Dell scraps eight-way line, pushes clustering

While eight-way Intel boxes running database and transactional applications remain a staple in most large data centers, Dell's decision to scrap its high-end line of eight-processor servers last week highlights an evolving trend toward clustering low-end boxes, analysts say.

Dell said it would shelve its eight-way product line, although it will continue servicing its current PowerEdge 8450 customers through the foreseeable future. The move is in line with a strategy Dell articulated in the spring to help customers cut server costs by encouraging them to use clusters of lower-priced Intel boxes to get the processing power of more expensive, bigger boxes.

"IDC's belief is that a long-term trend in the industry is to be able to couple together groups of smaller-scale systems like four-way or two-way servers to accomplish a lot of the tasks that bigger traditional [symmetric multiprocessing] systems could only do," says Mark Melenovsky, an analyst at IDC.

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While eight-way Intel boxes running database and transactional applications remain a staple in most large data centers, Dell's decision to scrap its high-end line of eight-processor servers last week highlights an evolving trend toward clustering low-end boxes, analysts say.

Dell said it would shelve its eight-way product line, although it will continue servicing its current PowerEdge 8450 customers through the foreseeable future. The move is in line with a strategy Dell articulated in the spring to help customers cut server costs by encouraging them to use clusters of lower-priced Intel boxes to get the processing power of more expensive, bigger boxes.

"IDC's belief is that a long-term trend in the industry is to be able to couple together groups of smaller-scale systems like four-way or two-way servers to accomplish a lot of the tasks that bigger traditional [symmetric multiprocessing] systems could only do," says Mark Melenovsky, an analyst at IDC.

Not that this spells trouble for big SMP boxes. Both IBM and HP are committed to their eight-way Intel server businesses and say that they are seeing demand for the boxes not only to run big applications, but also as customers consolidate proliferating Intel servers onto single machines.

"Clustering is good for problems that can be easily subdivided and has some real advantages from a hardware cost standpoint," says Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64. "But if the problem doesn't lend itself to that kind of decomposition then that's not necessarily the best solution."

Nevertheless, the demand for eight-processor systems has taken a hit as a result of the tough economy, IDC says. Of about 415,000 x86-based servers shipped during the first quarter this year, only about 3,000 were eight-processor systems, the research firm says.

The stepped-up power of dual processor Xeon chips isn't helping the eight-way market, either, as businesses find they can get what they need in lower-cost low-end boxes, analysts says.

"Customers are looking for short-term [ROI] for their IT infrastructure, so they're buying two-ways when and where they can instead of potentially investing in a large-scale system that they might grow into over years," Melenovsky says.

At veterinary research firm Intervet, for example, eight-way systems only got a passing glance. Chad Elliott, technology team leader at the Millsboro, Del., company, says clustering two-way PowerEdge 2650s and four-way PowerEdge 6650s gives him the processing power he needs, while protecting him from downtime because of hardware failures.

"We looked at clustering for the fault tolerance it provides," he says. "With one big server, when that goes down everything on that server is down until you get it fixed. With a clustered solution, if you lose one physical server within the cluster, it all fails over to a server that is working. . . . With a big eight-way box, it's putting all your eggs in one basket."

Bill Hicks, senior vice president of technology and CIO at Precision Response in Miami, says that managing two-way and four-way boxes is easier than handling a more sophisticated eight-way machine.