Cisco readies move into the server hardware market

I’ve bought “Cisco” servers many times before.  They were always HP or IBM servers with a Cisco logo tagged on the bezel and came with ridiculously high support contract and spare part costs, but they were Cisco servers.  It seems that Cisco was not satisfied with playing at that level, however, and now they are moving forward with a true line of Cisco server hardware, part of their Unified Computing System platform.

The newest component of this platform – the servers – is a blade server chassis designed to plug in to the existing fiber and copper switching infrastructure as well as work with their storage management tools.  It all sounds great, I suppose, but I’m not entirely sure that the move will be compelling for an enterprise.

For starters, the hardware platform is all unproven.  Sure, the vast majority of the parts in any of these systems are OEM from known manufacturers but there is still a ton that goes in to the final assembly of those systems.  After all, how else can you explain just how badly the Dell Blade systems are assembled relative to the HP or IBM blades?  And even if they have better and cheaper hardware (like Sun did with their x86 server platform) , there is still a huge unknown about how well Cisco will be able to support the server infrastructure.  They are generally very reliable when it comes to supporting their switching hardware, but after that things tend to tail off. 

And, of course, since this is the era of virtualization, it is critical that any story about data center infrastructure include mention of the ability for the platform to be “fully virtualized” or support non-virtual solutions.  I love marketing buzz.  The hardware will be available with both VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V platforms, so they are continuing to partner with the big players on that front.

Only time will tell just how astute a move this is from Cisco, but there are certainly plenty of open questions (like when they are actually going to have hardware available in the channel) to ponder in the meantime.

Are NetBooks viable in a business environment?

There’s an old adage that goes something like “Fast, good and cheap; pick any two.”  In the case of mobile computing the phrasing changes slightly to “fast, light and cheap,” but the general concept remains the same:  If you want to have a functional and lightweight computer you should expect to pay for it.  Lenovo has always charged a premium for their lightweight laptops as have Sony and Dell.  Over the past year or so, however, the NetBook form factor seems to bee shifting the balance of this equation, with good, lightweight computers now available at dirt cheap prices.

So can these NetBooks be a viable option for users in a business environment?  I think the answer is a resounding yes, despite some media reports to the contrary.  Yes, they are small.  Is that a problem?  The screen is small, but certainly functional for a Citrix XenApps client, Outlook or web browsing.  And the keyboard is slightly smaller than a standard one, but it took me all of 15 minutes to get used to typing on the new keyboard, and I now have to “adjust” when going back to a full-size laptop or desktop keyboard.  Moreover, many of the limitations bandied about in the media really aren’t that big a deal.

Sure, they run on a processor and chipset that is slower and less powerful than the latest and greatest Core 2 Duo processors that you can get in a laptop.  But, honestly, how much processing power does running Outlook, Word or other applications really take?  Not much.  No, they do not have the processing power to handle the huge graphics overhead that the Vista Aero UI requires, but they are plenty powerful to run Windows XP (the OS the vast majority of businesses are still running) and even graphics-intensive applications like Google Earth.

The deciding factor for users may just be the weight.  They are ridiculously light.  Coming in at under 2 pounds in many configurations there is truly no comparison with the traditional laptop configurations. 

And the deciding factor on the business side of the house will likely be the cost.  At ~$350-400 per system they are WAY cheaper than traditional laptops of a similar weight.

Hardware manufacturers are pooh-poohing the idea of NetBooks as business tools, but they are wrong (and likely desperately trying to defend their rapidly shrinking margins).

Dell, for now, suggests business users stick with full-size laptops, spokesman Jeremy Bolen says.

…

Meanwhile, at the Consumer Electronics Show this month, HP rolled out "road warrior" models aimed at business travelers.

"This is a new market that is absolutely developing before our eyes," says Carol Hess-Nickels, marketing director for Mini-Note PCs.

There are definitely applications where it isn’t the correct solution.  The screen is a little small for heavy document review or graphics manipulation work.  But for the vast majority of Information Workers (Microsoft’s fancy term for white collar folks) the NetBook is a great option.  And they are cheap enough that trying them out in your business isn’t a huge investment. 

Give them a try.  You might manage to please the CFO and the users at the same time.

XP SP3 notes beginning to trickle out

Now that XP SP3 has been out for a couple weeks, some details are starting to trickle out regarding some of the bumps in the road associated with the deployment.

The first issue is related to AMD-powered HP desktops that are running the HP image of Windows XP. Like many of us, HP uses a single image across all their hardware, both AMD and Intel PCs. The image loads a driver for Intel power management, which is fine right up until SP3 is installed on an AMD-powered PC and the system reboots. At that point the system tries to use Intel codes on the AMD motherboard and things do not end well. Disabling the driver in advance of the SP3 install will solve the issue, but not knowing that in advance is a recipe for a very unhappy upgrade.

Another issue is related to a change in the Internet Explorer security zones. Of course, the effect has absolutely nothing to do with Internet browsing and everything to do with copying files from a network location to a local PC. The issue is similar to the effect of running menu links from a shared network location, where a security prompt would come up if the network location isn't in your trusted sites list. There are some steps for a workaround, and they can be managed via GPOs, but it is annoying.

