Sun Microsystems has introduced the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System, which redefines the datacenter lifecycle with up to double the memory and double the I/O capacity of competing blades and rackmount servers. The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System offers a choice of blades powered by the UltraSPARC T1 processor with CoolThreads technology, Intel Xeon processors or AMD Opteron processors, allowing customers to deploy the industry's broadest range of applications ranging from virtualization, database, web tier and high performance computing (HPC) on a single common modular design.
The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System provides customers the most versatility of any blade platform. It uses the industry's highest performing microprocessors from Sun, Intel and AMD, and provides support for Solaris(TM), Windows and Linux operating systems. It's increased memory capacity and I/O bandwidth makes Sun Blade 6000 the optimal virtualization platform – supporting large memory configurations at half the cost. In addition, the new systems have been designed to maximize customer investment by supporting microprocessors with four and eight cores. All this enables the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System to run virtually any enterprise application.
"With the three fastest processor platforms, three operating systems, the most memory and I/O bandwidth, Sun is delivering a system that enables customers to upgrade to virtualized blade platforms without the expense or technical compromises presented by all our competitors," said Vijay Pradhan, Director-Systems Practice, Sun Microsystems India. "We are now offering the broadest support of volume architecture and operating systems in the industry – combined with the energy efficiency. The Sun Blade 6000 can be anyone's universal deployment platform."
As the industry's most open blade platform, the Sun Blade 6000 easily integrates into existing datacenter infrastructure and management systems, without requiring proprietary I/O, proprietary management or hidden licensing costs. System features and support for the Solaris 10 OS, Windows and Linux ensure optimal performance today, while allowing customers to scale for future growth without forklift upgrades.
According to Arnab Roy, GM, Marketing, Sun Microsystems India, “Blades are witnessing a steady momentum in adoption in India . The market for servers is showing robust growth. Several customers are on the verge of refreshing their servers & tackling server sprawl. With this new range of blade servers from the Sun stable there will be positive impact on physical, technical & operational aspects in a datacenter."
The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System includes the following components and features:
- Sun Blade T6300 Server Module: 1-socket blade powered by an UltraSPARC T1 processor with CoolThreads technology
- Sun Blade X6250 server module: 2-socket quad-core ready blade powered by Quad-Core Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor 5300 series, representing Sun's first Intel Xeon-based product since Sun and Intel announced their strategic alliance last January, and Sun's first quad-core-based product
- No-compromise power and cooling technology: Delivers optimized cooling and airflow, resulting in higher systems reliability and power efficiency
- Open Industry Standard I/O: Leverages industry standard PCI-Express I/O architecture and adapters, allowing customers to install or replace an I/O module without interfering with systems operation
- Open transparent management: Supports the most standard interfaces to facilitate fast and easy integration into customers' existing blade or rackmount management infrastructure, whether those management tools are from Sun or other vendor
Early access and beta customers such as College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University and the University of Notre Dame have begun to test and implement Sun Blade 6000 Modular Systems in their data centers. For quotes and more details on customer and ISV support of the Sun Blade 6000, please visit: http://sun.com/servers/blades/perspectives.jsp
Sun Blade Server Modules Set Multiple New World Records on a Broad Range of Industry Standard Benchmarks
The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System also packs a performance punch with its comprehensive choice of versatile server modules. Regardless of the underlying microprocessor architecture, the innovative system design combined with the latest capabilities of the Sun Studio 12 software running on top of the Solaris 10 OS propelled these new blades to the top of industry-recognized Java, HPC and compute-intensive benchmarks. Additional details on these record-breaking results can be found at: http://www.sun.com/servers/blades/6000/benchmarks
Sun Refresh Service: Build an "Always Fresh" Datacenter
The Sun Refresh Service now includes the Sun Blade X6220 Server Module, allowing customers to reach maximum performance and efficiency from their datacenters on an ongoing basis at half the cost of traditional acquisition methods. Future support is planned for the other server modules. The subscription service program includes installation of the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System with server modules, plus three refreshes of server modules over a 42-month period. Customers receive automatic upgrades to the latest blade architecture as soon as it becomes available. For more information on the Sun Refresh Service, please visit: http://www.sun.com/refreshservice. For information on additional Sun services and solutions that help datacenters and Sun Blade servers optimize their performance and efficiency, please visit: http://www.sun.com/services
Availability and Pricing
The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System is available now, with entry-level pricing starting at $4,995 for the Sun Blade 6000 Chassis; $5,995 per server module for the Sun Blade T6300; $3,695 per server module for the Sun Blade X6250; and $3,995 per server module for the Sun Blade X6220. |
