EMC: Dell Needs Storage Specialist 3PAR More Than H-P

August 27, 2010

EMC President Pat Gelsinger weighs in on Dell and H-P's fight to buy data-storage company 3PAR

For EMC President Pat Gelsinger, HP would be able to better monetize the acquisition of storage company 3PAR than Dell because of its current strong position in the high-end enterprise market.

“Clearly they [HP] have a position in the enterprise. They should be able to sell that [3PAR]. But there are always integration issues,” explains Gelsinger. “I think HP has a better position to monetise it because of their stronger position higher in the enterprise. So if you look to who will get more value out of the 3PAR acquisition, I think HP is in better position. But that makes all that important for Dell.”

Despite the strong Dell/EMC partnership, Dell largely don’t have a product at that level, adds Gelsinger.

“So they have to extend their sales capabilities higher in the enterprise to be effective with it. It certainly makes it A fun sport to watch the competition. With HP’s board to prove that they are still active and can move forward despite their CEO.”

And from an EMC perspective, Dell would actually be a much better suitor.

“I would prefer 3PAR not being on HP’s hands because I think they can actually compete with us. They have a salesforce that could sell it,” confides the EMC executive.

If HP ends up acquiring 3PAR, it will certainly hurt its partnership with Hitachi – which currently supplies HP with high-end storage products. On the other hand, with or without 3PAR, EMC is commited to the Dell relationship.

“I certainly prefer that they [Dell] didn’t add this [3PAR] to the complexity of the mix. But wether they do it or not we’re going to be great partners with Dell,” adds Gelsinger.

1 Comment | hardware, news, software | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Intel Itanium Is The Preferred Chip For The “Also-Ran” Server Makers

April 2, 2009

When launching the latest Xeon server chip, Intel conveniently omitted to talk about its “other” server family, the Itanium.

Probably because Itanium has simply not lived up to the expectation Intel – and others – set forth, almost 15 years ago.

Then Itanium was predicted to dominate the server business, and then trickle down to eventually get into desktops and notebooks. And ultimately replace the X86 architecture altogether, recalls chip analyst Nathan Brookwood.

Well, obviously that didn’t happen and never will even if all of the major server suppliers like H-P, Unisys, Hitachi, NEC, Silicon Graphics – but to the exception of Sun and IBM – have adopted Itanium as their mainframe alternative platform.

“Itanium has become the prefered plaftorm for the also rans in the server business,” quipped Brookwood.

Despite its commercial failure, Intel still wants to hang on to Itanium. And that’s because, Itanium is the only server chip in Intel’s arsenal that can actually compete with the reliability and scalability of its rival RISC-processors like Sun’s SPARC or IBM’s POWER. “[Itanium] is delivering to that very high end mission critical market segment,” explained Pat Gelsinger, Intel’s vice president in charge of the server business.

However, to lower development costs, Intel decided to converge the Itanium platform to the Xeon platform (chipset, QPI’s fast interconnect…). “That will happen when the next generation of the Itanium chip, Tukwila, will launch [probably later this year],” adds Brookwood.

The good news for enterprise customers and the server OEMs like H-P, is that Itanium is not going away. The bad news for Intel, is that it will never be a growth opportunity.

Here’s an excerpt of Brookwood’s comments on Itanium:

1 Comment | chips, news | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

If Intel Xeon 5500 (Nehalem) Was An Airplane It Would Be An F15, A Jumbo Jet And A Glider

March 31, 2009

Now that’s a funny and of course a preposterous analogy, courtesy of Intel’s vice president Pat Gelsinger. So, if the Xeon 5500 (Nehalem) server chip was an airplane it would be:

  1. a supersonic plane like an F15;
  2. with carriage capacity equivalent to a jumbo jet that can fly around the globe;
  3. and fuel efficient like a glider!
Nehalem is the ultimate green supersonic jumbo jet!

Nehalem is the ultimate green supersonic jumbo jet!

Leave a Comment » | chips | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Intel Nehalem Is Also A Cash Machine!

March 31, 2009

Speaking yesterday at Intel’s most important server launch ever, vice president Pat Gelsinger said that the latest Xeon 5500 becomes a cash machine for IT after only 8 months of use.

“It’s printing money that allows IT to go focus on innovation and business value [...] The value proposition is so high that even Intel IT is very interested,” added Gelsinger.

However, this “value proposition” becomes reality only if enterprises “refresh” single or dual-core servers with the new quad-core Xeon 5500.

Which is why Gelsinger conveniently pointed to an IDC study revealing that 80% of the world’s 30 millions X86 servers are single or dual-core servers.

Is Nehalem, Intel’s secret bailout plan for shrinking IT budgets? Let’s start printing some money then :)

Leave a Comment » | chips, news | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Why Intel’s Comparison With Sun SPARC And IBM POWER Is Humorous

March 30, 2009

Xen 5500 (Nehalem) is Intel's new challenge to RISC processors

Time for a quick reality check on Intel’s comparison of the Nehalem server chip – unveiled at a press briefing today – and its RISC-based rivals.

If you believe Intel’s surreal price/performance numbers shown today, you wonder how CIOs today can still keep their jobs and continue buying IBM and Sun RISC-based servers.

  1. Intel Xeon vs. Sun SPARC: 1.7 times the performance for less than half the cost;
  2. Intel Xeon vs. IBM POWER: 2.5 times the performance for 1/10th the cost.

“Enterprises spend 40 percent of their budgets into proprietary environments such as SPARC or POWER RISC-systems. These are expensive, proprietary, evolving more slowly, typically carry higher maintenance costs, software licensing costs, etc [...] Comparing to the IBM POWER environment, its almost humorous,” quipped Pat Gelsinger, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group. “It’s time to start a major refresh out of the proprietary world!”

So I asked chip analyst, Nathan Brookwood, for some explanations. What really happens is that enterprises buy large IBM POWER, Sun SPARC and even Itanium servers for their reliability, scalability, the software they run, etc. Things that Intel’s latest Xeon server chip can’t match.

Along with those very large systems, enterprises also buy smaller SPARC/POWER/Itanium servers, to use in their branch offices. But why?

“Because of compatibility. Enterprises are not buying the small RISC-based for their performance, but because they use the same software than their very large RISC-based systems, which simplifies IT management,” explains Brookwood of analyst firm, Insight64.

So as long as Intel Xeon chips are cantoned at the low-end of the server market, RISC-based chipmakers – like IBM or Sun – have little to worry of the Santa Clara, Calif.-company nibbling on their market.

Unless of course, there’s a renewed effort from Intel behind Itanium!

Here’s a short video excerpt of Gelsinger comparing today the latest Intel Xeon server chip with IBM’s and Sun’s:

And here’s Brookwood’s take on Intel’s RISC comparison:

1 Comment | chips, hardware, news | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Server Chips Fairing Better Than Rest Of Market, Intel says

March 30, 2009

That’s a bit of a surprise.

Inspite the downturn, companies are still buying lots of servers, versus desktops or notebooks.

And that’s according to Intel’s enterprise boss Pat Gelsinger at today’s the launch of the chipmaker’s server chip, Xeon 5500 (Nehalem).

“Servers are healthier than the rest of the market… With strength in sub-segments like HPC (High-Performance Computing) and large data centers… The server market is a a bit healthier than the overall unhealthy market,” said Gelsinger during the Nehalem press briefing.

Gelsinger also suggested that virtualisation is accelerating the refresh of servers, shortening their lifecycle; rather than negatively affecting the overall sales of servers as more companies use virtualisation to consolidate their IT systems on fewer servers.

Leave a Comment » | hardware, news | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 31 other followers