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Fujitsu is offering its M10 servers through a loaner program that lets organizations bring in the systems for free to test them out in their environments.
Under the provisions of the program, customers and channel partners can install M10-1 and M10-4 servers at no cost for up to two months—or longer at times if needed—in their data centers to evaluate the systems, test new technologies, ensure business continuity and help them during IT modernization and consolidation projects, according to company officials.
Fujitsu officials noted that Fujitsu Technology and Business of America used a M10-1 server through the loaner program while planning and implementing an upgrade to the latest release of Oracle’s E-Business Suite of enterprise applications. The company was able to use three M10-1 systems to replace five legacy SPARC servers, reducing the data center footprint by 90 percent, lowering power consumption by 50 percent and maintenance fees by 40 percent, all while accelerating the speed of business support services.
In announcing the loaner program, the vendor also pointed to several other successful efforts by customers using loaned M10 systems.
Fujitsu upgraded both the M10-1 and M10-4 systems in April with the more powerful SPARC64 X+ chip. According to officials, adding the new processor brought the performance of both the single-socket, 1U (1.75-inch) M10-1 and compact M10-4—four sockets in a 4U (7-inch) form factor—in line with the scalable M10-4S server, which already ran on the 3.7GHz chip. The higher performance and compute features in the servers make them a good fit for cloud workloads and big data analytics linked to the ongoing proliferation of mobile devices, sensors and other devices that make up the growing Internet of things (IoT), they said.
The servers run Oracle Solaris, which—in Oracle Solaris 11—includes built-in virtualization, software-defined networking (SDN), and a full distribution of the OpenStack cloud orchestration stack.
Customers using the loaner program can specify the configurations they’re looking for, and Fujitsu will deliver the customized servers. While the program calls for loans of up to two months, extensions can be given via special requests, officials said.