4 ms·

Do you have particular insights into IBM's low end server business or is it because you use snapchat and have never used an IBM server?

by iends 13y ago

astrodust 13y ago
Walk in to any datacenter. HP and Dell absolutely dominate. Third place is Sun. Fourth is Supermicro. Very, very infrequently you'll see an old IBM server.
- lsc 13y ago
  >Walk in to any datacenter. HP and Dell absolutely dominate. Third place is Sun. Fourth is Supermicro. This is also what I thought. (though, places I've worked, ODMs and supermicros dominated, followed by dell, with hp dead last, but yeah, the quote from IBM never even made it to technical evaluation where I would see it.) However, I went looking for a source[1] before I posted further up this thread. Apparently, IBM sells more servers than dell or hp (but not more than both put together) Hm. reading further, I see numbers between 10% and 30% of IBM's server revenues being the high-end stuff they are keeping. So that could bump them below both dell and HP, in terms of just x86 servers, but even knocking 1/3rd off, they still sell a lot more x86 than I thought. [1]http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2013/08/29/ibm-regains-1-server-market-share-position/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2013/08/29/ibm-regain...
- ams6110 13y ago
  iDataPlex clusters are somewhat more common in HPC environemnts. They are x86-based.
- iends 13y ago
  I'm not sure where you make up your data from, but if that's the case, you might be going into a lot of low end data centers. http://slashdot.org/topic/datacenter/idc-server-market-slowing-again/ http://slashdot.org/topic/datacenter/idc-server-market-slowi...
  - astrodust 13y ago
    Obviously my data is anecdotal, but I really haven't seen much IBM hardware deployed in communal datacentres (e.g. Peer1 or similar). If IBM's selling that kind of volume, it could be to governments and other large enterprises with private datacentres. Then again, that's revenue, so for every IBM server there could be five commodity Dell units in the rack and they'd have the same net cost.
    - iends 13y ago
      This is true, and I believe you are exactly correct. IBM is catering to private data centers and not ones that you or I would be renting a rack in.
tomasien 13y ago
I evaluated using their servers and saw nothing special at all in the market place from IBM. I see Snapchat as something special.
- tensor 13y ago
  Snapchat is an entertainment product. It could go away tomorrow and the world would be just fine. On the other hand, losing all our server products would be catastrophic. Fortunately, this will never happen because servers are important. Should they become scarce, they would quickly become a very lucrative business resulting in an increasing supply. IBMs servers may not be as good as the competition, but to compare them to an entertainment product is silly.
  - rbanffy 13y ago
    You can easily replace an IBM server with any other comparable x86 machine. You can't easily replace Snapchat and the user networks it hosts with another similar service.
    - tensor 13y ago
      My point is that as a class of product, Snapchat could disappear and not be replaced and no critical infrastructure would halt nor any innovation or science be stopped. At worst you would have some grumpy people. It's silly to compare this to a product class that is crucial to our society and claim that it is better. The relative worth of one server to another is one thing, but the class of server products is infinitely more important than the class social picture sharing products.
      - lotso 13y ago
        Would you also say Facebook could disappear tomorrow without "any innovation or science be stopped" ? That seems like a silly way of determining if something has value or not.
  - tomasien 13y ago

Do you have particular insights into IBM's low end server business or is it because you use snapchat and have never used an IBM server?

by iends 13y ago

Do you have particular insights into IBM's low end server business or is it because you use snapchat and have never used an IBM server?

astrodust 13y ago

Walk in to any datacenter. HP and Dell absolutely dominate. Third place is Sun. Fourth is Supermicro. Very, very infrequently you'll see an old IBM server.

lsc 13y ago
>Walk in to any datacenter. HP and Dell absolutely dominate. Third place is Sun. Fourth is Supermicro. This is also what I thought. (though, places I've worked, ODMs and supermicros dominated, followed by dell, with hp dead last, but yeah, the quote from IBM never even made it to technical evaluation where I would see it.) However, I went looking for a source[1] before I posted further up this thread. Apparently, IBM sells more servers than dell or hp (but not more than both put together) Hm. reading further, I see numbers between 10% and 30% of IBM's server revenues being the high-end stuff they are keeping. So that could bump them below both dell and HP, in terms of just x86 servers, but even knocking 1/3rd off, they still sell a lot more x86 than I thought. [1]http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2013/08/29/ibm-regains-1-server-market-share-position/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2013/08/29/ibm-regain...
ams6110 13y ago
iDataPlex clusters are somewhat more common in HPC environemnts. They are x86-based.
iends 13y ago
I'm not sure where you make up your data from, but if that's the case, you might be going into a lot of low end data centers. http://slashdot.org/topic/datacenter/idc-server-market-slowing-again/ http://slashdot.org/topic/datacenter/idc-server-market-slowi...
- astrodust 13y ago
  Obviously my data is anecdotal, but I really haven't seen much IBM hardware deployed in communal datacentres (e.g. Peer1 or similar). If IBM's selling that kind of volume, it could be to governments and other large enterprises with private datacentres. Then again, that's revenue, so for every IBM server there could be five commodity Dell units in the rack and they'd have the same net cost.
  - iends 13y ago
    This is true, and I believe you are exactly correct. IBM is catering to private data centers and not ones that you or I would be renting a rack in.

tomasien 13y ago

I evaluated using their servers and saw nothing special at all in the market place from IBM. I see Snapchat as something special.

tensor 13y ago
Snapchat is an entertainment product. It could go away tomorrow and the world would be just fine. On the other hand, losing all our server products would be catastrophic. Fortunately, this will never happen because servers are important. Should they become scarce, they would quickly become a very lucrative business resulting in an increasing supply. IBMs servers may not be as good as the competition, but to compare them to an entertainment product is silly.
- rbanffy 13y ago
  You can easily replace an IBM server with any other comparable x86 machine. You can't easily replace Snapchat and the user networks it hosts with another similar service.
  - tensor 13y ago
    My point is that as a class of product, Snapchat could disappear and not be replaced and no critical infrastructure would halt nor any innovation or science be stopped. At worst you would have some grumpy people. It's silly to compare this to a product class that is crucial to our society and claim that it is better. The relative worth of one server to another is one thing, but the class of server products is infinitely more important than the class social picture sharing products.
    - lotso 13y ago
      Would you also say Facebook could disappear tomorrow without "any innovation or science be stopped" ? That seems like a silly way of determining if something has value or not.
- tomasien 13y ago