Unisys optimises server infrastructure with Capacity on Demand

Unisys has brought capacity on demand to the Intel server market with Real Time Capacity for its series of ES7000 servers, which means customers pay only for the processors that they use in these Windows and Linux servers which scale to as many as 32 processors.

The move sees servers shipped with excess capacity, allowing customers to scale the hardware as their business needs evolve.

"Each server ships with surplus capacity that can be activated and paid for when and if needed," says Bernard Donnelly, consultancy services manager at Unisys Africa. "Our clients now have the option to manage and prepare for peak usage or unexpected growth while minimising the need to buy equipment that does not provide an immediate and significant return on investment."

The announcement is another shot across the bows of the company`s Unix-based competitors. Building on its heritage in the mainframe business and leadership in bringing enterprise capabilities to industry standard environments, Unisys is using the new series of servers to capitalise on a growing trend that sees dwindling popularity of Unix/RISC as a result of increased adoption of Intel`s microprocessors with both Microsoft`s Windows platform and Linux operating systems in the data centre.

Unisys ES7000 RTC series servers are a key part of Unisys`s strategy to help its clients build realtime infrastructures with the flexibility and responsiveness to adapt to changing business demands efficiently and cost-effectively. The new series of servers adds to a growing portfolio of technologies and services at the heart of the company`s 3D Visible Enterprise strategy, which is designed to give clients greater visibility into the cause-and-effect relationships between strategy, process, applications and infrastructure.

"Businesses have a critical need for IT infrastructure solutions that help drive growth while controlling costs, which becomes a more difficult challenge in the face of change," says Hennie Loubser, enterprise and partner group director for Microsoft South Africa. "In bringing capabilities like `capacity on demand` to Windows Server, Unisys will help customers operate highly efficient data centres under any circumstances and meet their business objectives."

"Traditionally, IT managers have been required to place expensive up-front bets to meet unpredictable processing demands by building IT infrastructures that are large enough to handle occasional peak usage requirements and to accommodate anticipated, yet uncertain business growth," says Donnelly.

Underestimating capacity often requires a disruptive and costly fix, interrupting in the business in the process. Overestimating computing demand requires a company to invest in expensive capital equipment that may never be needed.

According to a Gartner report: "By 2007, organisations with more than 200 servers will waste between $500 000 and $720 000 annually supporting under-utilised application/server combinations (0,8 probability). One way to reduce this baseline cost is to eliminate poorly utilised hardware and software associated with older, seldom used applications. Gartner estimates that this practice can reduce the IT budget by as much as 20 percent." The report is called: "Hardware Asset Management: Eliminate Underutilized Servers," Jack Heine, 15 December 2004.