“Since the discontinuation of the Xserve in 2011, Mac-friendly IT administrators have not had server hardware from Apple that would fill the Xserve’s enterprise niche,” David Morgenstern reports for ZDNet. “Mac minis have a place (and Apple sells a version with Server preconfigured), but are not very powerful, particularly if you are running all of the services available in OS X Server. The previous Mac Pro was powerful, but its bulky tower configuration and awkward size made it impractical to mount in a rack.”
“The new Mac Pro offers a processor used in servers by Dell and other server makers, doesn’t generate a lot of heat, and sits in a diminutive 10-inch by 6-inch cylinder.,” Morgenstern reports. “You could fit 9 new Mac Pros in the space taken up by 3 Xserves, roughly one-third of the space. But how would you store them in a rack?”
MacStadium’s “Mac Pro POD will hold 270 servers in a 12 square-feet rack,” Morgenstern reports. “The cylinders are placed on their sides (a k a horizontal orientation), which brings its own share of questions. However, an Apple Technical Note says that sideways is okay as long as the exhaust of one unit doesn’t blow into another.”
Read more in the full article here.
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