formally used as a file server (now replaced by a vendor-provided NAS box) in the Digital Production Department will host new Internet services. After the last upgrade of our client PC's, I have 40+ Pentium II's running Mozilla on Linux in a full-screen terminal mode to view job tickets from the shop floor. Each of these decisions was looked at carefully as to the choice of platform that best suited the needs of the company.
Anytime you lock yourself into one particular platform, you're going to get screwed; you cannot find the services a company of any significant size requires to operate efficiently on a homogeneous platform for a reasonable cost.
There are two keys to keeping TCO down: 1) choosing the right software and hardware for the services provided, even if it means a larger up-front cost and 2) maximizing utilization of existing infrastructure to accomodate new services whenever possible.
- P
PS - Yesterday was the last day of our fiscal year. The cost saving at our company for the migration of some basic network services (file sharing, email, and other Intranet services) from Windows to FreeBSD was about $40,000 in a 110 employee company. This cost was calculated fairly accurately - tracking administrative overhead and licensing costs compared to previous years. Down-time went from 3% to less than 0.5% and is continuing to fall as we rebuild the network topology (using older PC's running BSD as routers and bridges).
Your analogy also falls short. If you are a landlord, and your tenant kills someone in their apartment, are you liable?
Actually, you are liable for most things that happen on your property unless you have an indemnity clause in the lease or rental agreement.
Not to start another virii flamewar, but...
on
Anti-HIV Virus Developed
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· Score: 2, Informative
If you know English, you should know that virii is the plural for virus (cactus - cactii, fungus - fungi, etc.)
Bzzzt. Other than numerals, Latin does not have a declension that works out for any noun I know of to "ii" (the plural of cactus is cacti in Latin or cactuses in English).
Read this:
http://www.linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/plural-of-viru s.html
- Matthew
And there is also a C-double flat. It just so happens that Cb is enharmonically equivalent to B, and Cbb to Bb.
Just to be *really* anal, the two are enharmonically equivalent only when tuning with equal temperament. However, if you use alternate tunings (such as tuning to perfect 5ths for a particular key, "just tuning," or using another Baroque tuning), there is a very audible difference between Cb and B, E# and F, etc.
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Real-world results are even more dramatic, we run about 50x better than a U320 15k drive with a read-only database.
But the use of flash drives for servers is still quite limited. I wouldn't use it for anything with large amounts of sequential IO, but only for lots of random IO in very small chunks (4k or less). Even a slow HD beats the flash drive for reading many files over 512K and a HD clobbers flash on any kind of writing.
IME, large databases with very few UPDATES/INSERTS and very sparse file systems are pretty much all that run well.
- p
We installed one of these for processing millions of small, read-only database transactions. The database only gets written once a day, but is too big for efficient cacheing. Even with a U320 15k drive we were still suffering, only being able to run about 700/min. With a flash drive, we're running over 25,000/min, peaking at 50,000/min. But the weekly copy of the database takes about 20 minutes, vs the 3 or 4 minutes it used to take.
- p
Brits in space? I smell vindaloo...
Anti-virus and anti-spam ``solutions'' do not a good business make. When your primary objective is to obsolete yourself, how long of a run can one have? Symantec and others have been around a very long time; longer than I could have predicted, especially when there are _real_ solutions to the virus problem and have been for years. The nihilistic I, for one, am happy when our fat Gatesian Overlords bundle away the little fish. Now watching the starvation death of a bigger fish should be quite entertaining :)
FWIW, Symantec has never created an original product; everything they offer was acquired.
- P
Any company smart enough knows their needs will eventually involve mixed platforms.
For example, I'm the head of IT at a large printing company. We use Windows in the front office and in the server room to drive those boxes. We have Mac's in production, UNIX on the Internet and Intranet, and a number of other proprietary platforms pushed onto us by some of our vendors (AGFA, for example).
Just this week, I completed an upgrade for our MIS, a move from SCO OpenServer to Windows. (Our MIS vendor gave us specific requirements for the SQL server; it had to be Microsoft). Over the next 6 months, I'll be refactoring a large in-house application from Windows to BSD and Solaris. In the next month, the Octane (IRIX) formally used as a file server (now replaced by a vendor-provided NAS box) in the Digital Production Department will host new Internet services. After the last upgrade of our client PC's, I have 40+ Pentium II's running Mozilla on Linux in a full-screen terminal mode to view job tickets from the shop floor. Each of these decisions was looked at carefully as to the choice of platform that best suited the needs of the company.
Anytime you lock yourself into one particular platform, you're going to get screwed; you cannot find the services a company of any significant size requires to operate efficiently on a homogeneous platform for a reasonable cost.
There are two keys to keeping TCO down: 1) choosing the right software and hardware for the services provided, even if it means a larger up-front cost and 2) maximizing utilization of existing infrastructure to accomodate new services whenever possible.
- P
PS - Yesterday was the last day of our fiscal year. The cost saving at our company for the migration of some basic network services (file sharing, email, and other Intranet services) from Windows to FreeBSD was about $40,000 in a 110 employee company. This cost was calculated fairly accurately - tracking administrative overhead and licensing costs compared to previous years. Down-time went from 3% to less than 0.5% and is continuing to fall as we rebuild the network topology (using older PC's running BSD as routers and bridges).
Actually, you are liable for most things that happen on your property unless you have an indemnity clause in the lease or rental agreement.
Bzzzt. Other than numerals, Latin does not have a declension that works out for any noun I know of to "ii" (the plural of cactus is cacti in Latin or cactuses in English). Read this: http://www.linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/plural-of-viru s.html
- Matthew
And korea.blackholes.us, china.blackholes.us, cn-kr.blackholes.us (a little more complete).
Coming in November. Look at the release schedule.
Just to be *really* anal, the two are enharmonically equivalent only when tuning with equal temperament. However, if you use alternate tunings (such as tuning to perfect 5ths for a particular key, "just tuning," or using another Baroque tuning), there is a very audible difference between Cb and B, E# and F, etc.