Does Intel Set the Nail in the Itanium Coffin?
Intel recently released a pdf white paper targeting management with benchmarks regarding the Intel E7 chip family performance. Based on their benchmarks, the E7 is now performing well enough to compete with the RISC predecessor allowing customers a broader range of hardware and vendors.
Intel states
“Deploying Microsoft SQL Server* 2008 R2 on servers based on the Intel® Xeon® processor E7 family has become an increasingly popular choice for mission-critical enterprise applications. Migrating from proprietary databases on RISC*-based hardware can dramatically reduce TCO while delivering comparable performance and scalability, as well as leading edge availability and data protection features. Those advantages are now being compounded further with the introduction of SQL Server 2012.”
I can agree with much of the Intel spin. As we published months back, most software vendors such as Oracle and Microsoft no longer support the Itanium processor. It seems that Intel has put together an environment where SQL Server handles a large OLTP transaction load. As I read the details it turns out they used a large amount of Solid State Disk to get their benchmarks. Frankly, any processor will perform much better with this kind of disk.
The statement I find the most amusing is, “Migrating from legacy proprietary architectures such as RISC to open, standards-based ones based on SQL Server and Intel Xeon processors offers substantial advantages.”
I agree that there are many advantages for this migration. But calling Microsoft SQL Server and the Intel E7 an open standard baffles me. Intel controls both the Itanium and the E7 products, so they are equally open. SQL Server has never been an open product.
Ok, I’m picking on their copywriter. There are compelling reasons to move off the Itanium that is not news to anyone. Intel says, “The flexibility and cost-effectiveness are compelling enough that they have generated widespread interest in the past several years, culminating in a growing exodus away from RISC-based databases.”
Wouldn’t you say people are moving away because their software is stuck at the last release from years ago? Hardware vendors (HP) are moving away because there is no software for the Itanium. Software vendors are moving away to reduce costs. Intel is moving away because the Itanium is dead. It may be a superior chip…but if you can’t get software for it, it can do a lot of nothing really fast.
Enough banging on Intel spin. There really isn’t any news here. The question is, what are you guys going to do with your Itanium hardware? Are you still going to consider migrating to other software platforms such as Informix or DB2? Based on this kind of encouragement from Intel, does that change your strategy?
Drop me a note with your thoughts at btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben
$$SWYNK$$
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