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Apple Discontinues Xserve, Only Available Until January 31st
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Under a desk is a requirement to being a computer ? The proper response to that post is to say : "Uh ? iOS devices are also computers, maybe you mean Apple is abandoning the Server market ?".
In the context of that post, the Xserve is not a Personal Computer™. It is however a computer.
Oh no you don't! No bringing linux flames here! We have enough of our own
Emacs vs VI is older than Linux. It is not a Linux flame.
Bingo.
Which is probably why they're discontinuing them.
And then there's Unisys.
http://www.fiercecio.com/story/apple-unisys-plot-get-more-business-businesses/2010-10-27
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Can anyone say hello to online storage via the new data center?
Can anyone say hello to online storage via the new data center?
LightPeak has no real relevance to a rack server, as the whole point is to fit everything in a rack rather than sprouting external drives or whatnot. Yes the speed is nice, but that's about it. Could replace our FibreChannel cards, maybe.
An Xserve is 1U high, so in a 24U rack we can fit 24 Xserves (okay, we have 20, but there's a trio of Xserve RAIDs and switching gear, so we spread over 2 racks). In that space (24U) you can fit what, 4 Mac Pros? So I'd be replacing my total of 48U with 8 Mac Pros, opposed to 20 - and have nowhere to put the switching gear, Xserve RAIDs etc.
Throw in the higher power consumption of a Mac Pro, lack of redundancy in PSUs (we've popped 3 PSUs since 2008), no front-access to drives...yeah, you get the picture.
Similar problems to a Mac Pro really - can't access the drives (even more so on a Mini), and although I could fit more in the space we wouldn't be able to use the setup as a whole that effectively - the Xserves are great as they have fast, multi-core CPUs, whereas the Minis are simply slower. We'd have to re-write our architecture to make use of that kind of parallel processing.
Oh, and 5,400rpm laptop drives.
I'll probably recommend we carry on with our current 2008 Xserves until they're simply too slow to do the work, and then look at replacing with Linux. Re-skilling shouldn't be too much of an issue, and hopefully we'll be able to just leave them alone once set up like the Xserves.
Apple is not giving up the server line of their hardware. What they're planning is to make the next Mac Pro a hybrid hardware.
The next Mac Pro will come in 2 configuration.
1. Mac Pro Workstation (this is what you see today)
2. Mac Pro Server (same hardware but the chassis is fitted to be installed into a rack horizontally)
This makes more sense than trying to maintain two different hardware that basically does the same thing.
Of course the current chassis is not designed to be installable into a rack. So the next version of the Mac Pro hardware will be configurable for both Deskside or Rackmount.
So, If I'm right and I believe I'm right, their approach in discontinuing Xserver makes total sense. This is not new approach. Sun, IBM, and HP does this type of configuration for some of their product lines.
The next Mac Pro will come in 2 configuration.
1. Mac Pro Workstation (this is what you see today)
2. Mac Pro Server (same hardware but the chassis is fitted to be installed into a rack horizontally)
This makes more sense than trying to maintain two different hardware that basically does the same thing.
Of course the current chassis is not designed to be installable into a rack. So the next version of the Mac Pro hardware will be configurable for both Deskside or Rackmount.
So, If I'm right and I believe I'm right, their approach in discontinuing Xserver makes total sense. This is not new approach. Sun, IBM, and HP does this type of configuration for some of their product lines.
Since Sun doesn't exist anymore, I'd say no...
And as far as Oracle goes, they really didn't want the Sun hardware business to begin with.Oh no you don't! No bringing linux flames here! We have enough of our own
Um, emacs and vi both predate linux by eons AND they are available on almost every platform under the Sun(Windows is the only one that doesn't have them installed by default)
Yeah it will be fun to upload your 387GB raw files for cluster renderingWirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)
Can anyone say hello to online storage via the new data center?
Now see, if Apple actually came out and SAID they were doing this, there would be no problem. But much like the Java thing, there is a whole bunch of ifs and nothing definite.
Enterprises don't deal well with ifs. They are going to be abandoning Apple in droves, and right after Apple started to make some significant headway into the enterprise market.
To me this is like a runner preparing his whole life to run a marathon then quitting right at mile 25. If he would have just stuck in there a little longer he would have finished, but just quit instead.
Generally speaking, it's nice to have something to back up a statement.
Maybe I'm just old fashioned that way.
After reading your comment, now it all makes sense for Apple to discontinue the Xserver.
About 9 years ago, I tried to convince my boss that I didn't need to go to the office to get my work done, mainly because I had to drive 30 miles each way, plus drive to client sites. I told them that it was what the future was going to bring. He said no! Two years later he finally asked to work from home... Lol.
Now I run my own IT business from either my phone, MBP or iPad. I haven't work in an office for the last 8 years. Of course I'm still as busy, wish I had time to chill by the pool every once in a while.
Having employees work from home lowers the operational overhead for companies, and decreases the amount of commuters during rush journey. It allows parents to be closer to their children too. And you could deduct your home-office expenses when you do your tax return.
