Xserve To Be Discontinued; Users Respond.
In a controversial move, Apple announced it will be discontinuing the Xserve early next year. First released in 2002, the Xserve marked the company’s first venture into the rackmount server market. Going on over a year and a half without seeing an update, some predicted the server’s early demise. To many, however, the announcement came as a surprise, and to some even a shock. Though Apple has announced they will not be developing a future version of Xserve, the current version will remain on sale until January 31, 2011, or while supplies last.
As alternatives to the Xserve, Apple has posed the Mac mini Server as well as the newly announced Mac Pro Server as suitable replacements. Though some have billed the Xserve as Apple’s only “real” server, the aforementioned products will hopefully close in on the gap left by the server once it disappears from Apple’s lineup. To assist users in this change, Apple has released an official Xserve Transition Guide detailing the performance and available configurations of Mac Pro Server and Mac mini Server. Recent reports suggest that Steve Jobs himself acknowledged the discontinuation to a customer citing poor sales as the primary motive.
While this move might seem agonizing to those who have relied on various Xserve models over the years, given Apple’s current trend and emphasis on consumer oriented mobile devices, it does seem somewhat predictable. Some have raised concerns that this indicates Apple is pulling out the enterprise market all together, but in actuality, it is entirely too early to say.
The announcement has certainly caused a rift within the Xserve community, and stands to affect businesses of all sizes—including Small Dog. In fact, the article thumbnail offers a peak at one of the Xserve racks in our server room (what Don referenced earlier!). In the days following the announcement, enterprise users have been more than forthcoming with pleas for Apple to reconsider their decision. Dave Schroeder, an Apple Distinguished Educator at UW-Madison, published an open letter to Steve Jobs explaining the Xserve’s significance in the enterprise and educational fields. In addition, a Save the Xserve website has emerged and is steadily garnering supporters.
Small Dog’s own Morgan A. cites the following features which will be completely lost in the absence of the Xserve in his article, Xserve, Your Day Has Come.
A powerful 1U option:
“Yes, you can fit 2+ Mac mini servers in 1U, but that’s not always the correct solution, nor will it yield the same raw processing throughput. Only being able to fit two Mac Pros in a whopping 12U of rack space is an astounding waste of space unless you actually need the internal storage and PCI Express expansion.”
Hot swappable internal storage:
“I won’t miss the price tag of Apple’s drive modules, that’s for sure, but they did an excellent job of ensuring they were actually enterprise-grade. It’s slightly painful to think that both their server options will require a power down and to be pulled out of the rack just to swap a drive.”
Redundant power supplies:
“I’m all for the lower power consumption of the Mac minis and Mac Pros, but the fact that Apple will have no server hardware that can be gracefully transitioned between power sources is very disappointing for those needing high availability.”
Lights-Out Management:
“I personally don’t use LOM, and I frequently hear complaints about Apple’s LOM implementation, but the number of times I could’ve used it and not had to send someone to the server room (or drive in myself) is way up there. So, not even having it as an option is an additional downer. Maybe someday the Mac Pro will get LOM.”
Will you or someone you know be directly affected once Apple discontinues the Xserve early next year? Feel free to send me an email or comment here.