3 ms·
An even bigger cost is power (if we’re talking about a lot of compute capacity- eg a private cloud). A cluster that’s running older servers might be 30% cheaper
by mbreese 7y ago
An even bigger cost is power (if we’re talking about a lot of compute capacity- eg a private cloud). A cluster that’s running older servers might be 30% cheaper to purchase, but it will likely be more power inefficient, which would make it significantly more expensive to actually operate. Depending on your workload, it is often the case that purchasing new (more efficient) hardware can actually be the cheaper option than running on older hardware from an OpEx standpoint.
- snuxoll 7y agoThis part can vary a lot these days at least, the Ivy/Sandy Bridge xeon chips are still remarkably capable and I can buy a used 11th gen Dell server for a couple hundred dollars. Before the Westmere/Nehalam chips it was a different story, but anything newer is going to sip power and perform well as long as you know you’re not getting “all the perf out of it”. It’s entirely possible to make a business out of this, but you rely on a customer base that’s inherently cheap and fussy by nature. Not all of them are, but most looking “for a deal” are cheapskates who will milk you dry in time/labor if you let them and you don’t have the margins to deal with that bullshit.