Apple's newest servers fall apart - how cool!
As anyone with a pulse knows, Apple makes some pretty slick consumer electronics. But servers, too? Yep. Apple's latest server, the XServe Xeon is finding a lot of love from one top critic, InfoWorld's Enterprise Mac blog. InfoWorld's Tom Yager has taken a close look and likes what he sees.
Apple has taken the iPod Nano design and applied it to the XServe. With one key exception: instead of slipping easily into your pocket, the XServe is easy to take apart. That means faulty parts can be removed and replaced without undoing ribbon cables and unscrewing tiny fasteners with special tools. Instead, the parts slide out of position with just a little pressure - but stay in place during ordinary operation. Talk about "ease of use" for the data center. There's just one small problem, notes Yager. Apple's XServe, at $2,999, costs twice as much as competing Xeon servers. It's not a given that sysadmins will flock to a more expensive server when they could easily junk and replace a cheaper one - and avoid the hassle of disassembling the XServe to fix a faulty part. You conveniently left out the fact that with the Microsoft licences those Xeon Wintel servers can cost 3 or 4 times as much! The Mac version comes with Apache server and MySql with unlimited user licences. More Fud.
The Xserve does not cost twice as much as "competing Xeon servers". The Xserve costs twice as much as dirt cheap budget boxes which require a software license costing more than the box.
Yeah, what he said. As the owner of a couple of XServe machines and some PC servers, I can tell you that the XServes will be FAR cheaper to own, especially if you plan to keep them for a few years. Since the price tag INCLUDES all the service features for UNLIMITED USERS that Microsoft charges for per seat, add 'em up. Our corporate file and mail server on PC hardware would have cost over $16,000 out of the box plus another $150 a year per user. The XServe that took its place.... $2,999 forever. Oh, and the XServe has yet to pull any of the sh*tball stunts that our PC servers pull, like slowing down so you have to reboot them once a week. All five of them. Two XServes run the whole show.
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