Apple Discontinues Xserve, Only Available Until January 31st

[Mattie Num Nums]

Well we just canceled our order. We are only ordering 2 now. One for our Casper JSS and one for a Netboot Distribution at a remote location. Other than that we will be exploring our options with Virtual Unix servers. Not a good day. Especially since I just re-upped on all my server certs.

This is really scary for people who make a living on Apple Infrastructure.

 

[pondosinatra]

Well the strategy they are choosing to adopt has made them the second most valuable company in the US, very soon to be the first, above one of the worlds most famous historic mega corporations exxon mobil (founded by John D. Rockefeller!).

Macs are also still the best machine and I still believe it justifies the premium purely with the software.

You people just don't get it do you? In a couple of years THERE WILL BE NO MAC!

 

[Bubba Satori]

The fat lady is singing.

 

[pmjoe]

Fixed that for ya.

Seriously, what's with the wild conspiracies theories flying around about Mac OS X turning into a closed system? There's no logic in there, I can tell you that for certain.

Take off the Apple colored glasses. At this point, you're the one with the wild conspiracy theory. Everything Apple has done is pretty obvious from a business sense:

• drop 3rd party, non-Xcode, development options (deprecate Java timed with App Store announcement, no pre-installed Flash)
• iLife applications go to full screen
• only real features of 10.7 are Mac App Store and more fullscreen support
• end of life Xserve, no news on a 10.7 OS X Server

Look for Apple to EOL OS X Server by the end of the year. At this point all that's left is to track Apple's software applications. The ones that get the full screen treatment will be continued - the ones that don't will be dropped.

 

[mytdave]

If you watch the news you will see they definitely have credibility. I don't know if you've noticed or not but every company copies Apple all the time. Look at the HP Envy, or the iSamsung (not sure of the real name but its the samsung phone that looks exactly like an iPhone).

Just because they discontinued a server that doesn't sell well and most places don't use doesn't mean anything.

It doesn't matter how well the XServe sells. It showed that Apple had a presence in, and had an understanding of enterprise. With that wiped away, why would anyone recommend any Apple product, desktops or iPads, to the enterprise market anymore when those come from a company who clearly doesn't understand the importance of longevity in the sector?

 

[apple1990]

You people just don't get it do you? In a couple of years THERE WILL BE NO MAC!

What do you mean by this statement?

 

[mozumder]

I wonder what this means for Xsan? I was just researching the purchase of a Promise vtrak raid with an xserve for the metadata controller for our video department. No way I would purchase it now. I really question apple's future support of the pro video market.

I figured the XServes were being exclusively used for XSan video storage controllers as well, for Final Cut shops.

Were people using XServes for anything else?

I'm wondering what their Video storage solution will be. I expect a new version of Final Cut for next NAB.

 

[rlhamil]

The problem with the replacement alternatives is that the Mac Pro uses _much_ more space (and presumably power), while the Mac Mini does not have LOM, expansion slots (for SAN or whatever), or redundant power supplies.

OTOH, the Xserve was certainly _not_ marketed as a general purpose server - just one that could run OS X. I gather that some folks did manage to get at least Linux to run on it, but it was rather less than obvious how to do so; as yet, I haven't heard of other (non-Apple) OSs being run on an Xserve.

Something that is only a server and also only runs OS X (Server) targets a rather narrow market. The obvious answer would be to cut a deal with some server manufacturer to provide a degree of configuration stability (not switching chipsets randomly, etc), and to license OS X Server to run on the hardware covered by that deal.

That wouldn't need to be a general clone program, just one narrowly targeted to a full replacement for the Xserve. Although the Xserve is apparently itself too small a market to bother with, it's a foot in the door for OS X in infrastructure roles, allowing massive deployment of readily supportable Mac workstations in the enterprise environment. It's a product the absence of an equivalent for which would lose not only its own market, but additional market as well.

