Apple Discontinues Xserve, Only Available Until January 31st

[MacRumors]

As noted by MacGeneration, Apple has announced it will be discontinuing the Xserve as of January 31, 2011. The note appears on Apple's site and links to a PDF titled "Xserve Transition Guide". In the guide, Apple explains that they will not be developing a future version of the Xserve.

Apple will not be developing a future version of Xserve. Xserve will be available for order through January 31, 2011. Apple will honor and support all Xserve system warranties and extended support programs. Apple intends to offer the current ship- ping 160GB, 1TB, and 2TB Apple Drive Modules for Xserve through the end of 2011 or while supplies last. Apple will continue to support Xserve customers with service parts for warranty and out-of-warranty service..

The two alternative server solutions include the Mac Pro with Snow Leopard Server and the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server. Apple provides transition considerations for customers migrating from the Xserve to these products.

The Xserve was Apple's rackmount line of Mac servers which was first introduced in May, 2002. Apple has kept up with mostly annual updates to the line. The last update for Xserve was April, 2009.

Article Link: Apple Discontinues Xserve, Only Available Until January 31st

[nowonder24]

R.i.p.

[Žalgiris]

Best time for "Apple is doomed" comments.

[dazcox5181]

And so it begins...within a few years if it doesn't run the closed environment of IOS it won't be available.

Perhaps the new Air and Lion is to get people used to the transition...

[ChristianJapan]

They need too many for themselfs for the new DC

[MrFusion]

Back to the Mac, hey? Yeah, right.

[dogsbody]

The end of an era - this made me feel quite sad. The X-Serve was an awesome bit of hardware and although it made a lot of noise it meant that Apple at least had a toe-hold in hte enterprise space.

[ouimetnick]

Well.... it shows that computers isn't Apple's priority.

[qubex]

Does anyone know if Lion (10.7) has been announced in a Server release or is Apple completely pulling out of that market?

Does this mean they're embracing the idea of virtualizing Server on generic hardware?

[AAPLaday]

Its not a consumer device and thats what Apple sells the most of.

[Anghammarad]

Did anyone actually buy these? I haven't heard of anyone using them.

[mrkramer]

Originally Posted by qubex

Does anyone know if Lion (10.7) has been announced in a Server release or is Apple completely pulling out of that market?

Does this mean they're embracing the idea of virtualizing Server on generic hardware?

They are continuing to sell the mac mini server so I'd assume that means that Lion will have a server release. I think this just shows that Apple is working more on focusing on the consumer market.

[peskaa]

Nooooo

I manage a bank of 20 Xserves at work, and I love them. We were waiting on a refresh to update them all as well. Telling me to replace with Mac Pros simply doesn't work - wrong form factor, no redundancy.

Boo hiss.

[Phil A.]

Originally Posted by ouimetnick

Well.... it shows that computers isn't Apple's priority.

I think it shows that the enterprise space isn't Apple's priority: Their biggest market is the consumer one and it appears they will move to focus completely on that market in the future.

It's sad but understandable as Apple have virtually no penetration into the enterprise space and rather than fight to win market share they appear to have given up the battle.

[Veinticinco]

End of an era. That is all.

[WiiDSmoker]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

I can't even begin to imagine the pricing on these things.

[thejadedmonkey]

Goodbye enterprise.

Originally Posted by WiiDSmoker

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

I can't even begin to imagine the pricing on these things.

Starting at $3,000

[Veinticinco]

Originally Posted by peskaa

Nooooo

I manage a bank of 20 Xserves at work, and I love them. We were waiting on a refresh to update them all as well. Telling me to replace with Mac Pros simply doesn't work - wrong form factor, no redundancy.

Boo hiss.

Boo hiss is right. But c'mon, you must have seen it coming?

Just lie back, take a breath and think of all those little Minis and how many you can cram into your cupboard.

[wizard]

The problem is pretty simple if you are going to sell a 1U server it needs either a low price or compelling performance. XServe had neither. The other problem is that being in the server business means having a line of suitable hardware. Again Apple has nothing but an overpriced 1U server.

What is really bothersome is that apparently Apple never tried to build business class hardware nor market such properly. At the very least they should have had one set up in every store.

[Stella]

Been expecting this and now unfortunately this has happened.

OS/X will eventually become a consumer only platform. Even for some developers, OSX is becoming less attractive, with Java now gone and absolutely no hints to whether Oracle will pick up the slack.

I wonder how long until Apple removal access to the Terminal?

[4D4M]

Originally Posted by ouimetnick

Well.... it shows that computers isn't Apple's priority.

WHAT?? Were you asleep during the MacBook Air keynote the other day?

[thejadedmonkey]

Originally Posted by Veinticinco

Boo hiss is right. But c'mon, you must have seen it coming?

Just lie back, take a breath and think of all those little Minis and how many you can cram into your cupboard.

The issue is that Mini's have a non-standard form factor, as well as 2.5" HDD's that are non-user upgradable. They're not designed in any sense of the word for server racks.

[rmwebs]

Originally Posted by ChristianJapan

They need too many for themselfs for the new DC

Apple wont be running OS X on their new servers. They will be running Linux - just like Microsoft do.

OS X = Built for DESKTOP/USER use (quick & dirty patch = OS X Server)
Linux = Built for SERVER use (quick & dirty patch = desktop/user os)

Linux does have its uses, and its in servers where it shines.

[wizard]

If you continue to make great leaps into blue air like this one day you will leap over a cliff. A manufacture dropping a product that doesn't sell does not imply they are moving to a totally closed system.

Originally Posted by dazcox5181

And so it begins...within a few years if it doesn't run the closed environment of IOS it won't be available.

Perhaps the new Air and Lion is to get people used to the transition...

What transition? Do you have any idea at all about what you are talking about. The AIRs are compact laptops, and do not run iOS. I really don't think you have a grasp of what Back to the Mac was all about.

Dave

[acurafan]

Originally Posted by AAPLaday

Its not a consumer device and thats what Apple sells the most of.

i think they finally got the clue, it's not selling b/c no one gives a <bleep> how nice it looks hidden in a rack or colo.

Originally Posted by MrFusion

Back to the Mac, hey? Yeah, right.

hehe.

Originally Posted by ChristianJapan

They need too many for themselfs for the new DC

doubt it, their DC is probably modeled after Google's - for ultra efficiency.

Originally Posted by wizard

The problem is pretty simple if you are going to sell a 1U server it needs either a low price or compelling performance. XServe had neither. The other problem is that being in the server business means having a line of suitable hardware. Again Apple has nothing but an overpriced 1U server.
...

+1, what he said.