A recent whitepaper from IDC looks at how SPARCR-based systems are able to support vertical computing architectures. The document finds that IT executives are continuing to find value in investing in medium-sized and large servers. These servers are able to provide the capability and capacity to safely support growing and unpredictable workloads.

IDC notes that application and database life cycles play a basic role in IT executives' selection of server platforms. While the market offers many choices with different features and price points, organizations frequently require IT executives to choose between vertical scaling systems (those with more than eight processors) and horizontal scaling systems (those with up to four processors). The IDC white paper examines how a company can enjoy the best of both worlds by creating an environment that has both vertical and horizontal scaling solutions.

IDC encourages IT executives to consider their server platform options for mission-critical and business processing-oriented needs. They should take into account several key points with regard to vertical scaling systems:

• Balanced computing environments that are rich in technology investment

• Provide application and workload life-cycle stability through sustained innovation

• Create the capability to take advantage of ongoing business processing improvements such as IT consolidation and utility computing

To support the most mission-critical workloads within an IT infrastructure, vertical scaling systems are used. These workloads often need systems with attributes such as:

• Large shared memory space that is also cache coherent

• The ability to support many dependent execution threads for complex and highly integrated applications

• System configurations that can upgrade or add essential features such as faster processors, more RAM and more and faster I/O connections

• A platform environment in which reliability, scalability and availability are assumed features that work, require minimal support, and are built into the product and application architectures

For the complete whitepaper, see:

http://www.sun.com/servers/wp/docs/SPARC-based_Vertical_Computing.pdf

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