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On August 23, 2004
an article in PhysOrg.com
discussed the end of HP's Alpha Processors, the last one, clocking at
1.3GHz is being released this month. The article reviewed the triumphs and
demise of this once ground-breaking server architecture.
This raises
the question...
What do you do if you need more than 1.3GHz
Alpha performance today - but have critical applications stranded on Alpha
and not enough time or budget to migrate to other - equally uncertain
architectures?
This is where solid state disks come into their own.
Most commercial applications can get a x2 or x3 server speedup by
judicious use of fast solid state disk storage in the right place. That means
you can extend the operational life of obsolete server architectures for
several years.
And when you do eventually migrate the business
application to something else - then you can redeploy the solid state disk too -
as they are operating system agnostic and have a long operating life.
SSDs
are a great solution for HP users who don't want to spend more money with HP
after being left high and dry, but who don't want to take the risk of Sun
Microsystems' HP Away Program either. Especially since Sun doesn't seem to have
a credible roadmap for SPARC or Linux.
SSDs can be bought from server
neutral vendors who will be able to help you now - whatever your
migration strategy.
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Case
Study:-
Utah State University Selects Solid State SCSI Disk
Technology from BiTMICRO to Accelerate Access to User Information
CHICAGO, Illinois - August 18, 2004 - BiTMICRO Networks
today announced at HP World 2004 the successful integration of its
E-Disk solid state flash disk drive within Utah State University's
enterprise e-mail application.
Utah State University maintains a VMS cluster composed of four
machines. Used as a central computing resource by administrative and academic
users within the university's data network, the cluster is powered by OpenVMS,
an advanced operating system that operates on the VAX and Alpha architectures.
Data storage is provided by an HP StorageWorks Modular Smart Array 1000, a 2 Gb
Fibre Channel to Ultra SCSI storage system for entry-level to midrange SAN
applications.
The VMS Cluster is utilized by almost 25,000 users, composed
of students, faculty and administrative personnel of Utah State, to access their
email accounts. Due to the growing number of online users, users started to
notice degradation in response time. Utah State looked around for a solution and
decided to install a 3.5" E-Disk SCSI Wide flash disk to the HP MSA1000.
After the installation, users immediately noticed a significant
improvement in access time. It plugged in directly just like a regular hard
disk drive and was recognized and configured just as easily.
"We looked around for a suitable storage solution and found few
that fit into our existing IT infrastructure. Our tests show that the E-Disk
offered speeds four times faster than an older RAM disk and about 15 times
faster than magnetic disk drives. Speed and cost are our primary concerns, and
we're happy to note that BiTMICRO's E-Disk flash drive is a worthwhile
investment given its outstanding performance," states Kim Marshall,
Director, Network and Computing Services of Utah State.
...BiTMICRO profile,
...HP World 2004,
Solid state disks
...Later:-
in November 2005, I asked BiTMICRO if they could give our readers an idea
of how much the above system cost (in Q405 pricing). They helpfully said that
the product supplied was a 10GB 3.5" E-Disk (SCSI) for which the OEM
Pricing is about $2,999. |
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