It's more that there is no drive access in a server room environment (ie: from the front). To get a Mac Pro you'd have to pull it out the rack (owch, heavy...) and then pop the panel.
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Steve Jobs: Xserve Axed Over Poor Sales
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It's more that there is no drive access in a server room environment (ie: from the front). To get a Mac Pro you'd have to pull it out the rack (owch, heavy...) and then pop the panel.
It's healthy and positive that Apple, for all it's growth and success, still looks to cut the deadwood.
Agreed. Then again, Minis take up LESS room than the discontinued servers. That speaks in their favor. As for the Pro line, perhaps it is time to redesign them so they are a bit less clunky, and so they better favor a rack configuration.
Agreed. Then again, Minis take up LESS room than the discontinued servers. That speaks in their favor. As for the Pro line, perhaps it is time to redesign them so they are a bit less clunky, and so they better favor a rack configuration.
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He's also right. In fact, the man's right about nearly everything - iPads, Flash, control of the platform, etc.
His response in this case was pretty straightforward - a miracle that a CEO even responds to consumer inquiries.
Apple can pull any product at any time for any reason. They don't owe anyone sweet f all. In this case, the product wasn't selling so Apple decided to terminate it. Steve Jobs runs a business, remember?
But why don't you go bang on their doors and tell them they've got it all wrong. Steve would be more than happy that you dropped by for Apple's $20 billion quarter.
If we compare machines of same price, you either get:
1x 2.26Ghz quad-core Nehalem (Four cores in total) with 3GB of RAM.
or
3x 2.66Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo (Six cores in total) with 12GB of RAM total.
That doesn't sound like a bad deal to me.
I would tell the person buying the Escalade that his penis would not get one centimeter bigger with that SUV.
Yes, 1U-servers obviously have their place. But obviously Xserve was not competetive in this space. And like it or not, Mac mini makes for a nice server. Yes, single Mac mini is not as brawny as single Xserve. But it's also a lot smaller and cheaper, so you can have more of them. There's nothing stupid in running a bunch of tiny servers in place of a one big server.
So you're suggesting using cold backups ? Let's see, your machine is much less powerful and you now have to use downtime to get the same redundancy and it takes up more space and is less serviceable, not to mention more prone to outage. It also can't benefit from your SAN infrastructure, lacking any kind of fiber channel option and to increase its storage means to void the warranty and cause downtime while you do it.
Yep, you've worked in a datacenter before, it shows (I'm buckling under the weight of the sarcasm here...).
I think he was direct, not cocky or self-righteous. He said nothing of the sort.
I wouldn't say pro hardware is overlooked, but enterprise hardware is a dead end for Apple. You can throw all the money in the world at that and it still won't sell given the competition. Incidentally, what idiot wouldn't market their newest and best selling products? You?
I see we have another person who has NEVER worked in a data center before. I'm sorry, but the amount of stupid in making a decision like this is ridiculous. Might as well argue that all server rooms should be full of laptops, because why buy a battery backup system, a generator, etc. when you can just have it built into the computer?
Let's just replace Xserves with MacBook Pro's!
Not that I disagree with you sentiment, but three clustered, lower end machines are much more redundant then a single dual-power supply machine.
Because Steve Jobs and co. have shown how well the understand the entreprise market in the past...
Seriously, Apple is not selling Xserve and OS X server is not regarded as one of the big iron Unix systems because Apple doesn't know how to cater to enterprise customers. They've proven this time and again, and now have shown their uther lack of understanding and respect with this bone headed move.
Definitely not disagreeing with you because you are right, but you're a little off on what is provided in the Mac Mini Server ediiton, 7200 RPM drives are standard.
Ok, excuse my ignorance here, as I usually don't play in the server space...
While I won't sit here and try to say that a Mac Mini or Mac Pro tower are reasonable Pro-grade alternatives to the XServe, I have to wonder, what exactly does the Xserve do that made it special?
What I mean is, did it provide any sort of special capabilities that a company couldn't get by buying any number of less expensive x86 1-U servers running Linux? Was there something about the Server version of OSX that came on the Xserve that provided a capability that can't be matched with a Linux x86 server?
For my personal use, I'm seriously looking at picking up a Mac Mini and hooking a NAS up to it as my home file server + HTPC setup (to replace my frustratingly annoying Windows 7 one right now...) But I also have a Mac Pro as my main home machine.
I just don't see a Mac Pro or Mac mini as enterprise-grade equipment... the Mac Pro - sure as a desktop powerhouse workstation, but NEITHER systems have redundant power, and the mini is so limited in terms of HD+Memory.
