This Tuesday, Sun Microsystems unveiled three new products destined for use in data centers as part of its x86 server platform. Products that will released are a 16-way x64 server, named the Sun Fire X4600 server, a new hybrid data server, named Sun Fire X4500 data server, and a platform for blade, which is named the Sun Blade 8000. All three new servers are powered by Advanced Micro Devices Opteron processors with Direct Connect Architecture. The servers can run Sun"s Operating system, Solaris, or the preffered system of your choice, such as Windows or Linux.
"These systems are ideal for customers who use IT strategically -- who align their IT infrastructure with business strategy," stated Sun"s Vice president of the systems group, John Fowler. He also stated that the systems are "Designed to be the long-term foundation for our customers" increasingly complex infrastructure, as they allow customers to scale and upgrade into the future as their business needs evolve,"
Sun also is focusing on the server"s virtualization options, because it believes that virtualization can increase the utilization in data centers while cutting infrastructure costs. Reasearch manager John Humphreys of IDC computing has stated that "There is growing evidence that virtualization is moving beyond early adapters and gaining acceptance with more mainstream customers as the market sees the benefits and many uses of virtualization technologies,"
Worldwide deployment of server hardware platforms with virtualization capabilities is forecasted to grow at a rate of 47.7 percent, from 172,000 units in 2004 to 1.20 million units in 2009.