 

[Mal]

Take off the Apple colored glasses. At this point, you're the one with the wild conspiracy theory. Everything Apple has done is pretty obvious from a business sense:

• drop 3rd party, non-Xcode, development options (deprecate Java timed with App Store announcement, no pre-installed Flash)
• iLife applications go to full screen
• only real features of 10.7 are Mac App Store and more fullscreen support
• end of life Xserve, no news on a 10.7 OS X Server

Look for Apple to EOL OS X Server by the end of the year. At this point all that's left is to track Apple's software applications. The ones that get the full screen treatment will be continued - the ones that don't will be dropped.

I'm not wearing glasses, Apple colored or not.

None of your "facts" lead to the logical conclusion you think they do. There's nothing particularly obvious from those at all, in fact, except that there are a series of mostly unrelated announcements from Apple that revolve around one basic point: Apple's changing the way they do business, slightly. They're no longer going to deal with stuff that doesn't sell and requires significant resources to keep up. They're no longer going to do other company's work for them (Sun and Adobe), because it only gets Apple in trouble and gets those other companies upset with them for not keeping up. And they have a new OS coming which integrates some good features from iOS (granted, there's not a lot of stuff in 10.7 that's been announced so far, but there's also nothing to even hint that it'll be "locked down" as the conspiracy theorists are claiming).

Try stepping back and taking a reasonable look at the facts that are there, not just the few that you can cherry-pick and twist to fit your doomsday scenario.

jW

 

[Winni]

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

Yep, not even Apple has been using them -- according to James Gosling, Apple has been using a lot of Sun hardware in their data centers...

 

[thirdwaver]

Now we know why they need a million square feet of space for the data center they're building. You need four times the amount of space for the same amount of computing power.

Regardless of what Steve says, he's lying when he says Apple isn't moving away from the Mac. Steve falls in love with something and then the entire company has to start chopping off "old" technology to move towards it. He loves IOS and iPads now.

 

[bigpics]

They are. After this move, without the roadmap that you suggest, they are going to get laughed out of IT departments everywhere. Offering the solution you suggest even 6 months from now will be too late. Any 'tech cred' they've earned in IT departments in the last few years is gone in a flash.

Wrong. See my post above (#368). They're actually laughing their way INTO the IT department. Except with iOS

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

I figured the XServes were being exclusively used for XSan video storage controllers as well, for Final Cut shops.

Were people using XServes for anything else?

I'm wondering what their Video storage solution will be. I expect a new version of Final Cut for next NAB.

AFP serving, Netboot, SUS, JAMF Casper. These are big things.

The thing that pisses me off is 6 months ago Apple came in and did a dog and pony show with a roadmap that they have completely gone against in the past month. They bulls&tted us and we fell for it.

 

[iwod]

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.

That was exactly what i was thinking, what happen is the next Mac Redesign will be the Mac Pro, with some extra casing that fits the Server Mount.

I know there are already Mac Pro Server Mount, i mean the Interior Redesign as well. This way, 1 Product, 2 Market. With Workstation Market just gets a MUCH faster delegated Gfx while using Intel IGP for Server.

 

[johnalan]

Anyone feel up to mailing jobs and asking him if he's about to ruin OS X?

 

[Winni]

I never knew BSD sucked in a server environment.

Well, BSD doesn't. But OS X is not a real BSD, it's a customized-Apple-beach-ball-of-death-Mach-kernel with a BSD user land around it. Not exactly the same thing.

 

[Battlefield Fan]

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

sorry what was it that you were asking?

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

Anyone feel up to mailing jobs and asking him if he's about to ruin OS X?

You're serving it wrong.

Sent from my Macbook Air Server

 

[darkplanets]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; those that have an issue with this contact Apple, especially those who are in a corporate environment. Ream them a new one, and let them know what you really think. That's about all you can do.

