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HF, which leads the x86 server market, has followed rival Dell in scrapping its line of eight-processor, Xeon-based systems, saying that new, more powerful chips coupled with a growing interest in tying together smaller boxes for processing oomph make the bigger machines obsolete.
Dell shelved its eight-processor line in 2003, and instead focused on selling customers smaller servers that can be clustered to provide similar computing power as larger machines. At that time, HP remained committed to its eight-way ProLiant systems, believing that the processing power offered by the bigger machines was needed for databases and other highly transactional applications.
But with Xeon chips becoming more powerful and Intel planning to release dual core versions of the processor in coming months, HP changed course.
"You're seeing an increase in performance [of the Xeon], which drives the customer requirement for an eight-socket solution down to a very small percentage of the x86 space," says Colin Lacey, director of platform marketing for the industry standard server organization at HP "Most will be satisfied by the dual-core 4p offering."
Those looking for more processing power can find it with HP's Itanium-based Integrity line of servers, Lacey adds.HP's current eight-processor ProLiant offerings, the 4U DL740 and the 7U DL760, will continue to be available through the middle of next year, with support continuing through 2011.
Analysts say they're not surprised by HP's move, considering that eight-processor x86-based systems account for about 1% of the entire server market.
"The x86 server market has continued to move toward clustered systems, as opposed to more scaleable [symmetric multiprocessing] servers," says Jeffrey Hewitt, an analyst at Gartner. "In the meantime, the only vendor to be able to support any kind of business in this area has been IBM. HP has lost share for the past couple of years, even when you combine the Compaq/HP numbers prior to 2002."
IBM grew its eight-processor shipments from just less than 10,000 in 2002 to more than 17,000 last year. HP meanwhile, has seen shipments slide from nearly 12,800 in 2002 to a little more than 10,500 in 2004.
Copyright Network World Inc. Apr 11, 2005
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
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