Of course, it requires a lot of discipline and organization, and it's not that easy to remain focus and be productive if your FB or Messenger are running in the background.
Oh well, goodbye XServer. Now there shouldn't be any excuses for Apple to not allow for XServer clones. Mac Mini is too small, and Mac Pro way to big!
Dumb.
Even for Apple, this is DUMB. So what, now we're supposed to run our business off Mac Minis?
One more example of Apple not giving a single ***** about professional Mac customers.
Even for Apple, this is DUMB. So what, now we're supposed to run our business off Mac Minis?
One more example of Apple not giving a single ***** about professional Mac customers.
Not all surprising to me. Apple has become a mobile computing company. It is what they do best.
I am a bit surprised how many people actually used these Xserve systems for their business. I am not familiar with the product however. Do users run web servers on them or are they just typically file/print servers?
I am a bit surprised how many people actually used these Xserve systems for their business. I am not familiar with the product however. Do users run web servers on them or are they just typically file/print servers?
Sad news for me. The school I am the Network Administrator for owns 2 Xserves (with over 350 Windows clients) and I love them except for OD not working properly with MS Windows Server 08 aand Win7 (MS changed how they connect to a domain and no longer have NT style domain support). Apple's fault for not keeping with the times or MS's fault for changing, I won't get into the blame game. I do hope they will announce something comparable when the Xserve is discontinued, along with newer MS OS support.
I love my Macs and this comes as a huge disappointment. I had plans to deploy some in a rack in my data center. A Mac Mini Server is no use for an Enterprise Data Center, no FiberChannel. Sure Mac Pro is still there, but awkward for rack installations. If Apple is really trying to shift everything to iOS style systems it will take a huge dive and once again loose their crown. Now is a good time to sale shares.
Yes it's sad to see it go, but personally the only units I've ever seen were at Macworld in 2002/2003 in New York and I believe once at an Apple store. Yes I understand that a big Mac Pro isn't the same size as a U1 server and that it was convenient for it's form-factor and ability to run OS X. But people who have them will continue to use them until they die off.
I'm sure if Apple made a serious upgrade to the Mac Mini (not just the omission of a DVD drive) they could make a decent cheap server with a spot for a fibre channel card or an extra ethernet port etc. Sure the internal hard drives are slow, but maybe put in an SSD and have an external FireWire 800 drive.
It's not the most elegant solution but it may work. However I can't even see Apple doing this. For them to discontinue something they had to be losing money on it. Same with the iPod Hi-Fi. If I was losing money on making something that didn't sell well enough I'd stop selling it too. The Mac is not dead. For all we know Apple has an Apple-TV sized server solution that'll fit in your pocket and make your dinner too.
I'm sure if Apple made a serious upgrade to the Mac Mini (not just the omission of a DVD drive) they could make a decent cheap server with a spot for a fibre channel card or an extra ethernet port etc. Sure the internal hard drives are slow, but maybe put in an SSD and have an external FireWire 800 drive.
It's not the most elegant solution but it may work. However I can't even see Apple doing this. For them to discontinue something they had to be losing money on it. Same with the iPod Hi-Fi. If I was losing money on making something that didn't sell well enough I'd stop selling it too. The Mac is not dead. For all we know Apple has an Apple-TV sized server solution that'll fit in your pocket and make your dinner too.
Just as they were raising awareness in the Enterprise space as well (with iPad).
How they figure replacing a rack full of XServes with a room full of Mac Pros I'm not entirely sure...they don't exactly stack very well...
Oh well, I guess if it's not good enough for grandma, it's not good enough for the all-new Apple! Bring on the dancing monkeys.
How they figure replacing a rack full of XServes with a room full of Mac Pros I'm not entirely sure...they don't exactly stack very well...
Oh well, I guess if it's not good enough for grandma, it's not good enough for the all-new Apple! Bring on the dancing monkeys.
Wow, there is now no way to run OS X services in a data center anymore. And yes, my company does this a lot. I just wonder how Apple is going to run server OS X services for their own Data Center. If Apple would just license out Foundation and some of their other lower-level (i.e. non-UI) frameworks, dropping the Xserve would be a non-event.
I agree completely, enterprise is where operating systems need to be to trickle down to the masses. I blogged about it earlier this year.
I understand what you're saying, but again, you miss my point. Apple Makes $X Billions on iPhones, iPads, iPods, and MacBooks, and iMacs. They make $X Millions on Xserve. Without going to look at their financials, I would guess it's less than a $20 Million business for them. Do the math... where are you going to put your efforts?
Apple computers work just fine as clients on a variety of networks. There is little lost by XServe not being the backbone. Yes, it's nice that it was there, but it's just not their business and being half-a**'d at something is not a place to be.
I stand by my statement. I think this is a good thing overall and will allow Apple to focus on what's selling and giving us the best of class products where it counts.
Sounds like they decided to further focus on just consumer products, can't imagine they made much money with the xserve anyway.