As per the people who make a living off of this-- that sucks. Especially if they came in 6 months ago and gave you a roadmap that was BS (Ex. MattieNumNums)

 

[TJones]

The problem with unilaterally chopping off Xserve is that it now casts a big doubt in the minds of every IT director who is considering purchasing any Apple products for their company.

"If they can just drop their entire server line at the drop of a hat who says they couldn't just drop another?"

Oh and before anyone suggests the Mini and the Mac Pro are servers, no, they're not.

 

[iwod]

sorry what was it that you were asking?

Beautiful, the servers are looks 10 times better then Dell or HP.

Isn't that XSan thing in the picture disconed already?

I wish someone would just continue to make the casing...

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; those that have an issue with this contact Apple, especially those who are in a corporate environment. Ream them a new one, and let them know what you really think. That's about all you can do.

As per the people who make a living off of this-- that sucks. Especially if they came in 6 months ago and gave you a roadmap that was BS (Ex. MattieNumNums)

We just called our Apple rep and this is what she said. Xserve is no longer need because the Mac Pro Servers are much faster than Xserves!

Typical Apple response. This is a very upsetting day for a lot of OSX Server Admins.

 

[iwod]

I've said it before and I'll say it again; those that have an issue with this contact Apple, especially those who are in a corporate environment. Ream them a new one, and let them know what you really think. That's about all you can do.

As per the people who make a living off of this-- that sucks. Especially if they came in 6 months ago and gave you a roadmap that was BS (Ex. MattieNumNums)

What Roadmap?

 

[leontief]

Regardless of what Steve says, he's lying when he says Apple isn't moving away from the Mac. Steve falls in love with something and then the entire company has to start chopping off "old" technology to move towards it. He loves IOS and iPads now.

Exactly, time for someone to crawl off into retirement and just fade away....

 

[PhoneI]

You obviously understand 0 about business, and didn't actually take any time to understand my post. The reason I'm taking it so "personally" is I bought Steve Jobs' kool-aid and considered the mac a viable platform for business. Now that the XServe is being discontinued I have to find a way to migrate away from the XServes we have(and no, mac pros and minis are not an answer, we do actually have to rack stuff). So now thanks to Steve's whim I have to explain to my customer why I need to do this migration and I look bad. So I'm never believing a word Apple says again. Believing them has threatened my very livelihood, so yeah, I guess I'm taking it a little personally. Beating myself up for believing a single word Apple has said.

There are a lot of knock-on effects that getting rid of the XServe will have. First and foremost it creates an air of uncertainty. If Apple is willing to discontinue major hardware and software platforms on a whim, how can I have any confidence that the software I write for the mac platform will continue to work for any appreciable period of time? How can I be sure that any

You look around at any other company in this business and they have products that, on their own aren't very profitable, but they make the company look good and help them sell a lot of other products. They are alsot he products that evangelists fall in love with and influence said peoples decision to promote the platform. That was the XServe for Apple, and they killed it.

As per bankruptcy, go back 20 years and look at Blockbuster video, nobody thought they would ever go bankrupt and here we are. Consumer tastes shifted and Blockbuster had no other business to fall back on.

Look at Sony, nobody thought the company that brought us the walkman would be a shadow of its former self in the field of portable music, but here we are. Sony had other businesses to fall back on. Apple increasingly seems like it wants to kill those businesses. So when consumers turn on Apple(and its a matter of when, not if), Apple will have nothing to fall back on because Steve thought that he was somehow "different", how the laws of consumer tastes don't apply to him. How he thought that he could stab his evangelists in the back and they would still love him.

If you want to be a fool, buy AAPL stock. I am keeping as far away from AAPL as I am Apple's products from here on out.

It's been a fun ride Mr. Jobs, turn the light out when you leave Cupertino for the second time.

This wins the craziest post of the year award. I love your comments about stock price. Lets see who is right in the end, an immature MacRumors message board poster, or a billionaire who created one of the most successful companies in history.