Building on a strong foundation of expertise and best practices in virtualisation, Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) today announced enhancements to its line of enterprise servers along with a framework designed to help clients select the virtualisation architecture appropriate for their enterprises and reduce the costs of implementing and managing a virtualised environment.
Unisys is making the new VMware vSphere™ 4 – the latest version of the widely used VMware virtualisation software, also announced today – available across the entire line of Unisys Enterprise Servers. These Unisys servers range from the rack/tower-based ES3000 servers to the ES5000 blade servers to the large-scale ES7000 series. Also today, Unisys is launching new models of the ES3000 and ES5000 families that use the new dual-core and quad-core Intel Xeon processor 5500 series.
Powered by VMware vSphere 4 software and Intel Xeon 5500 series processors, the new Unisys ES3000 and ES5000 server solutions – combined with Unisys advisory and implementation services – allow clients to improve their total cost of ownership (TCO) with a choice of scale-out and scale-up virtualisation approaches. Unisys virtualisation solutions can help clients benefit from a reduction from 5:1 to 3:1 in the TCO ratio between scale-out and scale-up virtualisation using Unisys enterprise servers.
The new server solutions also offer clients a wider range of choices in how they deploy virtualised environments, and provide more powerful vehicles for cloud computing and other critical enterprise applications.
“New server-related technologies give clients an almost limitless range of options to transform their data centers through virtualisation,” said Colin Lacey, vice president, Systems and Storage, Unisys. “However, some approaches are not as resource-efficient and cost-effective as they could be.”
For example, because a scale-out virtualisation approach utilises more equipment, floor space, and software licensing while driving up infrastructure management requirements, scale-up virtualisation tends to have a better TCO per virtual machine (VM) and may be a superior solution for certain enterprise requirements.
“Operating on the principle that ‘less is more’ in a challenging economy, Unisys enables clients to select and deploy virtualisation solutions – whether scale-up or scale-out – that make the most operational and economic sense for their business,” Lacey added.
New Servers Dramatically Improve Performance in a Virtualised Environment
The new models in the ES3000 family of rack and tower servers – Models 3530R, 3560R and 3560T – are designed for use in a broad range of enterprise applications, including server consolidation, e-mail services, database applications and web services.
Accommodating up to 16 blades in a single chassis, the new ES5000 Model 5300B G2 blade server is ideal for virtualisation and server consolidation applications.
The new ES3000 and ES5000 models are priced from US$2,400 and US$12,500, respectively.
The new Unisys server models benefit from Intel Virtualisation Technology (VT), which is implemented in the Xeon 5500 series processors. This technology reduces demands placed on virtualisation software, allowing clients to consolidate applications and handle heavier workloads per server.
Combining these processor features with support for the new VMware vSphere 4 virtualisation software, the new Unisys server models can dramatically improve the performance of virtualised environments.
“The new Intel Xeon processor 5500 series provides a foundation for Unisys to deliver its customers new levels of performance and capabilities for virtualised and native environments,” said Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of Intel’s Server Platforms Group. “With each new development in its line of enterprise servers, Unisys continues to demonstrate how Intel Xeon processors can power advanced systems that give clients new options to increase computing power, shrink server sprawl and reduce the cost of ownership in their enterprise data centers.”
With a significant enhancement in the new VMware vSphere 4 software, processor core support has doubled to 64 cores, enabling Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R Enterprise Server clients to create a larger number of VMs and enhance performance in a scale-up environment.
Framework Helps Clients Make the Right Virtualisation Choices
For example, Unisys Solution Center benchmark test for enterprise virtualisation workloads shows clients how dramatic the reduction in the scale-out/scale-up differential can be when those two new technologies are deployed in tandem. The Unisys benchmark test simulates the real workload of a retail Internet business. It features a wide variety of transaction types and characterises end-user service requirements, ultimately indicating the total three-year TCO for each of the number of VMs with a response of one second or less that a rack, blade or scalable server can support.
The benchmark test shows that, due to greater performance efficiencies in both the processor and software technologies, the scale-out/scale-up ratio drops from 5:1 to 3:1 as users transition to newer Unisys server models from Unisys server models running the earlier Intel Xeon processor 5400 series and VMware ESX 3.5.
For instance, the three-year TCO per VM on a Unisys ES3000 Model 3220L rack server using the older technologies is US$5,258, compared to US$1,111 per VM on a Unisys ES7000 Model 7600R, Unisys top-of-the-line scale-up server. On the newer ES3000 Model 3560R using the new Intel Xeon 5500 processors and VMware vSphere 4 software, the TCO drops to US$3,438 per VM relative to the US$1,333 attained on the ES7000 Model 7600R running the new vSphere 4 software.
For further information on Unisys virtualisation solutions and Enterprise Servers, click on the following link: http://www.unisys.com/products/solutions__infrastructure/index.htm.
About Unisys
Unisys is a worldwide information technology company. We provide a portfolio of IT services, software, and technology that solves critical problems for clients. We specialise in helping clients secure their operations, increase the efficiency and utilisation of their data centers, enhance support to their end users and constituents, and modernise their enterprise applications. To provide these services and solutions, we bring together offerings and capabilities in outsourcing services, systems integration and consulting services, infrastructure services, maintenance services, and high-end server technology. With more than 28,000 employees, Unisys serves commercial organisations and government agencies throughout the world. For more information, visit www.unisys.com.
Media Contact:
Claire Hosegood
claire.hosegood@au.unisys.com
+61 411 253 663
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