There are some other fun improvements that XP SP3 offers, including for Microsoft's implementation of Network Access Protection, so it is definitely worth installing. But, like everything else, make sure to test it well before deploying to users.

Additional info on the Vista SP1 compatibility issues

There has been a fair amount of discussion about issues with Vista SP1 having conflicts with some hardware configurations and various drivers. Some additional details have recently surfaced about the incompatibilities, and it is pretty damning of Intel. The gist of it is that the Intel 915 chipset is the problem. Microsoft initially didn't plan to support it on Vista and it was added in to the OS late in the development cycle because Intel had a ton of inventory and was still trying to sell the boards to make their numbers that quarter. So they bullied Microsoft into supporting the platform, and sold a ton of the boards to HP and Lenovo for use in their computers. And now those are the systems that don't take SP1 very well. Once Microsoft decided to support the hardware they probably should've planned on supporting it indefinitely, rather than just through the RTM stage, but this is still a pretty interesting look at the behind-the-scenes efforts in getting an OS out the door. Symantec is involved as well, with their Endpoint Protection driver, but the main issue seems to be Intel.

So much for the "Wintel" synergies, I guess.

Citrix joins the embedded hypervisor crowd

A while back VMware announced their 3i product, essentially embedding the ESX kernel onto a flash drive and having a server boot from that. The idea is that you don't need to deal with the installation of the hypervisor software so you can focus on just getting your guest OS sessions up and running.

Citrix has joined in that effort this week, announcing a deal with HP to market the Citrix XenServer HP Select Edition. The HP Proliant servers will come with XenServer Select, which is the base level version of the Citrix virtualization platform. Customers will be able to "easily" upgrade to the full version of the XenServer platform as well.

Citrix still trails VMware in overall functionality and number of OEM vendors, but this is a big step in closing the gap.

And as long as you're reading about virtualization here, I should note that Hyper-V from Microsoft hit the RC stage this week, meaning it is still on time to be 6 months late.

Dell to replace kiosks with Wal-Mart

After about five years of trying to sell direct via kiosks in shopping malls, Dell is throwing in the towel and switching to a partnership model, including Wal-Mart in the USA. This is an admission of defeat in the consumer market for Dell, where the direct-only mantra reigned until very recently. Considering how badly the kiosks were in consumer reviews, this can only help Dell in their efforts to make a comeback against HP in the personal computer space. Good luck.

Dell (finally) upgrades their blade offering

After lagging behind HP and IBM for several years, Dell has finally made a move in the blade server space that appears to make them actually competitive. The new PowerEdge M1000E enclosure and the PE M600 and M605 blades are comparable to the c-series from HP and IBM's BladeCenter H. They include 16 blades in a 10U chassis (comparable to the others), and similar spec's on total RAM, processor options and storage as the base models from HP and IBM, so there is some reasonable performance available. That being said, there are no options for the "double-wide" blades that HP and IBM offer, allowing for more processing power in a single computer (quad processor, extra local disk, etc.).

It is a 200v+ power configuration only, so not viable for small offices/remote locations (HP has a c3000 chassis that will run on 110V power), but it has the full complement of Ethernet switches (Cisco and Dell), redundant management cards, local KVM and Fiber Channel options available.

Dell still has some ground to cover to be completely competitive, but this is a great move on their part. Now they can't be dismissed without consideration because their product line is much closer to meeting the needs of many customers.

Shakeup in the Storage World

Dell has announced their intent to purchase EqualLogic, a leading player in the iSCSI SAN/storage appliance space. EqualLogic has made significant inroads in the very competitive market of iSCSI SAN solutions, with a pretty significant reach in many verticals. This purchase gives Dell immediate access to a significant storage portfolio, as well as a nice collection of customers to work with.

The initial effects on the EqualLogic product line appear to be limited, as Dell will keep the unit running independently. They also expect to integrate many of the EqualLogic features into their PowerVault storage line, a collection that has always remained a step behind their competitors, such as the HP MSA product line. The big question is whether the products can exist outside of the normal Dell scope in the long term. My bet is on no, but I don't really have many reasons for that, other than that most of this type of purchase get folded into the parent product lines sooner or later, and Dell needs the name recognition badly in markets other than desktops, laptops and other commodity products to build up their corporate identity.

When was the last time you tested your DR plan?

More to the point, did you have a test that was this realistic? Looking past the pretty annoying voiceover, it is an impressive demonstration of a failover process for an entire system in a matter of minutes. Plus, some pretty cool explosions!

How big's your backup?

Several months ago the Ultrium alliance announced that the LTO4 standard was available. Now, a few vendors have announced hardware support, and a few have it available today. Dell has an external model available today. IBM has several changers available with the LTO4 as well. HP expects availability in August. No word on expected release dates from Tandberg or Quantum (formerly ADIC). Check with your preferred vendor if they aren't mentioned here.

As for the specs on LTO4, 800GB native capacity on the cartridge, with a write speed of 120MB/s to the tapes. At speeds like that you're going to really only see the full performance if the tape is attached directly to the storage fabric (for a SAN) or as the ends of a disk-to-disk-to-tape cycle, with plenty of disk on the last hop. Otherwise you'd probably benefit from a dual LTO3 changer because of the throughput. Either way, this is going to be really fast and have great capacity. Happy backups.