Cool - I had no idea this was getting announced already.
One of the driving factors for this decision was the ease of a 64-bit transition. Leopard is already there for non-GUI apps. It's only Cocoa-based apps that aren't fully 64-bit until Snow Leopard. The other was that the 1,000MHz memory bus in the new generation Minis is pretty unusual at this price point -- certainly for anything approaching a blade server configuration.
Newly available backplane rackmounts also eased the decision. Swapping flaky servers is as easy as pulling a Mini out of place and shoving another in. It's a lot like swapping bad drives out of a RAID chasis. There is absolutely zero cabling required.
The commodity nature of the Minis also introduces some price and service competition. If you're dealing with full service rack units, you're pretty much dealing with one of 3 hardware vendors. With the Mini, there's only one, however there are about a hundred qualified full service retailers. In a server room, service and RMAs account for a significant portion of operating cost and many Mac retailers are willing to throw these in for free to support a volume purchaser.
All in all, it's an unusual but very good move. Think Different indeed.
Hiro Pendragon
· 8 months ago
Wow, were you ALLOWED to talk about this yet, Gwyn? Involve has been under tight NDA for 4 months now about this. I mean, all of our clients have been running the Class 6s since Jan 15, but ... who gave the go ahead? I'd better call my contact. You may be in serious doo-doo!
Gwyneth Llewelyn
· 8 months ago
Oops!!
Well, nobody reads my blog anyway, I'm sure that LL's more concerned in pushing servers around than in strict compliance with NDAs... hopefully.
Troy McLuhan
· 8 months ago
I'm very pleased to hear about these new servers and have started Thinking Different in preparation.
The cost of land in SL has always been a barrier to entry (or continued existence) for people with cool ideas but not a lot of money. I hope this change will mean I can finally build that giant chicken farm I've been dreaming about all these years.
Atlwolf
· 8 months ago
April Fool !!
Cindy Ecksol
· 8 months ago
Oh, Gwyn, you REALLY don't expect tier to go down, do you? All that will happen is that LL will become more profitable :-)
Cindy
Apple MacKay
· 8 months ago
Looking at today's date, I wonder if my leg is getting pulled! :)
Thoria
· 8 months ago
/me notes the date...
Dusan Writer
· 8 months ago
Does this mean my Class 7 server is obsolete?
Torley
· 8 months ago
[13:41] Marianne McCann: Hiro - you know, maybe this explains why Torley got a Mini the other day... it's an actual at home SL server!
All Comments
One of the driving factors for this decision was the ease of a 64-bit transition. Leopard is already there for non-GUI apps. It's only Cocoa-based apps that aren't fully 64-bit until Snow Leopard. The other was that the 1,000MHz memory bus in the new generation Minis is pretty unusual at this price point -- certainly for anything approaching a blade server configuration.
Newly available backplane rackmounts also eased the decision. Swapping flaky servers is as easy as pulling a Mini out of place and shoving another in. It's a lot like swapping bad drives out of a RAID chasis. There is absolutely zero cabling required.
The commodity nature of the Minis also introduces some price and service competition. If you're dealing with full service rack units, you're pretty much dealing with one of 3 hardware vendors. With the Mini, there's only one, however there are about a hundred qualified full service retailers. In a server room, service and RMAs account for a significant portion of operating cost and many Mac retailers are willing to throw these in for free to support a volume purchaser.
All in all, it's an unusual but very good move. Think Different indeed.
Well, nobody reads my blog anyway, I'm sure that LL's more concerned in pushing servers around than in strict compliance with NDAs... hopefully.
The cost of land in SL has always been a barrier to entry (or continued existence) for people with cool ideas but not a lot of money. I hope this change will mean I can finally build that giant chicken farm I've been dreaming about all these years.
Cindy
:)
Also, http://www.macminicolo.net/ ;D
@ gwyneth - Yes a lot of people read your blog for sure. I do myself, even when I read too much tech stuff. I just feel so noob next to you *grins*