While I won't sit here and try to say that a Mac Mini or Mac Pro tower are reasonable Pro-grade alternatives to the XServe, I have to wonder, what exactly does the Xserve do that made it special?
What I mean is, did it provide any sort of special capabilities that a company couldn't get by buying any number of less expensive x86 1-U servers running Linux? Was there something about the Server version of OSX that came on the Xserve that provided a capability that can't be matched with a Linux x86 server?
For my personal use, I'm seriously looking at picking up a Mac Mini and hooking a NAS up to it as my home file server + HTPC setup (to replace my frustratingly annoying Windows 7 one right now...) But I also have a Mac Pro as my main home machine.
I just don't see a Mac Pro or Mac mini as enterprise-grade equipment... the Mac Pro - sure as a desktop powerhouse workstation, but NEITHER systems have redundant power, and the mini is so limited in terms of HD+Memory.
That's the point really, enterprise don't like getting only half the story on a Friday, leaving them scrambling to find out their migration options. When it happens, the migration options quite often involve moving everything to another vendor and not looking back.
Maybe Apple should've waited until they had something to announce before announcing if their plan is really to move forward in this space. At this point, it seems more like they just want to drop it.
With sales like that, it's not surprising they'd drop them. Everyone says it wasn't marketed well, but that's not really constructive. How do you market rackmounts? You're targeting a combination of sysadmins and suits, who don't care about anything that Apple's about. I'm not saying victory would be impossible, but clearly Apple decided to maintain its focus in other areas.
What they (or someone) should do now, is make a 2U (or 3U?) rack bracket for holding minis like blades. Give it some design that provides "plug in" power prongs for each mini "socket", and sucks all the hot air away from the minis. You can't swap out their power supplies without taking one offline, but if you treat them like blades, that should be ok--just swap out one mini at a time. Given their low, overall cost, it might even be easier to swap out a whole mini than to replace individuals components on an Xserve--if not easier, certainly comparable.
What they (or someone) should do now, is make a 2U (or 3U?) rack bracket for holding minis like blades. Give it some design that provides "plug in" power prongs for each mini "socket", and sucks all the hot air away from the minis. You can't swap out their power supplies without taking one offline, but if you treat them like blades, that should be ok--just swap out one mini at a time. Given their low, overall cost, it might even be easier to swap out a whole mini than to replace individuals components on an Xserve--if not easier, certainly comparable.
Like I said: of course 1U-servers have their place, which is why companies buy them, and which is why our server-room has them as well. But obviously Xserve wasn't really a contender in this space. And you can be sure that Apple knows how well Xserves were selling when compared to their other server-offerings.
Yes, some users will obviously be harmed by this move. But I bet that Apple knows that Mini and Mac pro -servers are substantially outselling the Xserve.
You want a server to support your Mac-network? Well, you still have options from Apple, or you could buy a server from any number of server-vendors that sell Linux--servers. Hell, Windows-server would work as well! Apple obviously didn't see themselves as a player in the 1U-server-market.
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Apple don't like enterprise they don't know how to compete and make the right tools they only look to their own garden... Sooner or later apple will be a consumer only, next will be Final Cut...
to sad i kwnow 2 TV channles 1 in Portugal and 1 in Africa that use all macs from servers to clients
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1srU6Z77jfc
to sad i kwnow 2 TV channles 1 in Portugal and 1 in Africa that use all macs from servers to clients
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1srU6Z77jfc
I'm sure he's referring to using these minis clustered or load balanced, and data storage would not be the primary purpose of just about any server in today's world - that's what SAN is for.
Edit: I didn't realize you mentioned SAN. The mini could potentially use iSCSI.
So Apple are happy to throw 40,000 orders (or $119,960,000+ USD of sales assuming everyones ordering the cheapest base model xserve) down the toilet every year? Interesting...
I dont buy it. For me, the evidence so far (not from just the xserve announcement, but others this year) shows that Apple are no longer interested in focusing on the business sector. Sure, they will keep the Mac PRo going because it'll have a MUCH higher sales figure. But that doesn't mean it'll be updated (Which lets face it, it hasn't been updated for 4+ years now - just given minor performance bumps)
I dont buy it. For me, the evidence so far (not from just the xserve announcement, but others this year) shows that Apple are no longer interested in focusing on the business sector. Sure, they will keep the Mac PRo going because it'll have a MUCH higher sales figure. But that doesn't mean it'll be updated (Which lets face it, it hasn't been updated for 4+ years now - just given minor performance bumps)
